5 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO BEFORE LAUNCHING YOUR FASHION BRAND
Photo taken at Gucci Chicago flagship on March 2021
Everyone I know wants to launch a fashion brand in some shape, form or capacity. While some have couture dreams, others have access to a screen printer and want to develop minimalist basics for everyday wear. The creativity of fashion designers is what they’re often celebrated for but it is widely known that most are less interested in the “business side of fashion” or the not so “glamorous side.” Over the past decade, I’ve spent my career working across international luxury and premium fashion brands with a minimum of 4 major product launches each year. These launches serve as a small re-set for the company because you’re only known and lauded for your most recent release. I’ve noticed there are 5 main components that led to a successful launch. These 5 elements can be help you cover the basics when launching your brand:
1. Create a 360 Plan: 360 refers to considering every touch point in the business. How can you maximize your assets? For example, if you’re a small business, this is particularly important because your resources are limited and you want them to work for you in the most efficient way. If you’re creating a creative campaign for your product, can those photos/videos be utilized for email marketing, your e-commerce shopping page and/or social media? Consistency and frequency are two simple keys to effective branding.
2. Ensure market-centric pricing: This goes beyond the point of ensuring you have strong margins to maximize your profit. Knowing the market in which your brand will live means knowing how your product will be perceived. Customers often assess the price-to-value ratio during the purchasing decision phase. They would ask, “is this worth the price?” or “x brand has the same kind of product for less.” A quick and easy way to do this is to search online for brand adjacencies and see how their products are priced. Are you priced above, below, or just right? Proper pricing not only helps you drive sales but also ensures you don’t miss out on margin.
3. Choose and highlight hero products: Within each launch there is a product that will be the focus product. This product is often heralded as one that will gain the most attention and/or will sell the most. Plan your inventory accordingly. A good way to determine that hero product is by creating a social campaign prior to your official launch. Look at which product gets the most engagement (likes and comments). When you show the product to your close knit community, where do people gravitate towards the most? Where did you invest the most in inventory? All of these questions can let you know which product to push to the front. This can also help you determine which product could be a carryover or core product for future seasons.
4. Complete a PR Scan: Many brands have been caught in the crossfire of a media mishap due to improper or lack of market research. Is your brand and product vetted properly? If they’re aligned with a specific culture to which you do not belong, is it appropriately celebrated versus appropriated? Are the models and/or images reflective of values that the company wants to represent and will not offend others? Have you Googled the product name or brand name to ensure it isn’t associated with something already within popular culture? It’s often quoted that any press is good press, but in the age of cancel culture, that has proven to be irrelevant.
5. Identify your KPIs and create a sales reporting system: KPIs refer to key performance indicators. These represent how you measure success or failure. Sometimes those KPIs are qualitative and other times they are quantitative. It’s up to you to decide how to measure success. Once they’ve been identified, make sure you have a proper reporting system to measure those results and one of the most important is sales reporting. One of my mentors once told me, “reports tell half of the story.” Many brands underestimate the importance of sales reporting and analysis. You can and will receive a lot of word of mouth feedback (in a physical space and a digital one); however, numbers do not lie. Both work together in a perfect matrimony. If you’re not strong with numbers or Excel, make sure you have a partner who is and can support you in keeping an accurate account of sales reporting but also extrapolate insights from it that can turn into strategy. At a minimum, you want to make sure you can look at sell-through rate, inventory on hand, inventory turn rate, sales volume on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis, and a breakdown by size (if applicable).
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