How To Get a Clothing Label Recognized by Department Store Buyers

When it comes to buying mass market products at a reasonable price, many consumers turn to budget retailers like Target or Amazon. For those interested in buying luxury goods, however, department stores continue to be the go-to shopping destination.

Brands that sell apparel and accessories labels have an immense opportunity to gain by selling to department store buyers. In addition to selling alongside coveted brands and luxury designers, department stores can increase the perceived value of a brand, making it easier to command a higher price point.

So if growing your clothing brand is a top priority, here’s how selling upmarket benefits your brand and your bottom line.

Brand Positioning

Selling luxury clothing is nearly impossible without a well-defined brand. To understand what your brand needs to succeed, Jim Snediker of the men’s lifestyle brand Stock MFG. Co., shares three important elements. These include:

• identifying an initial target market
• creating a compelling hook
• telling a powerful story.

When selling to luxury consumers, creating a powerful story is perhaps the most important aspect of branding. That’s because a powerful story can elicit human emotion and make a customer feel more drawn to the meaning behind your product. Gautam Sinha, founder of deluxe leather goods brand Nappa Dori, says that customers “need to feel invested in the product and the story it carries and the experience they have from the time of entering the store to the time they make the purchase.” If a customer isn’t invested in your brand’s story, they’re not likely to shell out a pretty penny for it.

When considering how to move your brand upmarket, Carol Davies of branding agency Fletcher Knight recommends assessing your current brand first. If people already recognize your brand as a reputable and valuable force, it might make sense for you to maintain some of this brand recognition with a new product line. If you’re looking to create a high-end luxury item under a new label, it’s important to disassociate your brand from lower end products.

Most high end brands differentiate themselves from mass market brands through high quality imagery and powerful storytelling, according to fashion and tech reporter Hilary Milnes. Establishing your brand as a luxury label using these techniques can help you attract attention of department store buyers.

Establishing a Lifestyle

A key part of luxury brand positioning is establishing a certain lifestyle. Kylie Ora Lobell at Creator says that in the luxury marketplace, brands are selling an aspirational lifestyle. Whether its people who love to travel, stay healthy or simply celebrate life, all aspects of your brand need to communicate those ideals. Think about it this way: You want your customers to envision how your product enhances their lives and helps them reach their goals.

Social media is a great way to help establish and sell your label’s lifestyle. When choosing and curating these channels, digital media agency Graphic Alliance writes that it’s important to be selective. This means that instead of going over the top with imagery on every social platform, you should stick to just one or two medias. Tapping into the channels where your customers are most engaged and inspired allows you to have the greatest influence.

Creating Value

To sell a luxury item successfully, it’s important to understand how perceived value and worth relates to apparel items.

As explained by Cheryl Snapp Conner, founder of SnappConner PR, items perceived to be scarce are also seen as more valuable. Meaning, if your product is rare and hard to get, people will demand it more.

Creating limited edition collections, for example, can make a certain set of apparel designs feel finite. This creates a sense of urgency that compels people to buy. Lauren Sherman, editor at Business of Fashion, uses the example of a Hermés Birkin Bag to get this point across. Since they were first released over three decades ago, Birkin Bags have remained some of the most coveted handbags in the world. While the handbags are high quality – each made by hand by a single craftsman – it is their scarcity that has kept them popular.

To buy a Birkin Bag, a customer must have a relationship with a Hermés sales associate. As Sherman puts it, “to be sold a Birkin, you have to have bought one already.” Bags are released sporadically, and those who want one are put on a waitlist, which can sometimes last six months. By making it difficult to obtain a Birkin Bag, Hermés is able to drive high demand among luxury shoppers.

To create scarcity with your new label, marketing coach Vinil Ramdev offers a few tips. First, limit your channels of distribution. By selling only on your website, or only in a certain pop up shop, you can create a brand that feels rare and unique. Secondly, limit your production lines each season. Having a finite amount of product attracts consumers because they only have a small window of opportunity to obtain them.

