The Art Of Apparel » Business

Zara and MTV T-Shirt Collabo

Shaun — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:51:01 +0000

I thought this was pretty cool that a major brand such as MTV, whom presumably could have the pick of the litter for apparel distribution, chose Zara as a partner in a new streetwear brand called StreetMuse. Zara does have over 1,000 store locations in 69 countries making its reach far and wide….

but MTV has been around a long time now and have probably had this concept pitched at them more times than they can count. Was the deal too sweet to pass up? Did the market research show that Zara’s customer profile exactly fit the market MTV was targeting? Did Zara do all of the heavy lifting and just pass a revenue percentage to MTV? What are the plans for the brand Streetmuse in the future? Is this for growth or just a big one-off? And will Streetmuse always be exclusive to Zara?

I have probably asked more questions than you care to read but somehow you are still here. Maybe it’s because you have the answers. If so, please let me know in the comments section. In the meantime, here is a taste of what Streetmuse has to offer:

*Image and News Found at LicenseMag

Brands and Their Power Clearing up Common Misconceptions

Shaun — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:42:55 +0000

Lori from Cavata Clothing has been kind enough to write another article about branding. Check it out and show some love for Loris knowledge!

“Brands and Their Power:

Clearing up Common Misconceptions ”

For every company, branding is vital to communicating a business’s identity to its customers. Many people, however, still have a skewed perception as to what constitutes a brand and often throw around marketing buzzwords they don’t really understand. Beyond a logo, tagline, brand colors, etc. effective branding is all about creating a solution to your customer’s needs. This doesn’t only refer to needs for things like clothing, food and transportation; it also refers to belongingness, power, relief, etc. The brand is more than the name and visual appearance of what a company should stand for. Rather, it is your company’s PROMISE and the logo and other brand elements are complementary tools that help inform customers who you are, what you do and how you will do it.

As I said in a previous article, every successful brand has to start with strategic positioning but it’s up to you to put each piece of the branding puzzle together in order to make your brand’s position cohesive and communicable. If anyone tries to tell you that one single thing, like a logo for example, constitutes a brand, they are wrong. A brand is more than a collection of symbols, experiences and associations; it is the overall promise to fulfill the need. Everything from the logo to a brick and mortar store should be used to reinforce your brand’s promise.

From various conversations with young entrepreneurs, online chat forums like www.emptees.com (my fave) and perusing both established and new clothing line websites I have seen many people misuse key marketing terms and misunderstand important branding concepts. Here is an example of a common question someone asked regarding brands and one of the answers that was given (some parts are paraphrased) as well as an example of branding vs. re-branding I found on a popular clothing line’s blog. None of this is meant to embarrass or call out any of the authors. My point in doing this is to help us learn more about marketing!

Q: When does a company become a brand? What are the key differences between a “myspace clothing company” and an established brand?

A: A company isn’t really a brand until it has reached a certain level of success and has a fan following.

This answer is false. Why? It is because the constitution of a brand is NOT measured by success. Many clothing lines don’t have very well established branding techniques but that just makes them extremely poor brands. What someone is referring to here is the measurement of brand equity (the value a customer places on a branded product or service.) The important thing to note here is you don’t acquire becoming a brand. Rather, it is something your company has to develop and fine-tune over time. Even the worst myspace clothing lines that lack a solid positioning, have horrible designs and sell 0 tees are still brands. Terrible brands, but still brands. It’s all about how you develop the brand that determines success and the level of brand equity.

I was reading the blog on a popular clothing line’s website and noticed the author misusing the term “rebranding.”

The author commented on the brilliant rebranding strategy for Halloween Oreo’s employed by Nabisco but, in this case, it wasn’t actually rebranding. When a company decides to tweak the packaging or logo for a holiday or special occasion, like Nabisco did with their Halloween edition Oreo’s, it falls more into the category of a sales promotion rather than rebranding. Why? It is because the goal of the packaging/cookie modification is to increase sales/usage/ or to encourage a trial through this temporary change. Since it is not affecting or changing the positioning of the brand, it really isn’t rebranding. If the packaging suddenly changed to bright pink and focused on Oreo’s ability to help women lose weight then, sure, it’s rebranding because it changed the positioning. However, this example maintains the original positioning and the new packaging is an attempt to give customers an added benefit/reason to purchase the cookies, not change the identity. Rebranding is used, most often, by companies that want to start off with a clean slate and not by companies who already have a strong, maintained brand

These are just a few common marketing misconceptions that I hope I have helped clear up. Confusing a few key terms isn’t going to make your business go up in flames but it is important to be as informed as possible!

The Importance of Good Positioning

Shaun — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:36:44 +0000

Sorry it has been a while since the last post but things have been hectic and I decided to get some extra help with writing for the site. I want to continue feeding you guys solid articles and reads about the industry so to help with that I would like to introduce the new Marketing Communications except, Lori Kirk. Lori is a 23 year old student at Emerson College and in July will have her MA in Integrated Marketing Communications. She also runs a clothing lines called Cavata Clothing which supports the importance of the arts in our communities. Lori will be writing a few articles focusing on the branding and marketing aspects of the industry…and here is the first one, enjoy!

The Importance of Good Positioning

Whether you are trying to pick out a name for your company, create designs, develop a website or define your pricing strategy, the aspiring entrepreneur must always remember that the foundation of a great brand boils down to one thing; POSITIONING. Positioning is how the target market defines the brand in relation to its competitors. In other words, it’s the brands identity! When defining a brand’s positioning, one should consider how the positioning makes the brand unique and, more importantly, if these unique qualities are perceived as “added values” by the target audience. So what if you have the only clothing line that uses teal ink imported from Dijibouti! Although this is a point of differentiation, does anybody in your target audience actually care about this? If so, that’s great! You may just have found your positioning. If not, you are simply being different for the sake of being different and this really offers no added benefit to your brand or the customer. Here are a few helpful tips for those of you who have great ideas and don’t want to end up being just another generic-named clothing line with a few cool designs. Remember, branding takes time and positioning is just the first step on the road to developing a relationship with your customers.

