Recently, I have come into contact with several more brands, large, medium and small scale, especially niche design brands that are springing up, and I feel a lot of feelings. How to do well in niche brands, I believe we are all interested.
Decades ago, do clothing brand, must do the widest audience of that group, because that group of consumers the most, even a small part of the market share, sales volume is very large, and the supply chain integration is also very easy.
Because you are large enough, in the negotiation of suppliers will often be in an absolute leadership position, so whether it is price, quality, style development, accounting period, and other aspects can be the open mouth, suppliers can only cooperate, otherwise even the opportunity to negotiating table.
The general trend in the apparel industry today is obvious.
The market pattern of big at both ends and small in the middle has been formed, with the middle market falling and niche consumption rising.
The brands are different, but they all have one common feature: “personalization”.
In addition to the distinctive appearance, the “personalization” here emphasizes the “smallness” of the brand story and brand culture.
It is also because of the “small” that it stands out in the mass market and forms its own unique advantage.
When consumers are faced with a product, they consider the material. But when consumers consider a brand, they think of the soul and spiritual things.
When a brand with personality pleases some customers, the “niche brand” comes to the fore.
The brand’s cultivation of niche culture is to cater to the interests of some people and win their approval, gaining brand influence, enriching its brand value, and building a unique brand image in the hearts of the public.
So, how to do a good job of niche brands?
4 keywords “product, say, special, circle”
niche brand to succeed, will also get twice the result with half the effort.
1 is: “product”.
Refers to the high quality, only good quality products, to meet the needs of individualized consumers, niche brands will have vitality.
As we know, quality is the root of the brand.
And niche branding, naturally, to do a good job of their own high quality, only through the ultimate sense of quality, in order to attract the attention of consumers.
So, how high quality shaping it?
Attention to detail is crucial.
It is reflected in: brand name, visual image, story culture, product design, production process and other details of the whole process.
2 is: “say”.
It is to be able to tell a story, to be a brand with a connotation story, to impress the target consumers with inner emotions, and for niche brands to have the power to spread.
If you have a strong origin story of your own, or now make up a story, and the core values of the story and the brand consistent, then it will become the first story of the brand is remembered by consumers.
A successful brand is often a story.
If you want to make a good niche brand, you must be good at creating your own cultural symbols through all aspects of packaging.
For specific target groups, in-depth insight into their emotional demands, seize the pain points for story marketing, in fact, niche brands should be more of a master storyteller.
3 is: “special”.
Is the “personalization, intelligence, customization” three integration, through product customization to promote personality, niche brand personality will quickly become a development force.
In the era of brand competition, brand personality is very important, no brand personality of enterprises, will soon be eliminated by the market. At the same time, do a good job of “personalization, intelligence, customization” the integration of the three, has been the future has come to the new normal.
A good brand must have a distinctive personality, through the refinement of the brand’s value claims and customers to communicate rationally.
4 is: “circle”.
It is the circle, focus on doing taste and aesthetic identity of the consumer circle, the niche brand development will have the driving force.
It is often said that things gather by class.
The circle is the manifestation of the gathering of things by class, and at present, the promotion mode of WeChat marketing, community marketing, content marketing, salon marketing, etc., which is in full swing, aims to catch the precise customers.
In the era of product surplus, no taste, aesthetics, culture, emotional identity of the product, has not been sold.
The only way to solidify consumers, enhance brand loyalty, and provide the driving force for the sustainable development of the brand is through the circle, and niche brands are especially obvious.
Therefore, the pursuit of niche brands is a community economy, a clear and precise circle positioning, more niche brands.
Specific 8 methodologies.
1. About industry awareness
This is a very torturous industry, it is not what people think, there is a design talent can do niche brands, absolutely not.
At least in the concept of doing branding, design only accounts for 20%, and design is the best 20% of the whole link. It’s just the beginning, the germ of your concept’s inception, and the next is the most painful and longest phase: when you have to present those designs.
For those who don’t have a lot of cash to fall back on, it becomes even more important to thoroughly understand the market.
The more research you do, the less likely you are to waste money.
2. The team must be very reliable
At different times you will find that you need different people, and the core of demand is always changing.