Expanding Luxury Appeal

Many of today’s leading luxury brands are looking to blend retail experiences with cutting edge technology. Creative agency Sideshow suggests using interactive retail stands to establish stronger customer experiences. These in-store stands are equipped with motion-activated screens, which provide information about products on the shelves. Similar stands can also be used to collect information about a customer’s preferences (such as which product they looked at) by tracking movement through smartphone frequencies.

This reflects a growing trend towards technology-driven retail experiences, which are becoming more popular in department stores. Brands that can show their interest in and commitment to technology may be more appealing to department stores because it shows that they’re willing to embrace new trends.

Diversifying Product Lines

Creating new collections and expanding product offerings is an important way to keep your brand fresh and relevant. Kelsey Lindsey at Retail Dive writes that by making new items available, both in-store and online, brands can attract a wider audience base. For brands with high-end customers, this is an especially important way to continue commanding a high price point. One way to diversify a product line – and grab the attention of department stores and luxury buyers – is to take advantage of trending events.

Fashionista west coast editor Dhani Mau points out that many brands have been using this strategy to capitalize on the buzz around Coachella. The music festival has become known for its fashionable guests, and many of the year’s top fashions are seen there. Brands are getting in on the buzz by creating festival collections and hosting specialty in-store events during the weeks leading up to the concert. This helps a brand become associated with Coachella’s fashion-forward audience, which includes celebrities and Hollywood icons.

Brand Partnerships

Associating your brand with another designer or store can have a similar effect. Osman Ahmed at Business of Fashion explains that partnering with another luxury brand can help attract that brand’s audience. Such a partnership can also help establish cultural relevance, which gives your brand lasting power.

When co-branding with another luxury brand, don’t be afraid that they’ll outshine you. According to Promo Marketing Magazine, having your logo appear next to a luxury brand on product packaging and marketing materials lends authenticity and value to your product.

Images by: StockSnap

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Design Trends: What’s Driving Generation Z

When marketing and selling an apparel brand, it’s important to understand the trends and styles driving your target market. We’ve just discussed millennial trends — and how technology, minimalism and a splash of pink can win over that generation’s hearts. Now, it’s time to dive into Generation Z.

With many in their teens and early twenties, this group of young adults has an immense consumer influence that’s only poised to grow. Here’s how to tap into the right trends and develop brand loyalty with the next generation.

Understanding Generation Z

According to digital marketing expert Jennifer Shaheen, Generation Z commands a whopping 44 billion dollars in purchasing power each year. As an apparel brand, understanding what this generation wants is essential to your long term growth.

So where should you get started with this emerging demographic? For starters, brands need to understand how this generation values diversity and universal equality. In a study by Millennial Marketing, members of Generation Z said they prefer advertisements that promote racial, sexual and gender equality. They also prefer branded materials that feel realistic, rather than idealized.

One apparel brand that’s hitting both of these marks — and seeing huge financial gains because of it — is American Eagle. As pointed out by that company’s CMO, Kyle Andrews, Generation Z is less interested in big brands and designer labels. “They’re less brand-conscious and they are not spending as much as millennials do,” Andrews says.

The Importance of Value

In order to resonate with Gen Z, then, brands have to show what they value and how they make a difference. Simply being a big brand isn’t enough to sell.

Influencer and marketing strategist Nicolas Cole adds that just like millennials, Generation Zers are conscious about their collective ecological footprint. This means that they’re more interested in brands that are making a positive impact on the world. Accessories brands like Warby Parker and Toms are popular amongst this generation because they give back to people in need.

Another interesting point is that Gen Z’s commitment to ethical brands is inspiring change within the fashion industry. Emine Saner, feature writer at The Guardian, says this generation is introducing a change in mass consumption. Rather than gobbling up any new fashion trend just because it’s emblazoned with a certain brand name, members of Gen Z are careful and conscientious about their purchasing habits.

