Alright, you have launched your first collection, you are working on your second season and reevaluating your market. This is a moment to take a step back, look at your marketing plan, see what styles are your best sellers, and where you should reinvest your money. When we are passionate about what we do, we tend to lose ourselves in our emotions and we forget that, even though our styles are awesome, they are not for everybody. That is why it is important to put your ego aside and look at the facts: what is selling and who is buying your products.
As I said, when we do what we love, we lose ourselves to emotions. That is one of the biggest mistakes designers make. We all know that a good designer can come up with beautiful styles that everyone will love, but not everyone can afford. Or the opposite! People can afford it, but your styles are not meant for that particular market or place.
In the blog post INSIDE THE FASHION INDUSTRY - Planning Your New Collection I mentioned working on your new mood board, searching new trends, and reintroducing your best sellers. This is why it is so important to look back to your marketing plan, check what is selling and who are your customers. This is no rocket science, really: your target market should be the one buying your best seller products. If you do not have best sellers or if you are sitting in too much inventory, then it is time to evaluate what you have to do to lower down your price point, increase sales, introduce new products, or, maybe, do some more research into who should be buying your products.
Doing what we love and mixing emotions with business is one of the reasons why a lot of businesses fail. I have seen designers with great ideas and the right budget to do it. After two collections well designed and produced, the designer was sitting in tons of inventory. Why? Great products, price point too high, and wrong marketing management. Sometimes you can have all the budget in the world, but if you are producing, producing, and producing beautiful designs and not selling them, what is the point?
When working with a marketing company, they will also look at the results of your first collection and what is selling. So they should be able to sit with you, compare the actual sales to what was estimated before launching the collection, and strategize the future sales plan. That is the main goal of working with a marketing company, but, as a designer, if you are not producing what your customers want and reinvesting in what is selling, it will result in that mix of emotion and business (aka, bad mix that results in zero sales).
At the same time, you are working on your second season, you should be looking at your sales. Even though this looks like two separate things to do, since one of them is very creative and the other is very technical, this walks together when you are planning your second collection and you want to improve your sales. Oh, and just a note, the bigger you grow your business, the more and more technical and strategic things will be. After all, more money, more investment, and more planning are necessary.
It is important to have the right team working with you (aka. the right marketing company), but also crucial that you are working and investing your money in the right place. Producing only what you want, not listening to your customers and best seller products will lead you to work with your emotions and not with strategy.
After you are settled with the marketing goals for your next season and you have already started working on your mood board, sketches, and fabric research, it is time to look at your budget and move into something you all have been asking for: producing a cost-effective new collection.
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