Fashion Designers
Launching Your New Fashion Business
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
How many fashion designers and design companies can you name? If you read a lot of fashion magazines, you might be able to make quite an impressive list, but most people can’t think of more than twenty. Now, how many new fashion businesses do you think launch in the UK each year? The figure is considerably higher. The public never hear about most of them. How can you make sure that yours is different?
Launching a fashion business requires a double-pronged strategy. You need to get yourself noticed by both the public and the existing industry, especially retailers who might be interested in stocking your work. Don’t try to use the same marketing for both audiences. Business news organisations might appreciate a well-worded press release but they’ll have little interest in media stunts. If you want to get their attention you’ll need to demonstrate that you have a product which deserves it, and a good head for business besides.
Business Marketing
One of the good things about internal industry promotion is that it can begin even before you start trading, giving you something useful to get on with whilst you’re waiting to hear about funding etc. Much of this sort of marketing is done through networks, so find out which networks you can usefully join - your local business support centre will be able to provide you with lists. Online organisations like Linked In (www.linkedin.com) can also be useful, and Fashion United (www.fashionunited.co.uk) provides a networking service specific to the industry. Networking makes it easy to keep up to date with business news and to meet useful contacts in a relatively informal setting.
When meeting in person, the most important thing you’ll need is your business card. Never use a standard design, even if you can save money by doing so. Choose something which reflects what your business is about. Don’t be afraid to be a little bit quirky or unusual. The same applies to business dress, though it is important not to be seen looking as if you don’t care about your choice of outfit. In this business more than most others, you will be judge by your personal appearance.
Working with the Media
Once your designs are out there, you need to let the public know about them. To do this, you need to be able to work with the media - but don’t restrict yourself to the fashion media. A new business is unlikely to get a mention in Cosmopolitan but it may well make the front page of your local paper. The trick is to give the media what they want. Send out your press releases to as many people as possible, but don’t do it carelessly - always address the recipient by name. Include internet links to pictures of your work - ideally both colour and black and white images which show it at its best. Adjust press releases to particular publications. Vogue won’t want to hear about your personal journey but women’s magazines like Bella and Best love that sort of thing. Local papers will want a picture of you, will want to know your age, and will be thrilled if there’s a local connection. This sort of thing may be laborious but it can lead to invaluable publicity.
Fashion and Direct Marketing
When you’re creating a product which is all about public satisfaction, the most important thing for you to do is to connect with the public. Fashion is a visual business, however, so don’t waste your time on promotional materials which don’t actually show what you do. Stick to strategies like postcard marketing, placing exciting pictures of your designs in the sort of venues where you expect your target customers to go.
One of the most important ways to announce your arrival in the fashion world is to get your designs seen. If you have friends who are famous, see if they are willing to wear your designs in public if they get them for free. Even ordinary socially popular friends can be useful in this way, helping to generate a buzz about what you do. Get yourself or your friends on television wearing your designs, even if the programme is about something else (it’s easy to get onto talk shows and game shows). Arrange for small public gatherings of people who look good in your designs at busy times. And never miss an opportunity to tell people about your work. Fashion is all about publicity, and you can make it happen.
Getting your Fashion Designs Featured in the Press
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
When you launch your fashion design business, you’ll need potential customers to know about it, and the best way of getting through to them is to get your work featured in the press. Coverage in fashion magazines can be hard to arrange, but guarantees that you’ll get noticed. Fashion magazines are the number one way most people keep up with fashion trends. You can also do effective style marketing using blogs and internet news outlets. With strong photography and astute writing, your designs can go far - but how should you go about approaching the press in the first place?
Many fashion designers go through a period when they dream of getting spotted. They believe that if they work independently for a few years, someone from a fashion magazine will notice them at a fashion show and they’ll be snapped up by one of the big fashion houses before they know it. Unfortunately, real life doesn’t work that way. Such stories are vanishingly rare, which is why they’re big news when they happen. In the real world, if you want to get noticed, you have to get out there and grab some attention.
Preparing a Press Release
Your first tool in marketing your fashion designs to the press is the press release. Press releases stick to a very simple format. If you deviate from this to try and look interesting, your press release will get thrown in the bin. Fashion magazines and news outlets have to go through hundreds of such documents every day, so be nice to them.
The best press releases are single sheets of A4 printed in 12 point Times New Roman. It is acceptable to include further sheets, but if you do so they will often get lost, so try to say what you need to say concisely. At the top of the page you should put your business name or logo. Under this, in capital letters, write either ‘FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE’ or ‘FOR RELEASE ON…’ giving the date when you want articles about the press release to appear. You should then write one to two sentences summing up what you have to say, and after this should come your contact details - name, telephone number, email and address. Always provide an individual point of contact, not just your business name. Next you should provide a headline - a single sentence announcing what you have to say - and then the location and date of sending (e.g.: ‘London, England, 1st January 2009′). Following this should be one to three paragraphs containing the information you want to put across, then another two line summary which repeats the release date, and then web link to images which can accompany and articles written to go with the release. Space out the items on this list as much as you have room for.
