Figuring Out Your Fashion Brand’s DNA, Part 2: Fashion Marketing And More

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brand consultant, brand strategy, Digital strategy, fashion brand DNA, Fashion brand launch, fashion business mentor, fashion design, fashion design consultant, fashion marketing, fashion retailer, fashion startup, Inventory managent, Omnichannel, retail strategy, startup fashion expert

This is part two of a two-part series on starting and running your fashion business. We begin with branding and logistics. 

Up until now in Part 1, we’ve discussed two elements- components that make up a fashion brand, and ways to find and source the right material. In the second half of this series, our focus shifts ever so slightly to the business model and deciding on a marketing strategy.

The retail landscape today is very different from what the norm was even a decade ago. In early 2010, omnichannel retail as a concept was whispered in close quarters and often left alone as something for the big players. Today, every retailer, at some point in the business journey, explores an omnichannel strategy. Online sales channels are very different from offline selling in that orders need to be shipped, delivered, and the returns processed.

These aspects also bring in choices in fashion marketing such as which channels to advertise on, what promotions to run and how to get maximum traction for the business. As with branding, a fashion business coach can help you look into everything from inventory and sourcing to sales and beyond. Having such a support system can help cut unnecessary costs from your business and set you up for success.

Let’s discuss a few more aspects of selling through your fashion brand.

1. The Channel Choice: This one is by far the toughest choice you’ll make. Whichever channel you choose, you’ll be losing out on the other in the beginning. Over time, you will want to try out all channels such as online and offline sales media as well as features like the Facebook shop to increase the chances of making a sale.

That said, for someone starting out today, the scales tip slightly in favor of online selling. With this method, you do not have to spend upfront on store design, day to day operations and bringing in customers. You can, instead, stock up at a warehouse, set up a web store and reach out to a much wider audience. That said, online selling also presents a few challenges such as getting pictures and descriptions absolutely right, as well as the consideration of whether people will buy online from a relatively new apparel brand.

Think about your specific product category and which audience type it appeals most to. Base your channel decision on their most preferred way of shopping. Also, this is only a choice of launch. Over time as revenues go up, you can expand to as many other channels as you’d like.

2. Cashflow Considerations: For every retail business, good cash flow is a lifeline that helps keep the business running. When you have enough operational cash, you can make sound decisions on sourcing and inventory handling that are not dependent upon a cash crunch.

   How, then, do you keep cashflow under control? By managing inventory well! For many fashion brands today, marketing spend is not optional. You need to spend on advertising to get more visibility. Quality of the product, on the other hand, is not up for debate. So, the only way for you to save your working capital is to handle inventory better.

   Many fashion retailers today use ERP systems to manage their inventory right from the very beginning. Apparel and accessories sell in good volumes which is why it is better to leave the inventory management to systems built to achieve just that.

   Beyond that, accurate financial reporting, and accounting is a business best practice and it also helps you make better business decisions. Hire a qualified accountant to do the job for you and ensure that books and actual values are in line from time to time.

3. The Digital Strategy: Fashion marketing is all about making repeat impressions that eventually lead to a conversion. We have surely noticed how when we browse a product online, similar suggestions keep cropping up for a while. That’s just good digital marketing, at the end of the day. This is also why advertising usually pays off in this domain. When someone browses for apparel, and they are shown similar ads from other brands, they are far more likely to want to click on the ad and browse.

You can always focus your digital strategy around the Cost Per Conversion metric, which essentially means that you will pay the platform a price for every conversion that happens through them.

However, paid marketing isn’t the only sales avenue there is. The ultimate goal of any digital strategy is to move to organic reach. Customers should be able to find you with a simple search term, should already follow you on social media and should open most of your product emails, if not all. To get to that point, marketers use a mix of paid advertising and organic content to market your products better.

As part of this process, you will also work on one aspect of content marketing known as content strategy. As with all planning processes, hiring an expert is your best shot at getting optimum results. You need to think through aspects such as the type of content to produce, the frequency of publication and distribution, which posts to promote through paid ads, etc. An expert can also help you track your site analytics and suggest if any changes need to be made to improve conversion.

4. Beyond Digital: While digital marketing is an essential part of sales decisions today, it isn’t the only way to market your brand. If you have an offline store, you need to find ways to bring people from their online accounts to your offline store as well. Moreover, if you sell online exclusively, you still need to find ways to engage offline- through city-based events, pop-ups, and workshops that your audience is likely to enjoy.

