5 Characteristics of a Fashion Brand (And Why These Are Important)

A great fashion brand focuses not only on creating great designs that are trendy and affordable but also on increasing its profitability all the time. If one has launched a fashion brand recently and has a long-term vision about growing their business, this article is meant for them.

Fashion designing is a serious business. Many new brands with innovative designs and styles often become more popular than the established brands that sell average merchandise at a high price.

Let’s look at some of the important characteristics of a good fashion brand and why they are important.

How to make your fashion brand profitable?

Listed below are five characteristics of a fashion brand and how to make your brand profitable.

1. Increasing Brand Loyalty

Shortcuts will not work out if one plans to thrive and sustain over a long time. One needs to create a massive database of loyal customers. The seller needs to constantly reach out to their customers through various means like social media postings, email campaigns, print media advertisements, and if the budget allows, then TV commercials.

Customers constantly need to be reminded of what the seller’s fashion brand is doing and how it can help them look chic and classy.

The fashion brand can even think about event marketing, participating in various trade shows in their area to create more brand awareness.

Hattie Crissel once wrote for Fashionista that, ''To be successful, you’ll need to get the attention of buyers. They’ll want to know what’s unique about your product, how it fits with their other brands, whether it’s at the right price point, and whether your business is well-structured.''

Hence the fashion brand must make a great impression on buyers. They are the key decision-makers who will make or break the fashion brand. Often they are as aware of the latest fashion trends as the designer is.

2. A Professionally Designed Logo

The branding starts with the fashion brand’s logo, and that needs to be eye-catchy and should stand out amongst everyone else. Hiring a professionally successful graphic design team is essential before launching its logo.

The logo should have the ability to be printed on clothes, stick-on labels, and onto other merchandise which the fashion brand might come up with in the future. Simple is beautiful. All the successful brands like Coca-Cola, Samsung, Nike, Jockey, etc., have very simple yet impressionable logos.

Before launching it, one should use a solid and trendy business name for their fashion brand. Many brands use the creator's name, which is not a great idea unless they become famous, like Coco Chanel or Gianni Versace. The seller should select appealing names for their fashion lines too. For example, Victoria’s Secret has a lingerie line called ‘’For love and lemons’’ which has become quite popular over the years.

3. The Designer’s Branding and Sense of Style 

No one wants a fashion designer to dress up shabbily and not look fashionable. Before the brand picks up as a large conglomerate, the designer needs to be very careful about their personal branding.

Remember, the designer represents the brand until it becomes a global name. The designer’s excellent taste and awareness of the happenings in the fashion arena will give a positive boost to their fashion brand. The designer should spend a lot of time researching the trends in various countries and the important fashion weeks- Paris, Milan, London, and New York. Keeping an eye on the local fashion is very important. 

For example, suppose one is a fashion designer located in the African sub-continent. In that case, they should know about the popular fabrics there like Ankara, Kente, Adire, etc., and include them in their designs. 

There is a considerable difference between the expensive outfits shown on the ramps of Paris, Milan, London, or New York and the ready-to-wear street styles sold in malls, retail shops, online portals, and markets across the globe. However, the fashion industry is responsible for the designing, advertising, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, promotion, selling, and customer service of all types of garments.  The fashion industry includes everything from expensive haute couture and designer clothing to everyday affordable fashion.

The designer’s personal branding is essential in creating that brand image in the initial years of the business.

4. Steady Distribution Channels

Many brands wither even before taking off despite having great designs because they fail to look into the business's essential aspects. If the fashion brand has created a successful brand image through advertising and social media presence and the customers are trying to buy merchandise from the fashion brand, they should be available.

Hence, the business owner needs to partner with good logistics partners to ensure that their merchandise reaches the stores even if they do not have their own chain of stores right away. They should be available in e-commerce portals like Amazon, Walmart, Myntra, etc., and local malls and other shopping outlets. 

The garment manufacturing units should be seamlessly delivering the production orders, and the quality of the garments should be good. If customers are happy with the fashion brand once, they will look for it the next time too. Hence there should be no compromise on the quality of the products.

Keeping an eye on the promotional give-away products is very important. When the fashion brand is new, the business owner might launch multiple promotional events and give away their merchandise for free to the winners of the contests. Ensuring that the promotional merchandise is of the same quality as the actual fashion lines is imperative. 

Customers will make an impression about the fashion brand through the free items they receive. If they like it, they will spend money and buy it the next time. Otherwise, they might spread a negative word about the products to their friends and family, and even before the business takes off, it might kill the brand. 

5. Being Environment Friendly

It is crucial for the designer to ensure that their operations are ethical and follow environmental guidelines while manufacturing the garments. Fashion brands that pollute the environment and run sweatshops perish after a few years.

In today’s world, consumers have become highly aware. If there is any negative publicity about your fashion brand on social media or national TV, it will negatively impact the brand’s image. If the company is listed on the stock exchange, it will affect the share prices too. These impacts will have a long-term adverse effect on the top line and bottom line of the company’s balance sheet.

Hence, at every level, the sourcing of the materials should be ethical, and the workers and weavers should be paid adequately as per the guidelines.

Conclusion

There are millions of fashion designers across the globe who launch their clothing line every year. Most of them get out of business within a couple of years as they fail to impress the customers and create an impression in their minds. Investors, too, stop pumping money into their establishments as they fail to turn out to be cash cows for them.

Fashinza can be your reliable partner if you plan to launch your fashion brand this season. We will take off the load of getting the right kind of fabrics on time and manage your supply chain to a large extent. You need not worry about the right kind of manufacturers and times of delivery. Our team will liaison with them to ensure that your clothing lines are launched as per your plan. Happy holidays!