FASHION BUSINESS IDEA: Fashion Public Relations

by martwayne | Mar 26, 2021 | Business of Fashion, Fashion Business Ideas, Fashion Business Opportunity

Fashion Public Relations is an exciting, fast-paced fashion job. So you can either be in-house staff or a Public relations Agency.

However, it is suitable for those who have mastered the skills of promoting fashion brands. Fashion Marketing and Communication are key roles of a Fashion PR

Public Relations involves communicating the personality of a brand, new ideas and achievements. In return, helps the consumer to see reasons why they should patronize a particular business brand or use a particular product. The bottom line, PR builds a form of uniqueness around the Fashion Brand they work with, portraying them as an authority in their field.

Having said that, what exactly do Fashion PRs do?

They basically need to create a hype about the brands they work with so they build relationships and work with certain categories of people, such as:

– Editors and Media Houses

-Fashion Event Organizers

-Celebrities and Influencers

-Fashion Stylists

Dealing with the promotion of brands through earned media channels such as broadcast, print, and online media outlets is also a key role of a Fashion PR.⠀

As a Fashion PR, what skills do you need?

Generally, Fashion public relations roles have an alluring appeal and are very people-focused but it is not for the faint-hearted. It is a very hands-on job that will require a lot of extra time especially during Fashion Week and the new product launch.

More so, you need to be proactive, innovative, creative and multitask.

You have to leverage the relationships you build with people, hence a good interpersonal and communication skill is essential.

Fashion PR targets editors, producers, reporters, and writers at influential mass media outlets. In recent times, an increasing amount of fashion PR work focuses on Fashion influencers. Fabulous Ideas to Market Your Clothing Brand Online suggests collaborating with influencers because they already have a large audience so you can leverage on that.

Anyone who wants to run a successful Fashion Business should not underrate or dis-regard the relevance of any form of marketing. The article, 5 Rookie Mistakes to avoid when starting a Fashion Business further emphasizes the essence of marketing and brand awareness

Fashion PRs acts as the representatives of a brand. Thereby creating a strong brand identity for your business. With their understanding of media trends and relationships with media outlets, celebrities, and influencers, sponsors, collaborators, afflation and Fashion Influencers, they can put out the right content for the right person at the right time.

Do you think you qualify for this role? Drop your thoughts in the comment session. You can also check our Online Fashion Courses on how to build and grow a successful Fashion Business.

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FASHION BUSINESS OPPPORTUNITY: Fashion Marketing Consulting

by Sophie | Feb 15, 2021 | Fashion Business Opportunity, Uncategorized

The fashion industry has a role for almost everyone; over the years, the roles have evolved so much. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the precise technical skills of a textile designer or the artistic flair of the fashion illustrators. Because, with your knowledge of trends, fashion principles, and marketing, you can become a fashion marketing consultant!

A fashion marketing consultant gives fashion advice and recommendations to clients.

You will use your knowledge of fashion trends and principles to help your clients. They could be individuals, customers, and companies while working closely with businesses to identify their marketing needs and provide effective plans and strategies to boost sales.

Thanks to the internet, it is simpler to turn your passion into a career. You can brand yourself and create an online presence that will help you attract your first customers, and from there, you get to build that shiny portfolio!

However, getting your clients is one thing; ensuring they are satisfied enough to stay is another. You will need to go out of your way to learn about social media, SEO, email marketing, visual merchandising, reputation management, and image development will go a long way. Your clients need to be sure you know your onions if they will be trusting you with their businesses.

Fashion marketing can be challenging but also highly gratifying: Because you will not just be building your brand. You will also get to be a part of the success stories of other fashion brands as well.

Does this sound like something you are well-suited for? Do you know any other new fabulous business idea? Let us discuss this in the comments!

Visit our blog for other lucrative business ideas you can start. We also have online fashion courses to help you successfully start your fashion business. As we all know, execution is everything!

FASHION BUSINESS OPPPORTUNITY: Fashion Brand Strategist

by Sophie | Feb 15, 2021 | Business of Fashion, Fashion Business Opportunity, Uncategorized

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.