Yael Aflalo, founder of the clothing brand Reformation, explains that “people are actively looking to make a change. They want to know more about the “how” and the “who” behind the clothes they wear – to understand the story behind their clothes.” The moral of this story? Creating a message of giving, sustainability and authenticity — and incorporating that into your in-store retail strategy — can go a long way in helping to attract and retain these customers.

Self Expression

Generation Z’s desire for inherent value is just as important as their need for self expression. Wearing a brand that everyone else is wearing makes these consumers feel like everyone else, when in reality all they want is to stand out.

Investor and Gen Z consultant George Beall says brands help Generation Z stand out against their peers. This is especially true on social media, where trendy, expressive photos can thrust a teenager into instagram fame. To tap into this trend, try positioning apparel brands as vehicles for self expression.

The retail business blog Fierce Retail writes that nearly 60 percent of Gen Zers say they prefer to create their own fashion statement. Hang tags and other printed brand materials can be used to reinforce this message, helping consumers feel a sense of self ownership when they wear and interact with your brand.

Short Attention Spans

If there’s one thing brands should know about Generation Z, it’s that they can’t stay still for long.  Marketing expert and influencer Deep Patel says this generation has incredibly short attention spans.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t able to concentrate or get tasks done. It’s simply due to the digital environment in which they were raised, and how they learned to process information. To reach these customers and grab their attention, it’s important to make an impression as quickly as possible.

Marketing and creative agency Zion & Zion says that marketers can attract consumers by keeping all messaging simple and clear. Sometimes, this means eliminating wording altogether and opting for impactful imagery.

Photographer and design expert Igor Ovsyannykov says image-heavy hang tags are a great way to influence the consumer to buy your product. For example, on a hang tag for a blouse, an image might showcase that blouse being worn with a bottom or a skirt that your brand also sells. This strategy works well for gifts, because a compelling and visually-stimulating hang tag can make a person feel excited and happy — emotions you’d want your friend or family member to feel when receiving a gift.

Design Trends

Brands can also tap into short attention spans by utilizing the latest trends in graphic design and color. Digital Arts staff writer Miriam Harris points out that millennials and their younger counterparts are drawn to simple lines and bold color patterns, much like the designs seen on digital interfaces. Brands have also been modifying their logos to align with this trend. Simple, square-shaped logos that are unified in color work well both on digital and print surfaces.

Plus, having a logo that easily translates across different mediums helps a brand establish a consistent and more memorable image. Steff Yotka, fashion news and emerging platforms editor at Vogue, adds that unfiltered content is essential for today’s brands. She says that Gen Zers want to see authentic imagery and models that aren’t photoshopped. When incorporating images into a hang tag design, keep in mind the appeal of realness and truth.

The Power of Simplicity

Another way to keep your hang tag simple is add a clean, minimalist brand name.

Accessories designer Jenny Luckett of January Moon uses this strategy on her hang tags for teething jewelry — stylish jewelry for moms that’s safe for babies to bite. Featuring a white circle with a clean, gray font, these hang tags are bordered by a bright pop of color. This design helps allude to a childlike feeling, which supports the main theme of the jewelry. It also helps draw in young mothers and their friends and family, and the simple brand name gets to the point and remains memorable.

Full-service inbound marketing agency Weidert Group adds that content should be well-organized and created for skimming. Although this strategy is typically applied to digital mediums, remember: Generation Z lives in the digital world. So even when you’re printing print brand materials, you should be following this same approach.  

Real World Shopping Experience

Despite a recent trend towards online shopping, Generation Z is still committed to buying in stores. In fact, Fashionista associate editor Maria Bobila writes, a full 90 percent of Gen Zers prefer traditional in-store experiences. This means that apparel brands shouldn’t skimp on their in-store marketing and branding efforts even as they ramp up online selling goals.

Bobila adds that brick and mortar stores allow Generation Z to get closer to brand experiences, satisfying their need for authenticity. It also helps them discover brands and stores that represent their personality and goals in life, which in turn meets their need for self expression.