Usually, these decisions are very specific to the business. This is why a startup fashion expert is brought into the picture to help you get maximum returns on your marketing investment.

5. Launch Planning: A brand’s launch is a memorable experience for everyone who has been working on it for long. It is the first opportunity we get to put the brand out there and see what people think. By all means, the launch should be turned into a big event. We recommend using social media to generate interest well in advance with countdown timers, early bird promotions and the like. Also, get a checklist ready before launch to account for aspects such as the website’s stability, measuring and gathering data about the number of people tuned in for the launch, having a live customer service team, ensuring all operations are in place and so on. In the offline context, this would also include decking up your store, ensuring that all POS terminals are operational, provision of refreshments, etc.  

6. Influencer Marketing: Today, wherever you look, there are fashion influencers. Some of them command a huge number of followers and their opinions are often taken very seriously. Such influencers know what they are worth and therefore, they do not come cheap. However, if you can afford them, there is value in getting them to endorse your new fashion brand.

   Influencers who work professionally often offer statistics on their outreach, the number of posts they will publish, and the results you can expect from the effort. Calculate the result of an influencer campaign after each new post is published, and then once the entire effort is complete.

   Remember, the influencer market is also reasonably crowded. Unless they have an engaged following, influencers may not quite be able to get you the results you want. Proceed with caution, ask for past campaign statistics and never be afraid to negotiate on your terms.

Up until now, we have covered all aspects of launching a new fashion business that we could think of. What other aspects would you like to hear from us on? Share your ideas with us in the comments below.

Don’t forget to sign-up for our newsletter that brings all that’s fashion design and more, right to you!

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links:  Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Figuring Out Your Fashion Brand’s DNA, Part 1: The Building Blocks That Makeup Who You Are

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brand collaterals, brand consultant, fashion brand, fashion brand DNA, fashion brand identity, Fashion Branding, fashion consultant, fashion design consultant, fashion start up expert, fashion startup, freelance fashion designer, sales channel

There’s a tiny bit of a difference between being in the creative domain and turning that into a business. The moment you begin thinking of your fashion design studio as a place where supply chains come to life, there are several aspects to look at beyond doing just the creative work.

Where should I source my suppliers and manufacturers from?

How can I build a memorable brand?

How can I ensure that an entire team stays on track with the brand’s vision?

How do I bring internal and external stakeholders such as brand consultants, design experts, and marketing managers to the same table?

There is no correct or wrong way to do this, and many creative professionals become entrepreneurs quite naturally. However, it always helps to have a few milestones along the way so you can measure progress and know what’s next on the agenda. With that in mind, this article is designed to help you come up with the components that will eventually make up your fashion brand.

Fashion branding is a whole different ballgame, and traditional branding principles often need to be reconsidered to get them just right. This is because fashion as an industry is full of thriving and new brands- there is almost no scope for securing the first-mover advantage in such a scenario. Plus, fashion trends come and go, and brands striving for consistency often struggle to match market expectations with the brand’s original story, thus losing their way. A brand consultant who has worked extensively in fashion retail is often your best bet for someone on your team who will give you sound, actionable advice. Once they are on board, here are a few things you might want to discuss. 1. The Brand Story: While many people make the mistake of assuming that a story is born of the product, the exact opposite is actually true. Every product makes its way into the market to solve a problem or address a need. Branding workshops and exercises are dedicated to finding this story- the values, pillars, and principles that make up every single company. Often, brand values often match those held by the founders. In a niche that changes as fast as fashion, it is worth separating the brand purpose from the founder’s vision. This way, the entity is more flexible to market forces.

It is difficult to adjust and evaluate culture as you go along, so the first step in setting up a brand identity should always be to figure out what it stands for. This way, communication to all stakeholders is clear and compelling even several years down the line.

2. Brand Collaterals: Usually, the work of a brand consultant is clearly cut out. Not only do they develop the story, but they also think through visuals and elements that will likely make the brand stand out. The logo is one aspect of this. It is important that your brand consultant be the one to work on these elements as well to avoid getting lost in communication.

For instance, some people choose to go with a new designer once the brand story is created. However, this approach often fails because the new designer does not have access to the same kind of information, or insight, as the person who first figured out the story. Hence, always retain all work with one expert and their team.