When contemplating your brand’s positioning, you have to see who everybody else already is before you can figure out who you want to be. By scanning the competitive landscape you can see what niches are already being satisfied and also if there are any unmet needs your brand can take advantage of. So what if you have a fantastic idea for a new skate/surf apparel line. If there are already a million other people with the same idea that are 10 steps ahead of you, how will you compete? There is a good chance, although not guaranteed, that your brand will be seen as an imitator rather than a fresh new company. This isn’t to say that you should back away from ALL niche’s with established competition. On the contrary! Having some competition allows the customers to know what they can expect from you. It is up to you, however, to show the customer how you are different from Company A and Company B if you choose to go ahead with your skate/surf line in a competitive market. The key here is to decipher what your brand can offer as “added value” if other people have similar product offerings and knowing when to fold em’ if you think competition is too high. The purpose of an environmental scan is to help you realize what you are getting yourself into before you invest your life savings into a brand that Joe Shmo down the street started 10 years ago. Once you know what’s out there you can be that much more prepared to take on the wonderful world of apparel design!

There are a variety of strategies one can utilize when determining positioning. What’s great about this is if someone has a similar concept as me, let’s say a flavored water beverage, I can still use my specific positioning as a point of differentiation. For example, Company A is positioned as a diet drink focusing on low calories while my flavored water leverages the drink’s electrolytes and is positioned as an exercise supplement. These are basically the same products, more or less, but each focus on very different positioning giving each a competitive advantage and unique identity.
There are seven positioning strategies that can be applied to any brand. Open up any marketing textbook and you’ll definitely see these listed.

Product Attributes: What are the specific product attributes? Is your ice cream the creamiest of them all?

Benefits: What are the benefits to the customers? Will it help me lose weight or jump higher?

Usage Occasions: When / how can the product be used? A perfect example of this is Gogurt. They didn’t change the product, only the usage. Its yogurt for people on the go!

Users: Identify a class of users.

Against a Competitor: Positioned directly against a competitor.

Away from a Competitor: Positioned away from competitor.

Product Classes: Compared to different classes of products. Fancy feast cat food anyone?

If you are a blossoming entrepreneur with a head full of amazing ideas you have to think about positioning before anything else. You could have the best website, designs, packaging, etc., but if you have no clue how your brand should be positioned how are you customers supposed to figure you out? Go ahead and spend $1000 on tee shirts, another couple hundreds on custom mailers and message the hell out of people 16-35 on myspace. If all of these elements don’t reinforce your positioning you are going to confuse your customer, causing you to become yet another generic clothing line with a few cool threads. Know who you are because that will, in turn, help you figure out who you want to target.

Remember, a brand is a relationship. When we form human relationships we, usually, share who we are with our prospective partners. If you can’t communicate to your customer who you are through your positioning, how are you going to start a relationship?

Registering your Brand

Shaun — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:50:23 +0000

Ok so I have been getting asked this a lot, “I would like to start my own brand, I have the designs ready to be printed but do I need to register my company and get a trademark?”

Well…I know people who do it both ways, some brands do it for fun and in their spare time and sell a few shirts when they have art showings and things of that nature. I do not consider this a clothing line or a brand really, more like merch. If you are looking to go beyond that and make some sort of profit from the t shirt business then I would say yes you should register your company. As far as trademarks go they are more expensive and takes time, I usually suggest getting your brand off the ground first and then following through with a trademark to protect it. I am not going to talk much about trade marks because honestly they are not required, you can establish the rights of your mark/logo by the legitimate use of it.

As far as registering your company you will need to do a little research and decide which structure you would like to register under. A few factors go into this such as how many owners or partners are in the business, if you have or plan on having employees and things of that degree. Here is a break down of the more popular structures.

Sole Proprietorship Advantages:

Easiest and least expensive to form in most cases
Receive all profit/income generated by the business
That profit goes directly to the owners personal tax return
You will file taxes using a 1040 and there is no difference between you and the business.

Sole Proprietorship Disadvantages:

Since you are linked to your business in such a way any debt to the business can also go into your personal life. For example if you were to get sued then it will affect you outside of the company and you could take a big hit.
It is sometimes harder to get outside funding, you are usually limited to personal funds.

Limited Liability Company (LLC) Advantages:

As in the name you can not be affected personally if an LLC goes under because it is a “Limited Liability”
Splitting profits does not have to be 50/50. You and the other people involved can decide.
You do not have to worry about double taxation (paying twice for your earnings)

Limited Liability Company Disadvantages:

It is a little harder to file for an LLC then a Sole Proprietorship.
Can cost a little more in some cases (varies from state to state)

S Corporation Advantages:

Company losses can be passed on to shareholders
Protection of limited liability without paying corporate taxes
Able to minimize self employment taxes, your profits as a shareholder are not taxed.

S Corporation Disadvantages:

Lots of regulations and requirements must be met.
More expensive to set up
IRS keeps closer tabs on you then the others
All shareholders must be US citizens

*Like I said there are more then the above but these are what you typically see in the apparel industry. I used the LLC format for my business and had no problems, fees vary by state but it was very easy for me. You can google “Register an LLC in (your state) online”, this can be done pretty painlessly.

Ok so after all that is taken care of then you will need to get a TAX ID number (which is free) and an RN# for retagging purposes, which will be what my next post is about.

Hope this helps some of you and come back in the next couple days to learn about the proper way to relabel your shirts and what an RN# is all about!