Images by: StockSnap, Jan Vašek

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Branding for Millennials: Best Practices and Trends

The millennial generation comprises a signification portion of today’s consumer base. These twenty and thirty-somethings are also responsible for defining many of the trends that brands use to market their products. And when it comes to apparel, the competition is fierce.

How can your clothing line stand out in millennial minds when there are so many other brands vying for the same customers? To help you answer this question, here are the most important design and branding trends driving millennial shoppers today.

Positioning Your Brand for Millennial Consumers

So, where to start? Millennial marketing expert Jeff Fromm explains that millennials are largely interested in authenticity. Brands who convey a humanistic approach in their marketing are more likely to resonate with those consumers and build brand loyalty. Employing these strategies on your hang tag can take many forms.

First off, consider how to create hand-drawn elements on your hang tag. Ryan McCready, content editor and data analyst at Venngage, says that brands are reaching towards hand-drawn illustrations and graphics. This makes products seem more accessible and aligns with the millennial generation’s need for authenticity. Hand-drawn images are a step away from corporate imagery and feel more natural and honest.

Kavita Daswani at Style offers another idea for targeting millennials through hang tags. She uses the example of a luxury swimwear and resort brand that wanted to create a more intimate brand experience through closer customer connections. They approached this goal by investing in educational hang tags that have details about where the garment’s fabric mill is located and how the product was made. This anchors the garment to a place and a story to show why it’s special.

The target group is also passionate about business ethics and eco-friendly practices. The marketing organization SEMPO says that 87 percent of millennials believe that brands exist not just to make a profit, but to make a difference in the world. Being more transparent about your practices, or touting a sustainable commitment, can help please these earth-minded customers.

Copywriter and lifestyle journalist Philip Mak adds that 70 percent of millennials are more willing to spend money on a brand that does good in the world. This means that making a sustainable move on the corporate level – and marketing that through a hangtag – can have a huge impact on your bottom line. It’s also important to be personal with this message, helping the consumer understand how your product fits into their commitment to make the world a better place.

Millennials and Technology

According to Millennial Marketing, a site dedicated to helping brands understand this cohort, 58 percent of millennial consumers feel more loyal towards brands that create multisensory experiences.

Multisensory interactions can be created in a variety of ways, including virtual reality and other technologies that blend the physical with the digital. Perhaps the best way to bridge this gap is through new mobile technology. Michael Wang, President and CEO at Onestop Internet, says that brands that want to engage with millennials must focus on mobile experiences. This is because the majority of millennials use their mobile phones to browse products and make online purchases.

Hi-Tech Hang Tags

Modern brands are capitalizing on this passion for technology and excitement in a variety of ways.

Journalist and tech consultant Rachel Arthur explains how handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff incorporated technology into her hang tag design. Before Fashion Week 2017 in Los Angeles, Minkoff released ten limited edition bags featuring tech-enabled hang tags. When scanned by a phone, the hang tags revealed a free ticket to Minkoff’s Spring/Summer runway event. This tech debut wasn’t just a one time event: It served as an announcement that all of Minkoff’s handbag hang tags were going to be tech enabled in the future. This strategy helps meet the millennial need for instant satisfaction while also bridging the gap between fashion and technology.

Another innovative approach to hang tag technology is incorporating a QR code for scannable coupons and access to brand social sites. QlikTag says that this makes it easier for millennials to share their experiences with others. Organic, peer-to-peer sharing is one of the most influential ways that brands can discover new customers. By simply tweaking your hang tag design to incorporate new experiences, you can harness this strategy for your brand.

Millennial Color Trends

Millennial color preferences play a large role in how apparel companies market their brands. To make sure you’re incorporating millennial ideas into your hang tags, it’s important to stay updated with what colors are in – and which ones are out.

Betsy Mikel at Inc. writes that millennial pink is a popular color many millennial-driven brands are turning towards. Imbued with tones of peach and salmon, this is neither a bright pink or a baby pink. It’s also a slight departure from the 2016 Pantone color of the year, rose quartz, which has been splashed across pop culture in varying forms.

