In the past year, we have helped 7 start-up apparel brands successfully establish themselves in the market. Did all these 7 brands succeed you might ask? Yes. But here’s the catch, these brands did not just succeed because of the quality and style they provide. All these brands have different styles; however, they have one thing in common: personalization.
When consumers are concerned about a product, they are thinking about the product itself. But when consumers consider a brand, they think about the soul, spirit, uniqueness, meaningfulness, and position that the brand holds in the market.
When a brand has a personality that pleases customers, its individuality and uniqueness come to the forefront. Hence, a brand creates a personality to cater to the interests of its target market, to win their approval, gain influence, enrich its value, and establish a unique and fine-tuned brand image in the public’s perception.
3 Key Components to Create a Successful Clothing Brand
Before you even think of creating a clothing brand, you must understand that a sustainable clothing brand is not created out of thin air. Just like any other business, various elements go into it. However, there are 3 key components that every successful clothing brand has:
Premium Quality
Brand Story
Unique and Distinct Brand Features
Premium Quality
Quality is the most important element of your brand. Your brand will only be viable if it offers quality products that meet and even exceeds the consumers’ needs. In other words, to build a premium-quality clothing brand you must use high-quality fabric, hire talented workers, and pay attention to detail. Even the neck label and hangtag must reflect quality. And when it comes to brand promotion, make sure that also reflects quality, so ensure that all product photos that you will place on your website are done professionally, etc.
Brand Story
Create a relatable brand story. Impress target consumers with your sincerity, by doing so you will be able to win more clients over and grow. A strong brand always has a detailed origin story that represents the core values of the brand. A brand story is also interesting and enticing and will be the first proper introduction that consumers will have to your brand. It will also be the story that they will remember the most and share with their friends, so make sure you tell your brand story right.
A successful brand is best told in a story.
Another crucial aspect of creating a startup apparel brand is having a logo that is distinct and can easily be remembered. This logo must be used as a branding mechanism and placed on the clothing and all other aspects of the products such as packaging, websites, and online platforms.
To create a great story that will sell, contract information from specific target groups to gain in-depth insight into their emotional demands and utilize their pain points for marketing purposes. The small start-up should be more of a master storyteller.
Unique Brand Features
To create unique brand features, you need to integrate personalization, intelligence, and customization with each other. Use product customization to promote brand personality to quickly make your brand an established name in your niche. In the era of brand competition, brand personality is very important. Make sure to correctly integrate brand personalization, customization, and intelligence so your brand can stand out. A good brand must have a distinctive personality, through the refinement of the brand’s value claims.
In the era of product surplus and constant online activities, not having the above-mentioned brand elements may cause the brand to fail instead of succeeding.
8 Things you Must Know to Build a Successful Brand.
1. Industry perception
The clothing industry is very complicated and difficult. You cannot just create some clothing and think you’ll be successful at it just because you have a design talent. Absolutely not.
When it comes to branding, design only accounts for 20%, and while the design is the best 20% of the whole process, it is only the start of the branding process. Next, is the longest and most painful phase, which is presenting your designs.
If you don’t have a lot of funds during this phase, understanding the market thoroughly becomes even more important.
The more research you do, the less likely you will waste money.
2. A reliable team
When you are part of the clothing industry, you will find that you need different people at different times and that your core needs are always changing.
The very first core need is of course the designer, then the search for a trusted clothing factory.
The next step is to start selling your clothes and get a good accountant.
When your clothing business starts growing you will need more personnel and establish processes. Your personnel will work as shopkeepers, manage operations, and as marketing personnel in the marketing department. To make this process successful you will need to set up a management team.
When you first establish your team, one employee may perform multiple jobs. As the company grows, employees will settle in more specialized and refined roles. If this part is not done, your company will become a mess.
3. Designers
The most important thing when recruiting designers should be the ideas and previous works that the designer brings to the table. It is also important to know if the designer can make inspiration boards and portfolios. To make sure you hire the best designers, request to see some designs that he/she has done before. If the designs match your brand aesthetic, you can hire the designer.
