Branding Fashion

The hands down most exciting part of launching a fashion business is creating the brand.

In creating your brand you are essentially giving birth to its personality and character plus building brand equity you’ll be able to cash in on for years to come. If everything goes according to plan you’re able to establish a strong emotional connection that makes your consumers feel as if they can substitute if necessary you but never replace you.

One reoccurring theme I’ve noticed amongst branding experts has been the dire importance of positioning as the first step in creating a dynamic brand.

Positioning is who you are in the context of everyone else in the picture. For example in the context of children sometimes parents inadvertently brand their kids as “the smart one”…or “the funny one.” According to my wonderful parents, I was excellent at Writing while my brother was good at Math and my sister was “The Creative One.” Now my sister was no Picasso and I’m definitely no Hemmingway but, in the context of our family, the people who mattered most, that’s was who we were. Just the same as a brand you have to find your place in the midst of your competition.

A book I highly recommend is “The Breakaway Brand,” by Francis Kelly. It details the unique positioning of some of the world’s best brands. The author describes how the Southwest Airlines staff wears khaki shirts and baseball caps to exemplify cheap no frills travel, while Jet Blue uses its leather seats, DirecTV and slightly lower fares to grab the position of the affordable luxury airbus.

In fashion when we think H and M we typically think inexpensive yet quality fashion which is further embedded by their affiliation with icons such as Stella McCartney and Madonna.

Get it? You must define yourself…make yourself special or you can very well become trivially unimportant and end up on a sale rack at Dress Barn.

So in the over-flooded world of fashion how do you start carving your spot? Start by taking a look at your competition. Who are you literally, “positioned,” with in stores and how are you or how can you become different?

We’ll talk about some examples in some of the upcoming posts. But start thinking about who you are and most importantly who you can be.

The Luxury of Customer Loyalty

The only thing that may stop a customer from buying True Religion jeans from Saks instead of Barney’s is that they have a Barney’s card. With Barney’s points based program you get money back for every dollar that you spend. So although Barney’s rests at the top of the luxury fashion food chain, they still have a loyalty program similar to one you may find at your local grocery store.

Why? Simply put “Loyalty Works.” There’s a marketing adage that says it takes 3 to 4 times as much money to find a new customer as it does to keep an existing one has been proven time and time again. It’s about more than keeping a clientele book. Fantastic customer service should be a given, but establishing true loyalty takes putting your money where your smile is:)

I’ll caution you that as a contemporary boutique you too have to be strategic like Barney’s and develop a brand savvy luxury loyalty program that stops your customers from worrying that you’ll soon be changing the name of your boutique to Dress Barn.

Keep in Mind a Good Luxury Loyalty Program Should….

1. Increase Sales. Create a program that not only rewards customer’s current sales but drives them to buy more. Although it’s nice to reward people you want to make sure the program serves its purpose of driving more volume through loyal customers.

2. Elevate the Brand. Reward customers via points with something they’d want anyway. Maybe it’s a gift certificate to an ultrachic restaurant, a massage at Bliss Spa or Fashion Week tickets. Make it a true reward….not a discount. While a discount cheapens your brand a luxury reward puts you in the front of the class.

3. Begin Exclusively. Do a test run with some of your top customers or try a “Summer Rewards” program. Run it June through September, and then compare your sales to last year to evaluate your return on investment. Once you determine what’s what you may decide to make some adjustments or roll it out to your entire customer base.

Overall you want to make sure that before you start, you reviewed your sales and understand your customer enough to determine the best luxury loyalty program for your store. The right program will give customers a vested interest making your boutique the ultimate destination for every shopping trip.

For help on implementing a fashion focused luxury loyalty program contact us at info@glossmarketing.com.