EP.07/ 5 Ways To Differentiate Your Fashion Brand
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In this episode, I expand on 5 ways to differentiate your fashion brand from the rest.
Lately, there has been an influx of emerging sustainable brands and with that, it's becoming more and more important to know how to really stand out and make your mark in the industry.
We are going to touch on things from community involvement, showing your process, innovation and more.
HERE'S WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:
1. Become involved in your community (local/global):
Brands are now expected to do more for the communities in which they operate, and a lot of ways brands have addressed this is by giving back to charities or donating deadstock.
But to stand out you must stand up to something meaningful - and stick to it. This is another reason why doing business analysis and setting specific sustainability goals in your business might be helpful - because once you know whether you want to tackle a social or environmental or cultural issue, it’ll be easier to become involved with causes that relate to the issues you voice.
For example, Tentree has made it its mission to focus heavily on the environmental component of the ESGs by planting 10 trees per purchase. For you, it might be a social issue you feel more connected to or a waste issue. Tentree is a great example of this because I’m sure they had to invest a good chunk of time and resources to ensure that they could afford to plant ten trees per purchase, but now they’re one of the leading sustainable brands out there.
Becoming genuinely involved in your community can help your bottom line, and I mean real involvement with something you can relate to and connect to.
2. Show Your Process:
Who makes your clothes? Where are they made? How are they made? Who makes your fabrics? How are they processed?
This section talks about showing the pros, cons, challenges and joys that you face as a sustainable brand. Specifically, we talk about sharing visually the processes and procedures required to become a sustainable brand. For example, can you show the customers a video of where the garments were sewn? Who dyed the fabric? etc. Doing this not only strengthens relationships with your customers but will also help you build credibility in the industry.
3. Be Honest & Open:
When sharing how you make your clothes and your process, don’t exaggerate your positive claims, but share what you’re doing to make a difference or improve it. Remember we’re talking about ways you can differentiate your brand from the rest, and to do that, you need to do things differently.
Believe it or not, communicating openly and transparently actually builds more rapport and trust with your customers than blatantly misleading them with vague statements. The modern-day customer wants honesty and transparency and wants to know what’s going on behind the scenes and what brands are doing about challenges they might be facing.
4. Invest In One Innovative Process And Let It Shine:
Not that it’s not possible to do many good things, but start with one really awesome thing that is going to draw attention and differentiate yourself. Some examples are using innovative materials like Piñatex, a vegan leather made from pineapple skin or Coreva - which is a new custom-engineered denim fibre that is fully biodegradable and compostable! This fibre can be biodegradable in mature compost in less than six months without releasing the toxic chemicals and microplastics of conventional elastane, in compliance with the EU standard EN13432.
For Tentree, their differentiator was to plant trees, because a lot of their fabrics are made of trees (like Tencel, etc.), so that is their way to give back from what they're taking.
For you, it can be something different! It can even be a social issue instead of a material innovation. Maybe you identified a new workplace practice that increases efficiency and improves safety for the workers? There are many innovative things you can research and implement into your brand to become the next big thing.
The last thing I mention in this section that is very important is to THINK BIG. Don’t just think of what type of brand you want to be now or in 5 years, think about how your brand will be perceived in 10,15 or 20 years from now. Dream BIG and work towards goals that are far beyond what's trending now.
5. Invest in your branding:
Last but definitely not least, invest in your branding. Being consistent everywhere makes all the difference. The truth is, we all evolve and change over time - I mean look at Instagram’s logo, Apple’s logo, etc.! It’s fine not to be perfect from the beginning - but you must be consistent.
And by that I mean it’s important to do exercises at the very beginning of your business development process that asks yourself: “how do I want to sound to my customers? Am I fun, edgy and exciting? or am I muted, sleek and neutral? Do I make people feel calm when they are on my website or do I make them feel excited?"
And branding doesn’t just go for your tone of voice and communication style, it is all-encompassing - from your colours, logo, photography even your fonts.
If you just need the extra help in differentiating your brand, reach out and I can help you develop a killer strategy that differentiates you from the competition.