4. Your Target market
Your target market is particularly important. Here’s how to find your target market:
- Who are the people that you will target?
- What is your price range?
- What kind of people are you selling to, and what kind of people are making up your customer group?
For most people, clothing is something personal. The same goes for brands. The state of the clothing you want to show and the things you want to present need to be completely authentic, and the story you tell needs to be in line with your positioning
5. The products
I recommend focusing on 1 or at most 2 types of products when you are starting.
For example, T-shirts
What kind of T-shirt?
- Male t-shirt
What kind of male t-shirt?
- Vintage acid wash t-shirt.
- Oversized t-shirt
- Longline T-Shirt
- Graphic printing T-Shirt
- Co-branded T-shirts with other brands etc.
Since you have a limited amount of styles, you’ll probably attract only a few buyers. However, as soon as you add more styles and versatility to your designs and make those available to the market, more customers will discover your brand. Once you have gained success with the T-shirts, you can easily replicate this business model for other categories and fabrics.
6. Supply chain, garment factories
If you want to do well in your clothing brand, the supply chain is the part you have to pay particular attention to. To make nice quality products and cater to the market, it all depends on the factory. When you are starting, make sure to make samples before bulk orders.
If something goes wrong with the factory, all the preparations you made before will be in vain and your brand will be ruined. If the final product comes out with bad quality, it will also bring catastrophic damage to your brand.
So make sure they send you a sample before you give them the green light to mass-produce. Also, check how they work during sample production and communication.
When you are dealing with clothing manufacturers, you need to:
1. Be honest about your budget and how much you can spend? And only rely on the fiat money you have in your bank account.
2. How long does it take to make 300 jumpers? How about 100 pairs of pants? Have some idea of the timing of production so that you can make better time plans for series production and not delay the shipment.
3. Have your materials ready, such as fabric samples, design drawings, swatches, etc. to show your professionalism.
7. Finances
When it comes to finances, request help from a financial professional you trust.
Startup brands must be very clear about their finances.
I believe that most owners of start-up apparel companies are fashion designers or people who are very interested in fashion design but do not have the funds to start. Usually, in such cases, your cash flow is calculated weekly. So your business must be profitable to some degree from the start. You can’t just keep putting more and more money in and get nothing out of it. That’s a risk only large corporations can afford, not start-ups. Not every brand founder is digitally competent and if you do not know how to cultivate a strong digital presence, find a trusted professional who can help you with that.
8. Marketing
New media is a must-have. Social media has become the stage for almost every startup brand.
YouTube takes on the task of telling the story, and Instagram and Facebook take on the responsibility of building the scene as well as showing the details of the clothes.
In addition, Tik Tok is also a platform that cannot be ignored. The videos on TikTok are relatively short. So even if your budget and time are limited, TikTok’s marketing capability won’t let you down. Usually friendlier content gets more shares, and most TikTok videos do just as well on other platforms.
Instead of spending too much on advertising, startup brands only need to focus on brand refinement to gain consumers’ favor and loyalty.
As mentioned before, when customers are faced with a product, they consider the product itself. But when consumers consider a brand, they are more thinking of the soul and spirit.
No matter how big or small your customer base is, as long as they stay loyal to you, they will help you keep your brand afloat.
Conclusion
Consumers’ demand for products is no longer just about whether the product comes from famous brands or whether it fits the popular trend. Customers nowadays pay more attention to the brand’s personality and culture and whether it suits their taste.
However, consumers of today have become demanding which puts forward higher requirements for the brand culture. It is the increasingly demanding vision of consumers that has led to the dazzling brands on the market today.
What we need to do is not just to accommodate customers, but to position and adhere to our own brand culture. As a designer, it is hence important to find a balance between customer needs and your exclusive brand culture.
Are you struggling to build your private label clothing brand? Please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our professional team will put together a suitable and cost-effective customized solution for your clothing line that is tailored to your needs.