Fashion business ideas; Corporate Clothing Retail

by Sophie | Feb 6, 2021 | Fashion Business Opportunity, Uncategorized

Are you thinking of turning your love for corporate clothing into a successful business? You absolutely can by producing & retailing them.

All it takes is knowing what it takes and where to start. By taking the right steps, you can launch a corporate clothing line and successfully grow it.

Passionate about starting your corporate clothing brand? Read on to learn how to;

How to Start your Corporate clothing line

1. Select a niche

One of the most important things to sort at the beginning is your niche. Figure out what you want to laser focus on; the target could be business casual clothes for plus-sized women or maternity-corporate clothing.

Whatever niche you decide to go for, ensure the size not too small or big.

2. Work on your business plan and budget

When starting, you need a plan, but it must not be a very elaborate and detailed business plan. With a carefully thought out plan, it will be easier to draw up a budget.

Don’t forget to plan for important startup costs such as your samples, production, training, sales, and operational costs.

3. Source for funds

To fund your corporate clothing line you could reach out to family members, friends, potential investors, or start without what you have. Yes, it’s possible, and we have a detailed blog post about starting a fashion business with little to no money here.

4. Organize the business

Now that you sorted out your business plan, niche budget, and even startup funds, you can start organizing the business. First, you’ll want to choose a business entity type, register the business, choose a business type and get the necessary licenses.

5. Create your designs and samples

After going through all the initial preliminary groundwork, you can start creating your designs and clothing samples. You need to find the manufacturer for your brand or produce yourself with high precision and attention to detail.

This aspect can be fun and frustrating at the same time, but it will be worth it in the end when you see the results.

6. Test your market

Take your samples to the market (not literally) to get feedback, make improvements and make other business decisions. You can show them to your family, friends, co-workers using whatever medium you prefer.

At this stage, you should also figure out packaging, shipping, delivery, and marketing.

7. Launch

You can now finally officially launch!

All you have to do at this point is focus on consistently growing and scaling up the business. Find unique and entertaining ways to market the business and expand your customer base.

It will not be easy, but it will be worth it!

Can you think of any more fabulous fashion business ideas we haven’t covered? If so, we’ll love to hear about them!⠀

Recommended Resources

Fashion Business Opportunities: Face Mask Production

by Sophie | Jan 31, 2021 | Fashion Business Ideas, Fashion Business Opportunity

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected our lives and businesses in many ways. The Fashion Industry was impacted on every level, starting with retailers to supply chains to vendors. We have seen a number of retailers close, production has ceased, and demand has plummeted.

Despite the pandemic bringing mostly bad news, it still opened up a channel for new fashion business opportunities. One of these is cloth facemask production.

The No mask, No entry rule is now making masks a compulsory accessory worldwide. While most people wear masks primarily for safety, cloth masks can also serve as fashion accessories for occasions. Some people now match their outfits and facemasks to make a style statement.

All of these are needs that you, as an entrepreneur, can solve and transform into an enterprise! If you already produce clothing, it will be easy for you to offer reusable facemask production services. With this addition, your business will be at an advantage over other sellers. Because people usually search around for new sellers when they need new masks.

You could produce the facemasks for schools, offices, or retail and even offer to customize the masks using their brand logo or inscription. And then, with proper presentations, where your team discusses the uniformity the aesthetics will bring to the workplace, you will soon find yourself handling mask orders in bulk.

With neatly tailored facemasks that comply with the CDC guidelines and a bit of marketing, you will start having sales and even referrals in no time. Do you think this business idea is great for you? Let us discuss!

If you would like to start a fashion business but have no idea where to start? We have online courses that cover all aspects of building and running a successful fashion business.

Recommended Resources

Fashion Business Ideas – Fashion Illustration

Fashion Business Ideas: Visual Merchandising

Fashion Business Opportunity: Fabric Shopping

Fashion Business Ideas: Visual Merchandising

by martwayne | Jan 3, 2020 | Fashion Beyond Stitches, Fashion Business Ideas, Fashion Business Opportunity

Visual merchandising is a truly unique business idea not being explored currently in Nigeria, business owners will be open to working with you if you can prove to them that you can utilize it to boost their sales. You’ll have very little competition and the startup costs are very low because it is a service not a product.