Brand collaterals themselves can include a huge list of things- signage, visual communication in a store, letterheads, stamps, visiting cards, stationery beyond the usual, digital presence, brand guidelines and a style guide, the type and fonts to be used, packaging material, garment labels, etc. Beyond this, you will also have standard requirements such as the size chart you follow, accurate garment care information, etc. Consider which of these adapts you need and which ones you can do away with for now. Focus only on those elements that you need in the next year or so, so as to keep costs to a minimum.3. The Market: At the end of the day, you are selling to the world outside. The intent behind the branding exercise so far is to help you connect with this audience. Therefore, identifying who your customers are is an essential part of the process.

For fashion brands, consumer personas are a lifesaver because they accurately tell you whom you need to target and who you can avoid. For example, Forever 21 is a brand that is clearly aimed at the young shopper. Everything from their name to the store layout and sizing makes this clear. As a new brand, you may be unwilling to take the risk of alienating some prospects. However, doing the consumer persona exercise will tell you if your approach is foolproof or has flaws in it.

Like branding, a consumer persona exercise is best done in the company of an expert brand and marketing consultant. Today, there is both the scope and the need to go beyond the demographic data and look at psychographics- the thought attributes that influence buying behavior. This is particularly relevant in the case of fashion brands that have more than one collection aimed at different target markets.

The source of such information can be anything from market research, surveys and a soft launch to studying competitors and their traffic patterns to identify an overlap.

4. The Suppliers: For any design to translate into reality, you need suppliers and manufacturers. From the base material to the embellishments and until someone to put it together, it is your vision that needs to come through clearly.

On the supplier end, the networks are often very strong. Most supplier businesses work through recommendations and word-of-mouth marketing. They may have a basic presence on the internet but that may not always be accurate.

One way to find manufacturers and suppliers is to use listing directories like Yellow Pages, Merchant Circle, Yelp, Justdial and the like. Cold call them, meet them and see if their levels of efficiency match your vision. A better way is to ask friends in the industry for vendors they trust.

When evaluating someone for fabric sourcing, always ask where they get their material from and cross-verify this information. Ensure that you ask for customer references and speak to these people, so you know what to expect in the areas of delivery, timelines and quality. Think through the option of bringing a startup fashion expert on board to help provide such recommendations and to tell you what other aspects you’d need to negotiate on.  

5. The Sales Channel: The moment you think of setting up a fashion business, you probably already have an idea of which sales channel(s) you would like to utilize. In any case, once all of the other blocks are in place, spend the time to evaluate that choice.

Particularly, are your customers more likely to buy in-store or online? Would they prefer, instead, to browse in a physical location and then buy online? Such questions help you decide if you need to open more stores/ sales channels than you had initially planned for. It is always better to do it right the very first time.

In the second part of this article, we plunge right into marketing, and accounting best practices. In the meantime, what other advice do you think you’d need before starting a fashion brand? Tell us in the comments so we can address these issues.

Don’t forget to sign-up for our newsletter that brings all that’s fashion design and more, right to you!

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links:  Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Authority Marketing: How To Give Yourself A Voice That Is Heard

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authority marketing, blogging, branding, build your personal brand, content marketing, domain expert, fashion brands, fashion entrepreneurs, influence the influencers, influencer, Instagram influencer, personal brand

Have you noticed, of late, just how many influencers there are on Instagram? That’s the thing with marketing- gather enough people and demonstrate expertise, and you have a market for your products.

Instagram influencers aside, personal branding is the buzzword of the day. “If you don’t build a personal brand, you have no influence,” they say. This is because we are a generation that loves stories. Born to a generation that experienced globalization and the consumerism that came with it, today’s crowd needs an experience. And even better, they need the experience to come from someone they can trust, because of (drumroll) their past experience.

Enter, authority marketing. 

Unlike regular marketing that says, ‘here’s a product, it is so awesome!’, authority marketing says, ‘here’s a product, and here’s why you’ll like it. I know, because I’ve tried it.’

Why do celebrities launch, endorse and be seen in their own fashion labels? Think Beyoncé, or Gwyneth Paltrow for Goop- these celebs know that products launched, tried and endorsed by them have a better chance of selling in the market. In other words, gone are the days of bringing in a celebrity and advertising a product. Today’s customers ask, “Why should I listen to this celebrity on this matter?”

Now that we’ve covered the concept, how can you adopt authority marketing to promote your fashion business?

