The fashion industry, unlike many other industries, changes on a regular basis with the seasons and the new trends entering the market. It’s not just their product line that the fashion company has to change for the upcoming season, it’s also the brand that it has to adapt to the new consumer trends in order to stay competitive and relevant throughout the year. In a nutshell, the branding and marketing strategies of a forward-looking fashion business need to stay agile and flexible, able to launch a new look and feel on a moment’s notice.
This doesn’t mean that you need to rebrand your business every season, but it does mean that you need to keep things interesting and fresh for your audience, but also that you need to create a timeless brand that will prevail no matter the course that the industry takes in the near and far future. So, let’s put all of this into perspective by giving you the most effective tactics for branding and marketing in the modern fashion industry.
Differentiating your brand from the rest
In the competitive fashion industry, it’s important to create a brand identity and a strong visual presence (more on that in a bit) that will help you stand out, capture the attention of your audience and the media, and develop your competitive advantage. This requires a comprehensive branding strategy that will tackle the problems of creating a brand personality, tone of voice, brand values, its unique visual identity, and an effective dissemination strategy across the online and offline realms. It might seem like a cumbersome task, but tackling these challenges will be essential to make your brand memorable in an ever-changing industry.
Be sure to create a set of brand values that complement the values of your audience, as well as the values that the media are trying to convey to the world. If the market wants you to be sustainable and eco-friendly, then that’s what your brand needs to be. You will also need a unique tone of voice that will help people associate it with your brand whenever they come into contact with your company online or offline, which will help with “brand stickiness”.
Devising a strong visual identity
For the most part, fashion is about the visual appeal of the piece, which is also why companies have to treat their brands as their most powerful and most influential statement pieces. In other words, your brand needs to bear a strong visual identity that will help you capture the attention of your audience and all relevant media portals, and allow you to improve brand visibility while at the same time building brand trust and authority.
You can achieve this by complementing your creations with a visual brand that follows the same design principles, structure, and mindset. On the other hand, you can create an appealing contrast by making your brand identity the opposite of the fashion you create – such as a minimalist brand that beautifully contrasts a maximalist approach to fashion.
Creating compelling marketing collateral
The fashion industry thrives on marketing collateral, which is essentially brochures, product catalogues, and other print and electronic materials that serve to help with product branding, and brand dissemination in general. Marketing collateral is also an integral part of online marketing, which is why it’s important for fashion companies to work with designers like Infostarters epublishing professionals that specialize in creating print-ready marketing collateral that you can share with your online and offline audiences through all sales and marketing channels.
It’s important to ensure branding and marketing consistency no matter if you’re communicating with your audience online or offline, so you need to create online marketing collateral that you can print out for press boxes and events, but also publish online and send via email, or launch on your website. This way, you will be able to establish a strong brand presence in both realms.
Understanding your target demographic
A fashion company needs to operate much in the same way any growth-oriented business would operate, which means that you can’t just tend to the creative work all the time. Instead, you need to collect relevant customer data, and leverage big data analytics to create actionable reports that will allow you to optimize your brand and your marketing strategies. Remember, every good business decision is based on relevant industry insights, especially if you are looking to make accurate forecasts and always stay one step ahead of the game.
Leveraging social media for brand growth
Finally, your marketing strategy should consist of many different marketing tactics, but it’s also important that you choose the most cost-effective ones that make the most financial sense for your company and are able to ensure a positive ROI. In the fashion industry, this will be social media, because you want to market your products and your brand to a wide online audience that likes to engage with their fashion gurus on a daily basis, browse their products without going to their websites, and buy directly from those social media platforms.
Wrapping up
The fashion industry is always evolving with the seasons and the new industry trends, which is why your marketing and branding strategies need to remain agile if you are to stay one step ahead of the competition. Use these tips to brand your business and your products, and market your company to your online and offline audiences.
