Five Things That Make A Clothing Brand Unique

Working in the fashion industry, you are immersed in a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment. This makes it an exciting, challenging, and rewarding experience. One of the challenges in the field of fashion is how crowded and competitive it is. To be successful is to be unique. 

Five things that make a clothing brand unique are showing your brand’s personality, defining your brand’s vision, detailing your essential beliefs, understanding your customers and being accessible.

Developing a stand-out personality in the field of fashion will assist you in forming or reforming a brand with an identity of its own. Continue reading for five ideas on how to make your clothing brand unique. 

Showing your Brand’s Personality

One important means to highlight your brand and its personality is through telling your story. Showing who you are and how your brand was born adds the necessary human element to your brand. Your story should provide the basis for your brand and how you market your brand. Through sharing your story, your brand and you as a person should become real to your potential customers.

Story ideas to include –

• When did you first start sketching?
• What did your initial sketches include?
• Were you always doodling during your classes? 
• Did teachers continually tell you to stop drawing?
• Do you or did you sew your own clothes?
• What did you first sew? Then describe the growth.
• What have been some of your ups and downs as you progressed from your first steps?
• Are there any designers who have influenced you?
• What enabled you to persevere? 
• How have your style aesthetics evolved?
• What do you stand for in fashion?
• What do you think should be changed in the world of fashion?

Answering these questions should prompt further thoughts (and designs!) to evolve. Be sure to take notes. These observations can be the basis for the ‘about you’ section on your website. Many of these ideas can also be woven into your marketing campaigns. It is important that your customers know you as a 3-dimensional figure and not just the name behind the brand. 

Personalizing your brand will get you on the path to making a unique clothing line since you are one of a kind. 

How to Teach Yourself Fashion Design

Defining your Brand’s Vision

Once you have revisited all the steps you have taken to where you are today, it is time to reexamine or create your vision statement. This statement should be a part of your business plan. 

Your business plan is a document that outlines all the components of your business. At least annually, you and your team should revisit and revise the plan. Elements to consider including in your plan are –

• A summary of your company that includes its brand name and provides a glimpse of what your company does.
• Define the purpose of your company in your mission statement.
• A vision statement that includes your views of success.
• A listing of products and/or services that you plan to offer. 
• Ideas that delineate how you will market your products and/or services. 
• Thoughts on how you will sell your products.
• Research on your competitors and how your strategies to compete.
• Production plans including materials with sourcing and manufacturers.
• Proposals to distribute your goods.
• Financial statements with sales forecasts

All these steps provide a framework for your decision making. For you to develop a unique clothing brand, a balance of creating a consistent image with forward thinking is needed. In your vision statement, you need to define what success will look like for your brand. 

One measure of success is when your customers can identify your brand; that is the consistency part of your vision. Developing a reliable brand starts with your brand name and logo. Those both should be symbolic of who and what you are as a clothing brand. All your marketing should include your logo, so your brand message is developed. 

You should explore other ways to create brands that your customers look at and recognize as yours. Some methods can include using an expected color palette; materials that are used; types of clothing that are part of your repertoire; and others that are brand dependent. 

However, you do not want to be so steady that every season and each year that you create the exact same designs. This is where the balance between consistency and bold innovation needs to occur. You need to experiment and offer clothing that looks to the future while staying true to your brand’s vision. 

How to Write a Fashion Clothing Marketing Plan.

Detailing your Brand’s Essential Beliefs

These core values can be gleaned from your brand’s personality. Going back to your first steps into the world of fashion, think through your core beliefs. Add on your vision and mission statements. Where do you and your brand stand on issues related to social responsibility? 

Social responsibility is a broad umbrella of beliefs. You want to select supporting an issue that is meaningful to you. Do not just pick an issue that you think will just make your brand different. Customers will easily see through this veneer, and you will lose credibility. Conversely, you cannot support all issues and do so passionately. 

There is an increasing focus on fashion and its role in the social and physical environment of the world. Socially, there are concerns about valuing some body types over others. Seeking more ways to produce clothing that is inclusive. Look at your designs, is this an area in which you could have a positive impact?

For the physical impact on the world, fashion has a role in solid waste concerns, the ethical production of materials and garments, the chemicals used in the manufacture of fabrics and accessories, and ensuring workers earn living wages. Are these any areas that you can authentically support and affect change? 

Understanding your Customers

This is an obvious statement, but without customers, you do not have a clothing brand. For you to be unique, you need to understand your customers. This includes knowing what they want. And, as importantly, you need to know what they do not want or value. For example, if your customers are concerned about the amount of trash going into landfills, then offering specialized wrapping paper with bows will not be of value to them. 

Get your customers involved in your brand. Areas to consider asking for feedback include –

• Online shopping
• Physical store location
• Returns
• Ability to try clothes on
• Assistance with selecting clothing
• Styling advice
• Loyalty programs
• Discounts

Respect the thoughts and input of your customers. It will help you grow as an entrepreneur and develop a loyal customer base.

Being Accessible 

There are so many ways to communicate and sell products. To be unique does not mean that you need to be on every social media platform 24/7; it does mean that you need a consistent brand message. It also means that you need to be available to your customers. You do not want to set up a fragmented, confusing, or time-consuming system. 

You should set up a website. On your website, potential and return customers should get a clear sense of all that makes your brand unique. Your brand’s personality, vision, essential beliefs, and understanding of your customers should be clearly visible. Consider your website the center of your hub. Spokes from the hub will develop other means to communicate your brand. 

The other social media elements you select should complement your brand. Most importantly, they should meet the needs of your customer base. 

When creating your website, setting up your social media account(s), developing your online store, and/or email access, the key to consider is ease of access for you and customers. Customers will not be apt to shop on a store’s website that has not been recently updated. Conduct periodic tests to ensure that your lines of communication are open and working. 

The Time It Takes To Produce A Fashion Line

Related Questions

What are touchpoints?

A touchpoint is defined as each and every time that a current customer or a potential customer comes into contact with your fashion brand. Touchpoints can occur before a purchase, while a customer is making a purchase, or after the purchase has been completed. 

What is a digital touchpoint? 

A digital touchpoint can be defined as any contact or interaction a customer has with your brand through digital media. Digital media encompasses online shopping, seeking information about your brand online, accessing your brand’s website, or through any social media platform. 

What is omnichannel?

Omnichannel is a type of marketing. Separate touchpoints, digital and physical, are transparently connected to each other. Different networks are seamlessly linked. These interactions are invisible to the consumer. Omnichannel is one of the means that lets shoppers purchase their item online, yet they are able to go to a physical store to acquire their purchase 

What is a native app?

A native app or application is a type of software program. Native apps are created for use on a specific device. Usually, native apps are installed on Smartphones. Once connected, most native apps work without needing internet access. Fashion lines are beginning to develop their own native apps. 

To learn more about how to start your own fashion clothing line check out my startup documents here

Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.