1. Build Your Personal Brand. Don’t just be a face in the crowd when you can be the face of your brand. Alicia Souza does this right, through her eponymous brand and also through her Instagram handle. Many Alicia Souza customers can genuinely claim that they know the person behind the product. The same goes for you. What are your fashion sensibilities and how do they influence your brand? Put it out there.

2. Use Content: Have you ever wondered why copywriters make as much as they do, seeing as they actually write so little? Because lines like ‘Because she’s worth it’ sell products, and brands know it. Market your product through content- offer helpful guides, styling tips, day-to-night looks. The list of things you can do with your material is almost endless. Become an authority through the written word.

3. Influence The Influencers: Make your product so good that authority has no option but to advertise it. But don’t stop at that. Influence your influencers. Send them free samples to try. Ask for reviews. Tell them your story. In short, make an impression on them.

4. Don’t Be Salesy: Sounds counterintuitive? Yes, we’re asking you to sell a product by not selling it at all. Because, when a product speaks for itself, there is no need to sell it actively. Take a look at Fizzy Goblet. They make handcrafted footwear. But they make the footwear so unique that you can’t resist buying. They tell a story around each piece with exciting product titles. What can you do to make the product stand out?

5. Get Coverage for Yourself: Grab every interview and every podcast opportunity that comes along. Answer questions thoroughly. Show the world that you are an expert. You can also submit articles about your entrepreneurial journey to relevant publications to get featured.

6. Attend Events: If you knew just how many deals are closed at an event, you wouldn’t miss attending a single one of them. Sign up for regional fashion events, or put models in your clothes for a pop-up. Advertise to many people in one go, without making it look like an advertisement at all.

Remember, it is all about authority. The more of an expert you come across as, the more people will believe you and take your advice. Consider offering free in-store consultations with yourself. Make the story of the brand the story of you. There’s no better time than now to do it.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Bootstrapping Your Fashion Business? Let These Seven Tools Help You

Tags

bootstrapping fashion business, business tools, fashion, fashion biz, fashion brand, Fashion Business, fashion business owner, fashion entrepreneur, fashion label, fashion software, fashion startup, fashion tech tools, fashion tool, successful fashion business

Choosing to start a business of any kind with no external funding can be a daunting task. If you’ve chosen this path, well, bravo! We’re here to help you succeed. And in today’s work environment, we know that success is directly proportional to the degree of automation we can create.

Here are seven tools that our team uses and approves for running a successful fashion business.

1. Pixlr: Pixlr is a photo editor for those with minimal photo editing skills. Pixlr’s advertised USP is that it has over two million free combinations to try out and it doesn’t disappoint. If you’re looking for something beyond a photo editor and need a tool that can help with design, look no further than Pixlr. A host of icons, illustrations, and base templates almost ensure that you always find something that you need.

2. Pexels: We all know that stock images are costly, and while we may splurge on them for branding, a free photo or two ensure that your campaigns are not held up for want of a beautiful image. This is where Pexels comes in with a host of stock free images that are easy to find with the right keyword. Another tool you can try is PixaBay.

3. AwesomeScreenshot for Chrome: Those who use a Mac probably don’t need a screenshot tool because a keyboard shortcut and the Preview app are quite sufficient. For everyone else, there’s AwesomeScreenshot. This Chrome extension allows you to take screenshots of virtually anything on the browser and even provides cool editing features.

4. Calendly: As a businessperson, you will now be meeting and interacting with a lot of people. You want to ensure that you don’t miss an appointment and that you’re adequately prepared for each one. This is where Calendly helps. Just send a link to the people you’ll be interacting with and schedule them into a time slot. Gather their email address and phone number, and call them proactively. Another handy way to use Calendly is to incorporate the link into your email campaigns.

5. Google Drive: A paid cloud subscription is almost irreplaceable now that you’ll be gathering a lot of raw data. Sign up for one of Drive’s paid plans and store all of your data safely, prevent losses and share what you need to easily.

6. Noisli: It’s okay to admit that our days are often filled with distractions. The Noisli app is just what you need to put a hard stop to these distractions and do your best work. What better way to do it than with music and white noise? Still, have doubts? Give it a try- you will not be disappointed.

7. Zoho One: Many entrepreneurs call Zoho One their own personal assistant. And why not? With over forty app integrations that work seamlessly with each other, it covers the whole gamut from sales and productivity to finance, and people management. And the price will really, really surprise you.

