How a PR Agency can Help Your Fashion Brand

Any fashion brand hoping for a complete makeover to their lifestyle business should look for a good public relations (PR) agency to promote their brand image. Fashion PR professionals assist brands with promoting the clothing lines launched that season. They also create a story around that brand which remains fresh in the minds of fashion enthusiasts.

Things to keep in mind before choosing the right PR agency for your lifestyle business

1. Brand’s future accomplishment: Before hiring a PR agency to boost your brand image, and subsequently, sales, the fashion house should know what they are trying to accomplish. How it will be accomplished will be the job of the PR agency. However, once the brand image is established, it is difficult to change it.

2. Vision of the company: Before the PR agency starts promoting the apparel and accessory labels and brands through various media channels like broadcasting in print and online media outlets, the workforce of the company should be aligned to the brand image.

The need for brand representatives in the entire fashion industry increased in the last two decades. The leadership teams appreciate the ideas provided by the grassroots level employees of the company as they are in touch with the end customers, and implement their feedback and ideas. This results in better employee and customer satisfaction, which, in turn, adds to the top line of the company. 

3. Keeping the target audience engaged: While the PR agency will communicate with your brand’s target audience at different levels, you need to keep a clear vision of that audience.

For example, suppose the lifestyle business fashion house is launching the brand for teenagers. In that case, all the advertisements, placards, print media ads should display pictures of teenagers wearing the apparel and accessories of that brand.

4. Samples: Before launching the brand, the lifestyle business brand should send sample items to fashion influencers, media professionals, etc. With first-hand experience of the products, the influencers and professionals can provide honest reviews about them. The PR agencies depend heavily on the reviews of fashion influencers whom the fashion enthusiasts follow religiously on social media like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

5. Invest in the story: Everyone loves to hear the story behind the inspiration of the fashion brand and what they are creating for the society. The lifestyle business needs to invest in content creation and send out the right message to fashion connoisseurs.

Powerful imagery will uplift the fashion brand manifolds. The consumers are keen to know about your ethical business practices, and hence the stories should involve how the brand procures materials and if they are environment-friendly. Partners like Fashinza can help you immensely in this process.

According to Noopur Sharma, Director (Mumbai) & Head, Fashion & Lifestyle Practice, PR Pundit, “Today, for me, PR is about the art of communicating, storytelling, creating brand moments, influencer relationships, community building, producing quality content, owning the conversation, and being proactive.”

How Fashion PR works:

Fashion PR targets editors, producers, photographers, celebrities, reporters, and writers at influential publications like Vogue, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, etc. However, bloggers, YouTube vloggers, and social media influencers play a bigger role in influencing the ground zero buyers.

Let’s look at some relevant ways a PR agency can help your fashion brand.

1. Celebrity endorsement: If the fashion house has a big budget to promote the lifestyle business brand image, they often request the PR agency to get a popular celebrity like a film star or sports personality to endorse the brand. For example, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has endorsed the sports brand Nike since 2003, and the contract is for a lifetime.

2. High-profile events: Buyers need to know about the brand, and being a sponsor of high-profile events like the IPL, launch of a big-budget movie, Oscars, Fashion weeks in New York, Milan, London and Paris, etc. will be profitable for the lifestyle business which is trying to gain some momentum in the highly-competitive fashion world.

3. Engaging with Social Influencers: Most successful fashion brands send samples of their products to the fashion influencers on YouTube, Instagram, etc. and pay them to write about their brand. These fashion influencers have a huge fan following, and they often post videos wearing the apparel of the lifestyle business they are endorsing.

The younger population is extremely influenced by these social media bloggers, and the PR agencies should never neglect them.

Best practises in fashion PR adopted by successful PR agencies

1. Exclusivity: Since e-commerce has created the buzz around everything, to amass recognition, the PR agency needs to create a sense of exclusivity for the brand. The consumer needs to feel that they are buying something created exclusively for them, not mass-produced for everyone.

2. Lesser-known publications: There are many lesser-known local publications that can boost the sales of the fashion brand. Targeting these publications with good circulation numbers is a good idea for the PR agency to market the fashion brand.

3. Publicize the numbers: Fashion enthusiasts are typically influenced by numbers. If the press release for the brand has numbers like, ‘’Angel investor X invested 5 billion dollars in this new fashion brand’’ or ‘’Selena Gomez wore a dress created by brand X for the latest red carpet event’’, it always works in favor of the lifestyle business brand.

4. Right timing: Most of people buy clothes during festivals—Dussehra and Diwali in India, Christmas across the globe, Hanukkah in the Jewish community, to name a few. Timing the write-ups about the brand’s launch of new collections during these times is exceptionally favourable for the lifestyle business brand. The PR agency needs to keep this in mind.  

Conclusion

A fashion brand publicist or public relations professional is expected to involve themselves immensely with other fashion brands, fashion designers, fashion event organisers, and more to identify opportunities to promote the brand. They add to the profitability of the lifestyle business fashion brand by communicating with the target audience and potential clients.

For all your sourcing needs, reach out to Fashinza.