Another popular millennial color is beige. Reflecting a shift towards naturalism, creative consultancy FranklinTill says that the popular pink color will lean more towards a more neutral tone in the coming future. This reflects concepts of purity and a closeness to nature, and beige tones are showing up more and more in branded materials.

Typography Trends

Inspired by the glitz and glamour of the Great Gatsby days, luxury-driven millennials are drawn to gold foil lettering. In branding, gold type is often set against dark backdrops that evoke a sense of elegance. Adrienne Wolter, team coach at WebpageFX, explains that this trend is showing up across the most popular pinterest pins, DIY blogs and even wedding invitations. This shows that it’s a current design element that won’t be going away anytime soon.

Geometric designs and bright pops of color are also taking over typography, Envato editor Brittany Jezouit says. This old school look caters to millennials, who are obsessed with the pop culture and design trends of the 1990’s. She adds that mismatched fonts and creative type pairings are gaining popularity on printed branding materials. This is a smart way to grab the attention of a millennial audience and create an exciting contrast.

The Future of Millennial Branding

Staying up to date with the latest trends affecting millennials can be challenging. Communications consulting for Remake.world Lauren Friedman offers a few tips for how brands can remain in the know.

She recommends social listening as a key way to garner customer feedback, adding that watching social media posts and descriptions can help a brand determine how customers feel about certain products and styles. This can help you see what the millennial generation is enjoying about your brand’s marketing materials, and also where you might need to improve.

Images by: bdcbethebest, StockSnap, antoniadiaz/©123RF Stock Photo

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15 Brands Using Technology to Lead the Apparel Revolution

Clothes provide us with warmth, coverage and protection from the elements. They also allow us to express our feelings and embrace our own styles, helping us fit in with or stand out from the world around us.

These days, though, clothes are capable of much more than that. From solar-powered charging jackets to health monitoring performance tops, modern designers and clothing brands are redefining the functionality of clothing. Read on see what these brands have in store — and what it means for the future of apparel.

The Unseen

Pioneered by award-winning “material alchemist” Lauren Bowker, The Unseen creates accessories that change colors based on environmental factors. Bowker’s line includes everyday items like backpacks, phone cases, scarves and more. The accessories change color when exposed to heat, light, pressure, wind and body temperature. They also transform when night turns to day and adopt new identities with each changing season.

Pauline van Dongen

While her home office is in the Netherlands, this emerging fashion designer is gaining global attention. Pauline van Dongen’s solar windbreaker incorporates integrated solar panels that harness their own energy. It collects enough energy to charge a cell phone or GPS device. The jackets were designed with nature reserve guides in mind, enabling them to use their phones and GPS devices even while they’re off the grid for ten hours or more.

Nanotex

Nanotex is a textile retailer that provides innovative fabrics to apparel lines. Their line of products ranges from odor control fabrics for professional clothing to athletic fabric that wicks away moisture and keeps the wearer cool. Nanotex also creates fabrics that resist stains, spills and water from the outdoor elements. These advanced fabrics make use of a hydrophobic layer, which allows liquids to bead up and roll off of materials rather than soaking in.

Gensole

Gensole leverages human foot scans to create customized 3D-printed shoe insoles. These insoles were designed by Steve Wood of Gyrobot, who’s an expert at creating flexible and malleable 3D printed materials. The shoe insoles are designed on a computer, then printed with varying material densities. This allows the shoe to support certain areas of the foot, like the arch, while reducing painful pressure in others. The insoles can also be printed with perforated holes to support airflow.

Auria

Auria creates fashionable, eco-friendly bathing suits made from recycled fishing nets, old carpets and other types of nylon waste. Since being founded, Auria has rescued thousands of tons of nylon waste from countries including the USA, Egypt, Greece, Pakistan, Norway and Turkey. Auria also collects waste directly from the ocean itself. Once collected, the waste is shipped to Slovenia where it’s transformed into an innovative yarn called ECONYL. Materials made from this yarn are 100 percent regenerated and recyclable.