It is usual to provide two to five images to accompany a fashion magazine press releases. These may include your logo and a portrait-style picture of yourself. All images should be at least 200 dpi. Needless to say, this photography is essential to successfully marketing your work, so it should be high quality and should show your designs to the best possible advantage.
Be Seen
The second most important way to get press coverage for your fashion designs is to make sure they’re seen. Find out when major fashion events are happening and turn up outside with models wearing your most striking designs. Attend art shows and film premières, even if you can’t afford to get in - anywhere the press are likely to be interested in what people are wearing. If possible, get celebrities to wear your clothes by offering them for free.
Television talk shows are always looking for guests and can be a great place to get free publicity. Contact them every time they plan to feature a subject related to fashion and appear there to show and (if possible) talk about your work. Always be friendly to journalists, even if they give you short shrift, as friends in the press can give you an enormous advantage. Be relaxed and accommodating.
If you get the chance to be interviewed about your designs, do your best to remain calm throughout. Decide what you want to say beforehand and stick to it. Don’t try to please the interviewer, but take the initiative and respond to questions in the way which is most useful for you.
Dealing with the press can be intimidating for a beginner, but with practice you’ll soon get the hang of it. Pro-active, energetic press strategies which give the fashion magazines just the material they’re looking for will assure your designs good coverage.
Selling Your Fashion Designs Online
By: http://www.startafashionbusiness.co.uk
Every year, more and more people involved in the business of fashion try to sell clothing online. In such a crowded marketplace, how can you make your own business a success? The women who make up the bulk of this marketplace are continually bombarded with advertising, but the fact is that even when they visit heavily promoted websites they don’t always make purchases there. To improve your sales, you need to put yourself in their position and think about what they want out of a clothing site.
The business of selling online is still controversial in fashion circles. Some designers feel that it cheapens their work, reducing the sense of exclusivity attached to their products. Such people often prefer to use online promotional pages featuring contact details or the names of retail outlets rather than selling directly. If you’re working in high end fashion, this is an option you should consider. For most designers,however, online sales now make up an invaluable portion of revenue.
Make it Easy
If you do decide to operate a direct sales website, the number one rule is that you should make it easy to use. Women are often less confident about their computer skills than men, so it’s particularly important not to put them off with an overly complicated interface. Think about the things you would want from a clothing site if you were inexperienced in shopping on the web. There are several factors you should prioritise:-
* Clear categorisation-Make it easy for visitors to your site to find the particular items they’re looking for. This doesn’t mean that you can’t tempt them with impulse buys at the same time. You can, for instance, suggest similarly styled or complementary items on the sales page for a particular piece of clothing.
* Illustrations-These should not only be flattering, they should be informative. Make sure you show not just the front but the back of the garment. Think about what you would want to know about it before buying. You only need one image on your catalogue page, but the item page should have more.
* Further Information- What would you normally be able to find out in a shop, by touching and moving clothing, that you can’t find out from an image? Describe the fabric (being mysterious will put off people with allergies and skin sensitivities). Note details like the number of pockets a garment has and how it fastens.
* One-click shopping-Once people have decided to buy, they don’t want to have to mess about. Your shopping system should enable them to purchase the garment with as little effort as possible. Requiring registration means delays and will put some customers off, but it’s worth offering a more streamlined process to registered customers so that they don’t have to enter their details every time.
* Security- Make sure that your payment system is a secure as possible, and that it looks secure. Customers will be uncomfortable about handing over their credit card details otherwise. Provide guarantees and, if possible, a return policy, so that customers can be confident that their purchases will arrive promptly and in good condition.
Keep ‘Em Coming Back for More
If a customer has been willing to buy from you once, the chances are that they’ll be willing to buy from you again. With so many online clothing sites out there, however, there’s a risk that they’ll forget where yours is - or even that it exists at all!
To keep customers coming back, it’s a good idea to encourage them to register with you and, ideally, to sign up for a mailing list. You can make this list worth their while by offering discounts and access to an exclusive fashion blog. Emphasise that it’s free to join and use it to keep them updated about new additions to your site.
The business of fashion is always competitive, but good service is a great way to win loyal customers. There are still a lot of women out there who find shopping online intimidating, so it’s your job to show them that it can be a positive experience, no more risky or difficult than shopping on the high street. Give them what they want, and they’ll give you great online sales.
Things To Come At Indy Trend Designers!!!
Indy Trend Designers is a website created for Independent Fashion Designers to post and sell their designs. This will be a great online community for designers to expand their business to a larger group of consumers. While the website is under development, there will be blogs filled with info on how to get your business start, advice, great reviews on fashion shows and much, much more!
We know the value of information and we want to provide you with as much knowledge, so you can continue your path to success with us!
Indy Trend Designers