In the blog post INSIDE THE FASHION INDUSTRY - Taking Another Look At Your Branding, I mentioned how important it is to listen to your customers, your best sellers' items and make sure your branding is coherent to your products. Now, let’s look into the steps to build your brand identity. Here, we are not going to compare your branding to different competitors and we are not going to look into your marketing plan. Here, we are going to see all steps to build your branding from the very beginning.
Ok, this is not rocket science, and building your branding should be an enjoyable process, but you have to pay attention to details and, mainly, who are your customers, who are your competitors, and how you will create brand awareness in the middle of the fashion jungle, where there are thousands and thousands of different brands.
Building a branding deck is something that I always liked doing and I, in particular, like doing it with my clients. No, I am not going to put your branding deck together so you can approve it later. This is something that has to be done with the brand’s owner. Hands-on through the entire process, after all, this brand is not only your baby, it is you! Who you are and why you are starting this business.
Now, cutting to the chase, let’s look at all steps to creating your branding deck.
1. Create a presentation with your brand information
This presentation should have your brand’s logo, name, color palette, and everything else involved in your branding.
Let’s look into the other steps and all that will be in this presentation.
2. Target market mood board
Creating a mood board for your target market is crucial to understand who your customers are, where they live, what they wear, what they like, and their lifestyle.
A selection of pictures with a list of information about your customers will also help you determine the price point that you should sell your garments for.
3. Competitor's mood board
As I said, the fashion industry is huge and there are thousands of brands out there. Narrowing down who are your customers, the selling price point and the type of clothing you want to produce will help you understand the market a little better and also help you to narrow down who are your main competitors.
By creating this mood board, you will also be able to understand why these brands are your main competitors, what their price point is, what kind of customers they are selling to and why they are successful. Looking closely into these brands and which steps these brands are taking to reach their price point, make sales, and create brand awareness will guide you through what you should be doing as well, how you should communicate to your audience, and what kind of styles are the best selling.
4. Brand identity
Now, your brand identity is something that is yours and only yours!
This is where you will list your logo, the font you are using, and all the applicable variances of your branding - like different logotypes, your hangtags, your brand labels, your marketing materials, etc.
5. Brand inspiration mood board
Your branding mood board is also something that is yours and yours only!
Here is where you will organize a selection of images that inspired you to start your brand. Where did the inspiration come from, what made you start this brand, how do you see your customers and how do you see your customers wearing your garments.
6. Color palette
This should come from your branding mood board.
Your color palette is a selection of the colors that will be used on your branding materials - like your logo, logo variations, brand tags, etc.
Now, this color palette should be authentic and coherent to your brand’s style, but keep in mind that your color palette is something that you will be using forever. So make sure you are selecting atemporal colors that can be used with any collection you will develop.
7. Voice tone
Your voice tone is how you communicate with your audience. Is your brand for kids? Is your brand for snow sports? Or is your brand for contemporary women who work and want to look chic every day?
How you connect with your customers, how you write your blogs, how you created your tagline, the tone you will be posting on social media, all of these are part of your voice tone and have to be coherent to your brand and your customers.
I have a very personal and stripped way to communicate to my audience, but that is because my brand is not only coaching services and blogs to help fashion designers, my brand is me. My everyday routine, my lifestyle, and how I live the New York City lifestyle. I am not trying to talk to a woman who works as a CEO in a law firm. I am trying to talk to women who would like to start a fashion business and like the fashion industry.
Understanding your market and creating a target market mood board will also help you define your voice tone.
8. Brand application
This should be a little mood board, within one or two slides, where you present your brand appearance. What does your website look like, what does your social media look like and where are you currently selling your products.
9. Brand pitch
When developing your business plan, you should have also developed an executive summary and a branding pitch.
The executive summary is nothing more than your business plan summary. A brief explanation of what is your business, the problem, and the proposed solution. No more than one or two small paragraphs each.
It is important to list this on your branding deck because, when presenting your brand to potential retail partners, potential investors, or influencers you want to work with, this will show an organized business, and how potential investors will make their money back.
This shows that you are not only a new fashion brand but why you started your business and why customers will be attracted to you instead of your competitors.
10. About the owner
This is the easy part. A brief explanation of who you are, why you started this business, and, mainly, why you are so passionate about your brand.
This might seem silly, but do not forget that your brand is you! So, whoever is the person seeing your branding deck will see that you are not in fashion because it is cool or because you love fashion, but because you want to run a successful business and you are the main character why this new brand exists.
This is a lot. I know. But creating a branding deck is important to always have a reference, have consistency on your branding, and use this as a presentation for future partners, like retail stores or influencers. This is also going to be the reference document to look at after your first and second seasons. If your sales are not what you expected, how should you improve your branding to reach the expected sales and keep growing?
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