Which of these tools would you like to try for your business? Also, have you taken a look at our article on Design Tools for your business yet?

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Start-up Fashion Entrepreneurs Are You Looking For Some Inspiration? Look No Further Than Design Tools

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#moodboard, fashion biz, fashion brand, fashion business owner, fashion designer, fashion label, fashion software, fashion startup entrepreneur, fashion tools, inspiration, pantone colors, startup fashion brand

Inspiration can strike at the oddest of times, as every creative professional knows. Long gone are the days of using notepads and colored pencils to jot down ideas. Today, ideas have a new, virtual home. What’s more, these homes are that much prettier and detailed, and at any given point, you can access them from any device in the world.

As you may have discovered by now, we are huge fans of online tools and applications. Call us geeks, but once you take a look at the list of these design tools, you will wonder why we didn’t swap notes sooner!

1. Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop: No designer’s arsenal is complete without these tools. Adobe tools are to a designer what a sketchbook is to an artist. Some start-up fashion entrepreneurs opt for a crash course to learn the basics and then develop skills on their own. Give them a try!

2. Sketch: Sketch is a simple, easy-to-navigate alternative to Adobe InDesign, as its Facebook Ads rightly claim. Grid guides are especially helpful for those with no eye for design except knowing that something looks good. You can also use Sketch for free for a while to see if you like it and create your basic garment sketches to share with the design team.

3. Ideaboard: GoMoodboard is an excellent way for startup fashion entrepreneurs to gather their ideas and design a professional mood board. The best part is that they come with pre-designed templates, so it is easy for a novice designer to get started with. Tools like this allow you to gather and share your ideas with the design team, primarily if you’re working remotely.

4. Pinterest: No article on design tools is complete without a mention of Pinterest. The original inspiration board is also a source of relevant pins. Create your own board and share with your external design team, or curate ideas from around the Pinterest globe to get started with. Pinterest is also very intuitive in that once it learns your search patterns, it begins to show you a lot of relevant content that you can also pin.

5. Coolors: Why generate a color scheme from scratch when a machine can do it for you, and perfectly at that? All you need to do is lock in one color after another until you are happy with the palate. You can then export this palette in a variety of formats such as SCSS, SVG, and COPIC without losing an inch of the precision. Again, for teams that are coordinating virtually, this tool is an invaluable resource to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

6. Pantone Color Finder: This is every designer and color enthusiast’s bible. Just enter the color number and see how the shades translate to your specific requirement. Even better, just enter a color name to see all suggested variants in one go. The beauty of this color finder is that everyone who accesses it and searches for a specific code sees the same exact color.

7. Canva: For the start-up fashion entrepreneurs, Canva provides templates, illustrations and thumbnails to be used in a variety of different contexts especially your social media marketing. The paid version unlocks many more features. Canva for Business allows you to standardize colors and use it for all of your communication needs.

Which of these tools have you already tried? How would you rate them in terms of ease of collaboration? Share with us in the comments.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Why You Need A Business Plan For Your Fashion Business

Tags

brand consultant, Business goals, business plan, cashflow management, emerging fashion brands, fashion biz, Fashion Business, fashion consultant, fashion designer, fashion entrepreneur, fashion startup, inventory management

 Many people falsely assume that a business plan is only for those businesses that want to raise funding or make an investor pitch. There’s no easy way to say this- the first person who needs a business plan, and will most likely use it extensively, is you!

As the adage goes, ‘failing to plan is planning to fail.’ So, a business plan is not just a spruced-up, fancy document that you rarely take out. It helps you determine exactly how you run your business, right from using your cash well to managing inventory.

Mind mapping ideas before creating a business plan

Here are some goals, apart from being an investor document, that a business plan serves.

1. A Communication Tool For Your Team: A business plan is a great way to show your team precisely what each person needs to do to achieve a very defined set of goals. Without a plan, most people don’t know where they’re heading. Worse, you’ll end up paying all of your resources without grasping why you aren’t getting any results. So, use a business plan to communicate your ideas to your team.  

2. A Ready-reckoner Of Goals: Having a business plan means putting down goals and objectives in as granular a manner as possible. You can always go back to your plan and review if you’re meeting goals. If not, the plan serves as a guide to see what went wrong- was it your strategy, or was it execution?  