The very first core is of course the designer, then the pattern maker and the pattern maker.
next to start selling clothes, need to understand the financial knowledge of the accountant.
And then more people, found that personnel is very important, to establish processes.
Immediately after the management should follow, while opening stores and recruiting shopkeepers, you need to manage the operations and marketing department.
When the team first started, a person may be a number of jobs, at that stage people are all-powerful. But when the company slowly become larger, you will find that there are specialties, not to refine the function of the company will become a mess.
3. About recruiting designers
The most important thing in recruiting designers should be personal aesthetics.
More than personal experience, we should pay more attention to each other’s personal ideas and works. The ability to do inspiration boards and portfolios is also important, if you do very earthy, aesthetics must not be able to keep up.
4. About brand positioning
Brand positioning is particularly important, you must know:
Where is your positioning?
Where is your price range?
What kind of people are you selling to, and what kind of people are your customer group?
Clothing is a more personal choice, no one is missing a piece of clothing today, it is more important to show your attitude to life, to show your character traits.
The same goes for brands. The state you want to show and the things you want to present need to be completely authentic, and the story you tell needs to be in line with your positioning.
5. About supply chain, suppliers
To be a good fashion brand, the supply chain is an important part of everyone’s competition. To make the quality of the product good and fine, it all depends on the factory. So the very beginning must personally run the factory.
If the factory has a problem, you do all the work in front of you is equivalent to do in vain, before the work is lost. If the final product comes out with bad quality, it will bring catastrophic damage to the brand. All of the supply chain is best to run factory by factory, preferably in person to see.
In the face of suppliers, be clear on so many points.
Be honest with the budget you have in hand, how much can you really spend? Never rely on a verbal check that doesn’t arrive.
How long does it take to make 50 coats, 100 pairs of pants? What about having special processes? Have some idea of the timing of production so that you can make better time plans for series production and not delay the shipment.
Have your materials ready, such as fabric samples, design drawings and swatches, etc. You must show your professionalism.
6. About the product
It is recommended to first focus on polishing a specific type of product.
For example, dresses.
What kind of dresses?
— Romantic girl dresses.
What kind of romantic girl dress?
— vintage lace romantic girl dresses.
Such an operation not only attracts a few purchases at the beginning, but as more and more customers discover the brand, the design can easily be replicated for other categories and fabrics.
Creating with focused personalized design at the beginning is more effective in precise operation and reasonable allocation of resources.
7. About finances
Get help from a financial professional you trust.
When starting a brand from scratch, you must not take your finances lightly.
Most designers start their business without much capital, and generally in cases like this, your cash turnover is calculated on a weekly basis, so you must be profitable to some degree from the start, and not just keep putting more and more money down the drain, that’s the behavior of a tycoon playing with a ticket, not the behavior of most entrepreneurs.
But designers are naturally insensitive to financial numbers, and we must recognize our weaknesses and find a trusted professional to help if it’s not a strong point.
8. About marketing
New media is a necessary vehicle. Social media has become the stage for almost every niche brand.
WeChat takes the task of telling stories, while Weibo and Xiaohongshu take the responsibility of building scenes as well as showing details of clothes. Giving the product its own unique scene and recognition will make it more topical and spreadable in social media.
Niche brands don’t really need to advertise a lot, they just need to focus on brand refinement to gain the favor and loyalty of consumers.
As said before, when consumers face a product, they think about the material. But when consumers consider a brand, think of the soul and spirit of things.
Even if the group is small, as long as the loyalty is high enough to feed a brand. The niche brand’s niche marketing features on social media allows it to quickly harvest consumers who recognize it.
Zuckerberg said, “The customer is never God, we ourselves are God.”
The positioning and insistence on our own brand culture, not just accommodating customers, and finding a balance between customer demand and brand positioning is what we need to do.
Consumers’ demand for goods is no longer just satisfied with whether it is a famous brand, whether it is in line with the popular trend, but whether the brand has personality and whether it suits their taste.
Consumers’ vision has become demanding at the same time, but also put forward higher requirements for the brand. It is the increasingly demanding vision of consumers that has led to the dazzling brands on the market today.
No style of the brand, customers will continue to lose.
And the brand with style, will harvest some customers.
The future development of the brand will be built on the game between the two, the trade-off.
