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FASHION BUSINESS OPPPORTUNITY: Fashion Brand Strategist

FASHION BUSINESS OPPPORTUNITY: Fashion Brand Strategist

The most popular brands we know today did not suddenly rise to fame. I dare say they didn’t even become the most popular brands because they had the best quality product. A brand’s reputation is built through carefully thought-out, intentional steps and actions that can take years to build, but only a few hours to lose if damaged! Brands know this, which is why they are forever careful with their branding and who handles it.

Branding requires a mix of analytical skills, an inquisitive nature, and a keen grasp of what makes people tick. Do you have all these? Then you are already on your way to becoming a great fashion brand strategist. Your work will usually be in collaboration with the brand managers and the marketing team to make sure a consistent and effective brand message passes with every communication the brand makes with customers.

 

 

As a result, you will need to be at the top of your game, being proactive and anticipating future trends and the success of a product or service your brand is offering. You will provide positioning recommendations, guide market research analysis, and define brand elements and tone.

You will also need to gain industry experience specific to the brand you are working with, familiarize yourself with digital marketing, and hone your copywriting skills.

Unlike other career paths, there’s no specific training involved in becoming a strategist. But, a degree in business or marketing will be a good advantage.

What is the brand about; Why does the brand do what it does? To what end? All of these are questions you will help your clients get answers to. As a fashion brand strategist, you can either apply for jobs or work as an independent brand consultant for businesses to gain more experience.

In branding, you get to explore ideas and channel your creative juices! Does that sound exciting to you? Do you have what it takes? Let’ us know in the comments.

3 ways to jumpstart a struggling fashion business

3 ways to jumpstart a struggling fashion business

Is your fashion business struggling or going through a difficult phase? Have you been having poor sales, budget deficits, and low revenue despite your high operating costs? You are not alone! All businesses go through tough times too. 

The good news is that you can change things; the hard part is that you will need to do things differently. It is not easy considering all the efforts and resources that go into running a business. But, it is what you can handle.

Ready to turn your fashion business around? Here are three ways you can get things running again:

Fashion business owner

1. Study the warning signs

What went wrong? What were the seemingly salient things you overlooked that made things go wrong? Was it when you decided to expand? You will need to carefully reflect on your business, check the records, try your best to identify where the problem started. This will help you come up with a plan to transform things.

2. Get Fresh Eyes on your business

Competent professionals and consultants were made for moments like this. Get a proven and credible fashion consultant to look at your business and find out what went south and how you can be steered back on course. Be ready to be cooperative with the facts discovered, and also for the hard decisions that will follow. It might seem like an unnecessary expense, but it will save you a lot more in the long run.

3. Take a new course of action

After getting professional insight into your business, it is time to act on them. Study the new trends in the fashion industry. How can you set yourself apart and offer a Unique Selling Proposition? Maybe it is time to pivot and start offering value your customers did not even know they need. Whichever action you take, review the results after some time and act accordingly again.

When you know your business is struggling, you will need to get proactive and take action. 

Is your fashion business struggling? Are you on the brink of a shutdown? What steps have you taken so far? Let’s discuss this in the comments.

Fashion Business Ideas – Fabric Shopping

Fashion Business Ideas – Fabric Shopping

Do you enjoy shopping? Are you knowledgeable and passionate about fabrics? If yes, then fabric shopping might just be perfect for you. ⠀

You might probably ask yourself if there is a market for it in Nigeria. Yes there is. We had a client in Canada who placed an order with us last year @garmentproductionhouse . We don’t so sourcing so recommended #martwaynestudent @kqj00 of @kqj.apparel , not just to create the illustrations for her but also to source her fabrics. She took on the task, meticulously worked with the client, bought the fabrics, delivered them to us and got paid for it. She also sent the clothes to her in Canada when we were done. So there is a market for it.

While shopping nonstop isn’t good for most people’s bottom lines, it’s possible to actually make money shopping by becoming a fabric shopper.

A fabric shopper helps clients who don’t have the time, interest or ability to shop themselves by doing it for them. The main task of a fabric shopper is to source, purchase and deliver required fabrics to clients. For the client who does a proper analysis of the opportunity costs, paying someone to do the work might be way better and cheaper than spending productive hours in traffic or haggling with a vendor.

While it might sound straightforward, fabric shopping can be quite complex with multiple variables including vendors, shipping, timelines, and more. Before you get started, ensure you learn as much as you can. Create great relationships, benefit from discounts and offer a great service to your client.

Can you think of any more fabulous fashion business ideas? We’d love to hear about them.⠀

Don’t forget to visit www.martwayne.com for other great fashion business ideas.