3. A Flexible Calendar: One thing that all businesses, and young business, in particular, should remember is that no plan is set in stone. A business plan serves as a guide and allows you enough leeway to make adjustments based on the market from time to time. This is one key reason why a structure is essential. It is always good to make changes to a base template than to throw ideas around and let them stay amorphous.

4. A Guide To Inventory: In the first year of your business, when you have no past sales data to fall back on, a business plan serves as a projection tool to decide how much inventory you need. As you know, holding too much stock can block up your working capital, and having too little can cost you a sale. Projections obtained from a business plan are an excellent way to assess just how much inventory you need.

5. Cash Flow Management: Retail businesses need cash to procure inventory, to sell and to keep up sales channels, as well as to pay employees. In fact, a continuous supply of liquid money can decide how far you go into retail. Having a sound business plan helps you decide which months/years involve more spending so you can cut down on other costs proportionately. Likewise, a plan also enables you to determine how much of your profits should go back into the business, and under which head.

What does a good business plan involve? Broadly, it contains your executive summary, your vision and objectives, market potential and implementation plan over both the short and long runs.

As you can see, the headings in themselves are simple enough. However, filling them up with workable solutions is the real challenge. Most of the new fashion brands either turn to mentors or consultants to help give a proper shape to the plan. If you already have experience working in the fashion industry, consider seeking help in those areas that you are not yet entirely comfortable with.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Beyond Digital: Offline And Inbound Marketing For Your Fashion Business

Tags

brand consultant, digital marketing, fashion, fashion brand, Fashion Business, fashion consultant, fashion designer, fashion marketing, inbound marketing

Digital marketing may sure be the only way to get the attention of an online audience. However, does this mean that merely by betting on it, you’ll be able to get your brand visibility and sales? The truthful answer is, no.

For one, online shopping is just about catching up, and before buying clothing and accessories (beyond the t-shirts and tunics), most people would want to experience the product, especially if they’re new to the brand. It is thus safe to say that just as brands and retail are present both offline and online, marketing efforts should be directed in both channels. In an earlier article, we have spoken about digital marketing for fashion brands.

In this one, let’s discuss offline and inbound marketing.

Today, most marketers understand inbound as a subset of online marketing, specifically, emails. However, anything that actively brings customers and their buying intent into your store is inbound, and this can be anything from a store level event to a pop-up. Without further ado, let’s look at some offline methods you can use to market your brand.

1. Go Beyond The Billboards. Today’s customers are bombarded with static and dynamic billboards wherever they go. This influx of information does nothing for brand recall. Instead, focus on value. What can you offer through your advertising that is useful to a potential customer? This can be anything from a lookbook to a consultation. “But how do we get them to come to us first?”, you may ask. Online advertising is an excellent place to begin.

2. Level Up Your Ideas. For brands that are beginning to sell in multi-store settings like malls, it is essential to direct the attention to yourself actively. Remember a decade ago, when mascots would be standing around to guide you to a place? You need to do something similar, but make it much more sophisticated. What if you could organize a treasure-hunt around the mall, with simple cues in the elevator or stairs? Marketing has long moved past flyers and bills.

3. Make Packaging Awesome. Many lingerie brands do this, as do perfumeries. Make the packaging so attractive that people feel like they’re giving themselves a present. Chances are, they’ll share it online and tell more people about it. In any case, it doesn’t hurt to add a small CTA (call to action) on the box asking people to share their experience online.

4. Look At Pop-Ups and Collaborations. Pop-up stores are insanely famous today because they offer an element of the unexpected. Make your pop-ups interesting, but not intimidating. Depending on your brand’s core audience, loud music may or may not work. Likewise, look at collaborating with other stores to conduct events on grooming and makeup, or to educate people on the different kinds of handbags. You’ll be surprised by how many people look for such advice.

As you can see, offline and online marketing today do not exist in two separate vacuum containers. They go hand-in-hand to help you gain more out of your efforts. For example, an event could be offline, but its promotion takes place online.

What is the most exciting marketing campaign you’ve ever encountered? Tell us in the comments.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Cracking The Social Media Code For Fashion Startups

Tags

brand consultant, fashion, fashion brands, Fashion Business, fashion consultant, fashion designer, fashion entrepreneur, fashion labels, fashion marketing, Fuel4Fashion, instagram follower, social media for fashion brands, social media planning

Being in the fashion space is no small endeavor. Apart from the actual design and production, you also need to focus on building your brand, gaining visibility and reaching the right target consumer. It is not enough to simply be present on social media channels and post regularly- instead, you need to find a way to reach your consumer’s headspace and stay there.