What is Visual Merchandising?

Victoria Secrets Window Display

Have you ever looked into a store window at a mannequin dressed up with the perfect set of clothes? Did it appeal to you so much you wanted to make a purchase? If so, this is known as visual merchandising.

However it goes beyond just putting clothes on a mannequin. The entire customer experience in your store is vital to making a sale. This includes the store layout and the space, the hangers, the signage and even the music.

Lady Gaga, Barneys Window Display

I remember once going into a store and they were playing my favourite music. Of course I could not stand just in the middle on the store and start dancing. I had to go through their stock when all I wanted to do was just listen to the music till the end. Eventually my eyes fell on a pair of earrings which I bought and I still have that pair till this day as I write this. That is the power of visual merchandizing!

Think of all those sweets at the checkout points in supermarkets. They are not there by accident. It was all carefully planned. You stand at the till waiting for your turn, your eye falls on the chocolate bar, it is not too expensive, you pick one and either start eating immediately or put it in your basket, the job of a visual merchandiser is done!

Macy's Display

The purpose of visual merchandising is to attract, engage, and motivate the customer towards making a purchase.⠀Other purposes include to increase sales by showing and promoting merchandise. Make the display visually appealing to encourage customers to enter the store. Get the customer to pause and “shop”.

Macys 2014 window display

Elements of Visual Merchandising

Visual Merchandising is a skill that if properly harnessed can be extremely rewarding for both the visual merchandiser and the client. Think about it - why do event managers and wedding decorators invest so much in the decor of their engagements? To give the guests a memorable experience. For a retailer, however, it is much much more than just the decor. I have always believed this job would be perfect for someone who studied psychology or sociology because they truly have studied human behaviour. But the truth is - the skills can be learnt even if you studied other disciplines. The important thing is the ability to be creative.

Hubert in its article, 'Infographic, 5 Key Elements of Visual Merchandising', further expantiates on the key elements of visual merchandising:

Colour: The Soul;
Landscaping: The Ups & Downs;
Texture: The Touch and Feel;
Communication: The Storyteller; and
Decor: The Finishing Touches.

The 5 elements come to play when creating a visual merchandising strategy. I remember workshops given by Truworths then when I was in fashion school. Visual merchandising was as precise as how many cms up the mannequin should be, how many cms back from the window, if the props were to be tilted, by how many cms, etc.

Then there was this technique (can't really remember the name) but the explanation was how products were arranged in such a way that though they seemed to be on a straight line, one is given more prominence over the other. That one is the focal point which they wanted to emphasize and which they needed the customer to buy. I found the subject of visual merchandising quite captivating and really wished I could delve into it as a career - but alas we really can't do everything can we?!

Techniques of Visual Merchandising

A SlidePower Presentation by Georgia Perkins

For a successful visual merchandising strategy, there are various techniques to consider to ensure the goals are achieved. We all know the main goal is to make sales - but there are different ways to achieve that goal.

Georgia Perkins in her Slide Power presentation clearly articulates these techniques so I will advise you to watch the slideshow.

Group like with like visual merchandising

Photo credit: Polly Redman.

pyramid principle - visual merchandising

Photo credit: Polly Redman.

Credit: Polly Redman.

people have 5 senses not 1 - visual merchandising

Photo credit: Polly Redman.

For example, Barbara White in her article: 'Principle #3: Pyramid Power' talks about one of the techniques in detail.

Barbara Wright: Principle #3: Pyramid Power

The Pyramid technique

At the end of this post, I will put a glossary of recommended articles you need to read to establish a career in visual merchandising. There is so much content online that you can use to establish a career in visual merchandising or even adopt in your store.

Conclusion

Debenhams Store

In conclusion, in this environment, we are yet to scratch the surface on what visual merchandising can really do for us as retailers, merchandisers and as a business opportunity.

Use visual merchandising to enhance, establish and promote the store’s visual image. Also to improve customers’ shopping experience and entertain them.⠀Eventually, this will directly translate into increased customers, sales and revenue for your fashion business.

Do you think it’s something you’ll like to try?⠀Let us know in the comments section.