Wearable X

This clothing line focuses on combining technology and clothing design to create movement-focused apparel pieces. One of the most popular Wearable X designs is its football fan shirt. The jersey helps fans embody the spirit and energy of a game by transmitting live sports data directly from the field to the electronics within the material. This means that everything on the field — from touchdowns and fumbles to turnovers and interceptions — are felt through haptic vibrations.

Modern Meadow

Modern Meadow creates high-quality leather goods that rely on biology and materials science to create durable, cruelty-free collagen. In the same way that oil and petroleum led materials innovations in the last century, Modern Meadow believes that biofabrication will define the future of technology. Its leather production processes are extremely low impact and can be scaled infinitely, making it a viable alternative to animal and oil-based materials.

Spiber

Spiber harnesses spider silk to create sustainable, outdoor apparel. Tougher than steel (by 340 times), spider silk demonstrates how natural proteins can be used to create dynamic and powerful materials that don’t harm the earth. Spiber says fabrics made from proteins are extremely dynamic and customizable, and can be mixed with other natural proteins to mass produce new fabrics. The company recently launched a collaboration with The North Face, helping them market their protein-based materials on a large scale to everyday consumers.

Scottevest

This brand’s outdoor apparel was designed for the age of personal technology. ScotteVest creates versatile jackets with a multitude of pockets. These pockets include space for life’s gadgets, including cell phones and headphones, cameras, chargers, sunglasses and wallets. Freeing women from purses and men from trying to fit everything into traditional pockets that were too few and small, these vests and jackets make it easy to enjoy outdoor adventures without having to worry about where one’s valuables are kept.

BioLogic

BioLogic is a project from MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group. Essentially, BioLogic harnesses the power of natural behaviors and organic movements to create smart apparel that changes form. Specifically, BioLogic uses a bacteria that responds to atmospheric moisture. When the bacteria is woven into textiles for apparel, the clothing itself expands and contracts based on the amount of humidity it’s exposed to. Since the bacteria’s cells expand when there’s more moisture in the air, BioLogic’s clothing becomes more breathable when worn by someone who’s working up a sweat.

OMSignal

OMSignal designs clothing that bridges the gap between the clothing and the person who wears it. So far, they’ve been focused on creating clothing that monitors and sensors the body, giving cues and information to the wearer. One product that accomplishes this task is a sports bra called the OMbra. It’s the first bra that combines data on heart rate and breathing to give women a more accurate read of their body’s athletic performance. These reads come from small embedded biosensors that capture information in real-time, using bluetooth to stream that data to your iPhone.

Hexoskin

Hexoskin is a brand that makes smart athletic shirts that capture precise data about the wearer’s heart rate and breathing rate. They also obtain information regarding an activity’s intensity, steps taken per day, peak acceleration and sleep positions. These smart shirts have over 14 hours of battery life and easily connect to an iPhone, an iPad or android phone via bluetooth. Hexoskin offers a variety of clothing options for fitness, including short and long sleeve tops for both men and women.

Athos

Athos is another performance-based apparel brand, yet it’s focused specifically on the movement of muscles. Athos also differs from other smart sportswear brands because their technology is great for helping injured athletes recover and get back on the field faster. Athos’ layers extract extensive heart rate and muscle data and sends it directly to an app, where the information can be viewed by players and coaches.

Cityzen Sciences

Cityzen Sciences works with apparel brands to create connected fabrics that harness and evaluate large quantities of data. The smart wearable creator has worked with companies to create clothing like a smart bra that monitors posture and performance, and a rugby shirt that evaluates both the physical and physiological state of players on the field. Cityzen technology can be adapted to any fabric, across sectors.

Owlet

Owlet is another health tracker, but this one is designed specifically for infants. These smart wearables, including socks and onesies for babies, provide new parents with peace of mind about how their little ones are doing. Data is sent directly to an app that includes historical heart rate, oxygen levels and sleep trends, making it easy to compare and contrast new information.

Images by: Free-Photos, StockSnap

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