We’ll address the whole gamut of content, email and digital marketing for fashion in a separate article. Today, let’s discuss the world’s most valuable rented property- social media.

Brands and consumers alike flock to social media because of its broad outreach. Brands feel that this platform takes them to many more people, much like being on a stage and announcing that you are there. Consumers too subconsciously resort to social media for information, awareness, choices, and relevance.

Social Media for Fashion

Before we delve into the five essential aspects of social media for fashion brands, let us do a quick recap of what a brand means. Why do you wear sneakers with a swoosh mark on them? How do you recognize a McDonald’s in a foreign country?

Now, that’s what a brand aims to be- the most popular personality on the planet, so much so that it is recognized everywhere. That’s the brand you are trying to build.

With this big goal in mind, here’s what to do with your social media.

1. Have A Voice: Like a person, a brand believes in certain values, and communicates them in a certain way, either through language or through cues. For example, Victoria’s Secret embodies the idea of the ethereal woman, while Zara is for the generation that moves fast. Likewise, what does your brand stand for? It is worth speaking to a branding agency about this aspect before beginning your social media effort. All your communication should then speak to these values.

2. Choose The Channels: Not all brands need to be present on all channels. Many businesses start off on multiple channels only to be swamped by endless content calendars. Choose two channels and choose them well. If you sell B2B, you probably don’t need Facebook as much as you need LinkedIn, even as a fashion brand.

3. Attract The Right Users: How do you bring people to your pages? Step 1: Send invite links to all of your friends and family. Then, invite them again until they join. Step 2: Advertise. Spend some money and do your ad targeting right. Put out ads that the right people see. Talk to your primary customer personas. Step 3: Close the funnel. Once people see your ad, you want them to like your page. Include the relevant call-to-action within your ads. Step 4: Moderate your page for unwanted posts and comments.

4. Follow A Calendar: Today, almost all social media channels give you access to analytics. You can see how well your posts perform and track when your users are more active. Do more of what the audience likes. You may be a great opera singer, but on-stage, if your current audience wants instrumental, that’s what you deliver. Experiment with various content forms and choose those that work for you. Most importantly, follow a routine and do them consistently.

5. Convert The Customer: There is a good saying in the world of business- visibility does not dinner buy. You don’t want 10,000 followers on Instagram and zero sales on your site. Lead people to your web/ retail outlet and give them a reason to close the loop. For every post, consider what purpose you want it to serve, and check if that purpose has indeed been served. Email marketing is an excellent next step after social media to convert a slow-moving funnel.

What challenges are you facing with your social media?

Or, do you have a success story to share? Tell us in the comments below!

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Designing A Collection: Circumventing The Problems That Don’t Come Calling

Tags

#fashiondesigner, #Fashionentrepreneur, #fashionlabel, #fashionstartup, #FreelanceFashionDesigner, brandconsultant, fashion, fashionbrand, Fashionbusiness, fashioncollection, fashionconsultant, Fuel4Fashion, garments, mannequins, patterns, production, sizerange, techpacks

In the manufacturing industry, and any other industry involving a physical product, it is a well-known fact that not everything always goes to plan. Even the smallest oversight can result in the wrong product being bulk produced.

In the world of fashion, such an aberration can mean that the entire collection is ruined. No consumer would tell the store representative that a particular piece of clothing didn’t fit them to perfection. As a result, your chances of making the same mistake over and over again are very high as well.

Today, we discuss two such cases where the tiniest problem resulted in some rather significant outcomes, and how Fuel4Fashion helped fix them.

Case 1: The Case of the Incomplete Tech Pack

In an earlier article, we discussed the importance of being thorough with your tech pack. After all, this material serves as the basis of every garment you design and every brief you send to the manufacturer.

In a couple of instances, hiring an inexperienced fashion designer has caused companies to falter along the way. In this particular case, their designer of choice had no experience in delegating work to different teams and had never worked on an actual tech pack before. As a result, the information sent out to the manufacturer was incomplete and fraught with errors.

The result? Over 60% of the proto samples came out wrong. Immense amounts of time and money were wasted in trying to correct the problem at each stage, only to realize that the problem resided in the tech pack.

Fuel4Fashion entered the scene at this juncture and redid the tech packs from scratch, as well as delivering them in record time to help the client get ready for the season’s launch.

