If you type ‘branding’ in any search engine, a plethora of sites pop up promising to help you understand branding. Although the branding process is easy to describe, in reality it’s hard to execute. From my 15+ years experience in the fashion industry here’s my 101 to starting a fashion brand.
The first step to developing a successful brand is to create an authentic brand story. Authenticity in branding is when a business has a tangible story that’s not only based on the truth, but resonates with enough customers who are prepared to part with their hard earned cash and reward the founder for all their effort. In an over saturated market new entrepreneurs have to give a customer a good reason to patronize their brand rather than existing companies.
Branding success is about understanding your customer and their needs and wants, whilst positioning your offer in a unique way and differentiated from your competitors. Preferably your product should have a distinct benefit. Understanding what consumers require can either be gathered from years of working in an industry, a problem you and your friends have personally encountered or via market research.
Once you find the ‘big idea’ - a product/service which has a clear benefit that resonates with a sizeable enough group of customers that are willing to pay you, only then should you set about creating your brand based on its positioning (price, quality, style, fashion market level) and any unique attributes.
Describing your brand in terms of it’s target customer, unique attributes, market positioning and values will help you to create a design brief to aid your graphic designer to develop the right brand identity for your company (logos, symbols, colours and other marketing collaterals).
Once your brand visuals have been developed, you can set about communicating your unique offer by summarizing it into a single brand message, and then communicate it consistently across all customer touch points (website, social channels, packaging, store environment). To find out more read my post on improving your marketing communications here.
Confused about branding and want a step by step guide to creating your own brand that customers value? Attend my next 3 Steps To Branding Group Workshop and leave with a blueprint to brief your Graphic Designer. Or get in touch to find out more about one-to-one advice and receive a complimentary 20 minute online discussion.
Email: anisa@anisajohnny.com
