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The fashion industry is associated with fun and frills, as gorgeous garments are always placed front and center. However, the creation and marketing of clothes isn't exactly the prettiest process. From coordinating with suppliers to inspecting the finished items, a lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes for a fashion brand to truly flourish. If you want to learn more about building and growing your budding fashion brand, here are our top tips and tricks for you.
1. Know Your Brand
As the fashion industry continues to get bigger with more and more brands popping up, it's key that yours stands out from the crowd. A fantastic way to do this is to have a clear definition of your brand's identity. While selling a wide variety of clothes is vital, having a signature product can help kickstart your fashion brand. For instance, Uniqlo is a Japanese retailer that's known worldwide for its extensive range of casual wear, but their jeans are there USP. In fact, Sourcing Journal reports that Uniqlo is prioritizing the production of their jeans, as they aim to be the go-to consumer jeans brand. When it comes to creating garments, you must first ask yourself: What makes my brand different? And how can I get consumers to choose my brand over others?2. Revisit Production Processes
Days can get rather busy since you might find yourself researching trends or coordinating with your marketing team. In the everyday business of getting clothes to consumers, defective garments might slip through your production process unnoticed. This is why you must make it a point to check in with your manufacturers at least once a month. As we've previously shared in our guide on 'How to Start a Garment Business (a Production Unit)', you should have basic knowledge of the garment manufacturing industry as well. This way, you can ensure your equipment is properly working to avoid production mishaps like a missing button or poorly sewn garments. Not to mention, you can also give the reviews a look, both positive and negative, to see what needs to be tweaked to make your products a success.3. Analyze Trends
It’s important to look back when planning your way forward, as information from your business’ past performance can help you make better decisions for it to grow in the future. Take a look at your best-selling pieces — why are they popular? Perhaps it was the kind of fabric, the cut, or the colors you provided that made all the difference.Scan through customer feedback and purchase data, and see if you can still profit from your best-selling pieces’ success. From there, you can produce other garments incorporating your best-sellers’ key feature, or expand the existing best-seller's color options. For its part, Woman Within recognized how their best-selling relaxed straight-leg pants were enjoyed for the softness of the knit fabric. Designed for everyday use, the company decided to provide a wider color range for the piece — from more neutral shades like charcoal and chocolate to more fashion-forward hues like French blue and rose pink. This way, the brand can lean on the piece’s growing popularity and grow their business even more.
4. Understand the Market
In today's digital age, social media has become one of the most effective marketing tools, with brands regularly producing promotional content on various platforms. In fact, Canadian clothing brand Aritzia credits its influencer marketing strategy for its surge in popularity.
However, there's more to just simply clicking the Post button if you want your brand to thrive in this industry. It's essential to recognize which social media platforms are right for your business. This can be done when you know who your core market is. Say, if your clothes cater to older women, then you should publish on Facebook, their platform of choice. But if your market is the Millennial generation, you should promote your items on Instagram. From there, you'll have a better understanding of what kind of content should be curated to help your brand grow.
This article is written by Laura Cross.
Image credit: Artem Beliaikin/https://www.pexels.com/