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10 Characteristics of Successful Clothing Brands You Must Copy

Are you interested in starting a clothing line from scratch? Do you run a clothing line business but you are wondering what it takes to make it successful? Then below are ten characteristics of successful clothing brands.

In the clothing industry, there are some very big and popular brands that are known worldwide like Zara, Valentino, Marks and Spencer’s, Prada and Yves saint Laurent but there are also some clothing lines that if I mention their names right now, you won’t know what I’m talking about; why? Because no one knows them!

Year in, year out, people set out to start their own clothing line but more than 80% of them fail. This is why there are only very few popular clothing brands while the rest of them are just a couple of random brands. Now, these successful clothing lines, what do they do differently to achieve success?

What are the qualities they possess? What characters should you emulate to make your brand a success? Here are a few for you-:

10 Characteristics of Successful Clothing Line Companies

1. They are positive thinkers

Owners of successful clothing lines are positive thinkers. They have a vision for their business and they are ready to do what it takes to achieve their goals. Achieving success with your new clothing line is not going to be a bed of roses. Rather, it would be a roller coaster ride with a few bumps along the way.

Some clothing stores would out rightly reject your brands, family and friends may tell you that they don’t think you can make it, the competition would try to run you out business but as a positive thinker, you would be able to stand your ground and believe that success is achievable and whenever you are going through rough times, you will forge ahead knowing that better times are coming.

2. They connect with their market

Successful clothing companies are interested in knowing who their customers are and what they want. If it would take investing in a marketing research campaign to be able to learn about your customers, do it. There are cheaper ways to go about it though. This is where a marketing plan comes into play? Here is a sample clothing line marketing plan template you can use.

You can connect with your customers using social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; you would be able to interact with your customers and understand what their needs are. Also, you cannot appeal to everyone, pick out who your target customers are and focus on trying to reach them.

3. They create an identity

Let people identify you for something unique and different. Vera Wang is known for designing fabulous wedding dresses, Christian Louboutin for his amazing shoes and Victoria’s secret for exquisite lingerie.

What would you be known for? What is that unique thing that you would put so much effort into creating that it would become the best in the market? Successful clothing companies have a strong selling point, something they are known to be the best at.

4. They are Consistent

How would you feel if after you tried a new restaurant for the first time, the food was so amazing that you went about spreading the gospel of this new fabulous restaurant to everyone who cared to listen. And then because you had drummed it in their ears for so long they decided that you should lead them there so they can have a taste too.

On getting there, the food was so terrible, it was almost like you were in a different place, how embarrassed would you have felt? Would you try the restaurant again? Well I won’t if I was in that shoe and I know that a lot of people would not.

That is what happens when you are inconsistent with your brand. Somebody buys a dress from your collections today and it’s freaking amazing and then the person buys another one the next week and it’s in a terrible state after the first wash. You have to consistently produce quality clothes to succeed.

5. They are competitive

Does competition scare you? Then you are probably not ready to launch a clothing line because trust me, the business is saturated. There are a lot of people who already own clothing brands, there are new comers everyday and there are many more who are planning to start theirs just like you.

So, competition shouldn’t scare you but inspire you. You should be able to study your competitors and draw inspiration from them instead of running into your shells when it looks like the competition is stiff.

6. They know how to create scarcity for their brand

By scarcity, I don’t mean that your brand should be unavailable in the market. The truth is, people absolutely hate it when clothing item is so common that every girl living in New York has the same design and color. You have to create just a few pieces of every design and not flood the market with a thousand pieces of the same dress.

7. They are Trendy

Clothing business is seasonal in nature and if you want to be successful, you must be ready to keep up with trends. Before summer, you should be able to know what designs are going on trend, what colors are hot and what your target customers are yearning for and you should have your designs ready by summer. This is some hard work but which business is easy?

8. They compensate their customers

You must understand that customers are attracted to deals and discounts and you must be ready to offer it to them.

9. They employ effective advertising skills

Advertising is very critical to the success of your clothing line. You have to continue to look for ways to promote your business and create awareness for your brand.

First, you must have a search engine optimized website such that people can easily find your website, then you must have accounts on social media for interaction with your customers. You should also think of employing other advertising strategies like television, radio and internet advertisements.

10. They understand pricing

Successful clothing companies understand pricing as it relates to fashion. Pricing in fashion is different from other industries. In other industries, the lower your price, the greater your demand; but this principle might not be effective in the fashion industry.

If your brand is too cheap, people may start to see it as cheap and of low quality. So, you must understand how to fix effective prices for your items that wouldn’t be too cheap or outrageously expensive.