Recommended Resources

How to Start a Clothing Factory PDF

Fashion Business: How to Find Your Best Ideas

Fashion Business Ideas: Visual Merchandising

Fabulous Ideas to Market Your Clothing Brand Online

Fabulous Ideas to Market Your Clothing Brand Online

The online clothing market is undoubtedly saturated. With so many clothing brands launching every day, it can be difficult to stand out from the pack and be noticed by consumers. But one of the best ways to make your mark is through online marketing, as it can help increase brand awareness, and you can easily track if your efforts are working or not.

As mentioned in our ‘How to Define Your Target Market’ post, it imperative that you tailor your marketing and sales efforts specifically to your target market in order to generate sales. Here are some tactics you can try out:

Highlight inclusivity

Inclusivity is not something to be seen as a trend—but a movement. It’s something that all brands must try to embrace and celebrate. Fashion brands, especially those that sell clothing, should have a wide range of sizes to accommodate most, if not all customers. And of course, your marketing should also reflect that with your choice of models.

If you’re selling dresses for small-framed women, your marketing materials should have “real” models in them instead of mimicking stereotypical ads that only feature models of one size. Pretty Me’s guide to the best dresses for petites notes that petite girls have a very beautiful and unique body structure, and it’s only right that they are represented. Tailor-fit some designs for the petite body structure to really make the match stand out. On the flip side, if you offer plus-sized clothing, the models you hire should not make your market feel alienated. At the very least, the clothing pieces you have should be worn on at least three types of models so customers can have a realistic idea of how the product will look on them.

Collaborate with an influencer

If you’re trying to target or cater to a niche market, it’s better to work with influencers like fashion bloggers and vloggers who have a considerable following. These people have a large following for a reason—their audience looks up to them and they respect their views and opinions. Influencers can do wonders in increasing your sales by recommending or even just reviewing your items.

When looking for influencers to collaborate with, A Small Business Trends article notes that you must first check their relevancy so you can be heard by the right audience. Have a look at the topics they write or talk about, the content they share, the brands they have worked with, and if their followers are in your target audience in terms of demographics and location. It’s an extra step, but choosing the right influencer is crucial so you can ensure that they can help you drive engagement and conversations.

Host a giveaway

Conducting giveaways, especially when properly done, can result in a lot of exposure for your clothing brand during the first weeks of launch. The initial period is critical because it’s all about gaining brand exposure, so you have to make sure that you come up with unique ideas for giveaways. It can be your own slate of products, or it could be other prizes. The only thing to keep in mind is that you should be promoting the giveaway as hard as you can on your website, social media channels, and other PR.

It would also best if you made it unique so more people would be compelled to join. For instance, a brand called Ringly that sells fitness trackers modified their giveaway by raffling off two products to the winner and their BFF. The giveaway became more fun because it was a shared prize, thereby increasing the number of winners and doubling engagement, too.

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This article was written exclusively for martwayne.com

by Abi Cooker

Recommended Resources

Do I need a website for my business?

How to Use Storytelling to Sell Your Brand

3 word of mouth marketing strategies to grow your fashion business

How to Price Your Work & Make a Profit

Factors to consider before changing your fashion business model

Factors to consider before changing your fashion business model

To run a fashion business that hits target goals, you will need to do more than make beautiful clothes. Running a fashion business, just like any business, requires a business model along with other factors.

It may sound unprecedented for a fashion business to change its business model but think about it: just last year, the pandemic brought some major fashion stores to their knees, with many stores losing patronage due to lockdowns. Business Insider wrote last year, that multiple industry leaders declared the death of the fashion industry as we know it. These show that the industry is changing rapidly, and if your business will survive, your model has to evolve, it must.

Your business model dictates your profit-making. It is how you adapt to trends and challenges that your business will face. It should be updated regularly, or the fashion business will fail to move forward. Fashion business models are the same too.

If your business has been running on a model for a long and you have noticed diminishing returns: then you need to rethink your model. So how what factors to consider before changing your fashion business model?

1. The target audience

If your target audience is not responding to your marketing efforts, it’s rapidly changing, too small, too large or has no buying power. Your model should change to accommodate the new audience you are targeting.

2. Expansion

If you are expanding, what worked for you before might not work again. It might be time to evaluate the market once more and check your plan to see if you are ready to meet the demands.

3. Profitability

A model only works if it is bringing in the expected profit. When you start getting recurring losses, it is time to change your model.

4. A change in trend

The pandemic, for example, is a change in the lives of people. It has drastically changed how much they get clothes as well as other aspects of their fashion life.

Is your model currently working for your business? Do you need to change it or make slight adjustments? Let’s discuss