The business lesson: If there’s a gap in sampling, always look at the tech pack first. Many problems could be lurking there.

Case 2: Shape Challenges

One of our clients had been getting a lot of complaints from their consumers. The owners of the women’s fashion brand were dealing with issues ranging from incorrect waist size to very tight armholes.

This was a strange conundrum because a recommended size almost always fits the end consumer, and even when it doesn’t the problem lies in a single area. Since we were creating the tech packs and had taken complete ownership of design, we went through all of the material created once more but found no flaws there.

It took a while for us to figure out that the client was testing the proto samples on live models, adjusting according to their measurements and sending the altered samples into production. Hence, as opposed to standard sizes, the end product was being manufactured in the size of three very specific models.

As a result, the clothes wouldn’t fit anyone else who wasn’t the exact same measure as the three models.

The business lesson: Use a mannequin! They come in standard sizes which comply with the rules of standard garment sizing. By using a mannequin, you can be sure of the end result. Even models have a specific body type, and that doesn’t always sit well with the end consumer.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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Designing A Spring Summer Collection For 2019: The Loopholes You Need To Avoid

Tags

#fashiondesigner, #Fashionentrepreneur, #fashionlabel, #FreelanceFashionDesigner, brandconsultant, bulk, colormatching, fashion, fashionbiz, fashionbrand, Fashionbusiness, fashioncollection, fashionconsultant, Fuel4Fashion, garments, production, SS19

Having ideas is just the beginning of the fashion journey. We firmly believe that fashion is one of those industries where there is infinite scope to ideate and design, but as a business, there are certain limitations on time and budgets. If you are a fashion label that isn’t planning for SS ’19 yet, there’s no better time than now to start.

A little over a year may seem like a long time, but in over six years of running Fuel4Fashion, we have noticed that clients struggle with unforeseen circumstances more often than not. In this article, we address some of these errors in planning and how they can be corrected well in time for you to have a smooth, seamless Spring Summer collection launch come 2019.

1) Designing For The Brand: The creative process is fraught with loopholes, the biggest of which is believing that the market will invariably like what we design. One of our clients approached the design process from the ‘brand-first’ perspective. As a result, the team’s personal preferences were accounted for, but they did not accurately reflect what the end consumer was looking for.

• The Fix: There’s a lesson in marketing for all businesspeople here. Always, always seek out and gather consumer insights. Even your next-door neighbor may have clothing preferences that do not match your own. Interview your target audience extensively, look for forecast reports and then add a bit of yourself into each of these saleable elements. For more design inspiration, take a look at our active wear recommendations for Spring Summer 2019.

2) Spending Too Much Time On One Aspect: Quick decision-making is a virtue and one that a fashion business owner would do well to develop early on. Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in the nuances, which is just what happened with one of our clients. They had spent so much time in sourcing the right cloth that they missed the launch window entirely and spilled over into the next season. However, by then, their designs weren’t relevant anymore.

• The Fix: Unfortunately, this is an error that is best prevented before it is made. If you do end up pushing production too close to the window, the best thing you can do is go aggressive on sales. In the context of SS’19, trend reports are already available with consultants. Get in touch with an expert to understand the nuances of designing for an audience well over a year down the line. Most importantly, begin immediately.

3) Moving Too Fast: “Weren’t you just asking us to hustle a little while ago?” you may ask. Sometimes, going too fast can also cause considerable grief later, as witnessed by a client. The intent was right- they didn’t want to hold up the fabric dyeing process, and therefore chose to match the lab dips with a scanned copy of the fabric as opposed to the fabric itself. Lesson learnt- fashion is all about attention to detail. After a lot of money was spent and bulk fabric wasted, they realized that a small error led to huge consequences.

• The Fix: Once errors have been made in bulk, there is very little you can do to correct them without spending anything extra. If you do end up in a similar situation, you can either make the most of what you have or spend again and get the details right. A decision in this regard is dependent on your unique business considerations. On a broader level, rushing through any process always yields less than optimal results. Hence, it is better to begin early and work on every aspect industriously than to begin too late and do a rush job.

We reiterate- Spring Summer 2019 may seem like a year away, but time flies when you begin considering every aspect of fashion design and marketing. Get your team together and start right away. If you find that there are gaps in your business or design model that need to be fixed, don’t hesitate to speak with an industry expert and get their opinion before you begin.

 

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram  

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