As a part of Fashion Focus Chicago, the Mayor’s Fashion Council held a seminar with national industry experts on marketing and sales strategies for independent designers. The focus was about getting your brand out there in this economy. With advertisers wanting to fill spots, there are a lot of deals out there, it is important to see which media genre is perfect for your collection and reach out to the local branches of that outlet to get brand awareness.
“As technology changes, media planning changes,” stated Elizabeth Kalmbac of Kelly Scott and Madison, a media planning. “There are a million and one places to advertise. Once your message is completed it needs to be delivered, so investigate who your consumer is, find out where they are and then establish relevance”
A good first step is to do market research on your brand, and there are plenty of on-line tools like Quantcast.com and Google Ad Words are a good place to start.
“Don’t be afraid to call traditional media outlets,” added Kalmbac. “There is a current opening to local advertisers because there is space to fill. Ask ‘How much do your charge for a list’ and get their database that way, break it down to zipcodes that are relevant to your business. They want to support you as you grow, because you will hopefully be able to one day pay for larger adverts. Advertising is sales and they need to think like that if they are good sales people.”
Use your own website as a marketing tool as well. Do not be afraid to ask questions or survey your loyal customers. But if you are trying to develop that loyal customer base, then start out by looking at what customers are doing with your competing brands.
“As customers are buying down opportunities are rising,” said Richard Patrisi, Author and Instructor at Illinois Institute of Art Chicago. “You need to figure out what is motivating people to go out there and spend. What do people need? And then look at what do people want because those are two very different things.”
But at the end of the day, fashion is all about branding. If you stick with one consistent message your will stand-out amongst the crowd.
“Be fearless!” urged Michelle Bella, president of 212 Showroom in NYC. “People are behaving too safe. Give the creativity to your design and step up to the plate. The person that presents your collection or markets your brand shouldn’t be you. You should be designing.”
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