Fashion Branding – 9 Creative Ideas To Inspire You
What does fashion mean to you? Is your answer about theoretical ideas like the fabric and outfit styles? Or will you talk about the emotions, how an outfit makes you feel? We are guessing it’s the second one. You are not alone. Fashion goes beyond just a practical piece of clothing. Fashion is about projecting yourself. Showing the world your unique style. So, do you think a fashion brand’s projection of itself can be plain and uninspiring? Not at all. Remember that fashion branding is about highlighting your brand’s unique personality.
Because you are not selling to people who are looking to “solve a problem” as with other products and industries. You are actually selling to people who are looking to express their identity through the clothes they wear.
In this blog, we’ll be talking about fashion branding at length. From the basics like the logo design to the kind of campaigns that help build a brand out of a business.
- 9 easy ways to transform your fashion branding strategy
- 1. A fashionable logo is the optimal starting point
- 2. Social media has become the not-so-secret secret sauce in fashion branding
- 3. Focus on things that make your brand unique
- 4. Don’t ignore the power of Reels
- 5. Find new ways to engage customers
- 6. Inclusivity in the real sense
- 7. Ethical fashion and sustainability are the way forward
- 8. The community-approach
- 9. At the end of the day, choose what works for your brand
- Give your fashion branding a makeover with Kimp designs
9 easy ways to transform your fashion branding strategy
Branding is about showing your customers who you are. It’s about giving them reasons to trust your brand and not just about getting them to place one order. Fashion branding is about convincing them to choose your brand even if there are similar choices from other fashion retailers. How do you do that? By building a strong identity for your fashion brand. And here are some strategies that help.
1. A fashionable logo is the optimal starting point
A logo is meant to represent your brand. It’s meant to depict your brand’s identity. In most cases, the logo will be a functional representation – a visual way to tell what the brand does. In other words, it goes beyond aesthetics. However, in the world of fashion where it is all about appearances, things are different. Your logo has to be a sample of your brand’s style.
The fashion logo appears on clothing labels, packaging, store signage, website, and a wide range of other surfaces. You also see them being scaled up and down as required. A versatile design that looks good everywhere and retains its charm on all surfaces will be what you need to make a strong first impression.
Kimp Tip: While wordmark logos are classic choices for most industries, for the world of fashion something more versatile like a combination mark logo with both symbols and text will make the most impact. If you do choose wordmarks, incorporate a customized font that resonates with the personality of your brand. For example, a personalized script font will look good on a couture brand logo. Traditional serif fonts look better for a luxury fashion brand.
Choosing the right logo design on the first go might seem like an impossible task. Having unlimited revisions and unlimited designs means that you get multiple versions to compare and the flexibility to tweak your logo to your liking. So, an unlimited design subscription like Kimp might feel like the most convenient way to get your fashion brand marketing on the right track.
2. Social media has become the not-so-secret secret sauce in fashion branding
Millennials and GenZ occupy a huge chunk of the target audience demographics for fashion brands. And this applies both to luxury brands and fast fashion. The easiest way to communicate with these young audiences is through the channel that a majority of them are active on – social media. That’s why even traditional brands are now getting more active on social media.
Social media goes beyond marketing. It does give you a space to introduce your new collections, no doubt. But it also gives you a place to have real-time conversations with your customers. In other words, it helps you drive customer engagement and therefore strengthen your brand’s position in the market.
Dolce & Gabbana, the Italian fashion brand uses social media to announce its seasonal collections. On the brand’s social media pages you will find celebrity endorsements, runway inspiration, and a whole lot more too.
Kimp Tip: When you use your social media page as a virtual portfolio to flaunt your collection, ensure that you have eye-catching visuals. In the world of fashion, product photos alone cannot make much of an impact. You need a mix of lifestyle images featuring real models and plenty of product photos. This helps your customers get a virtual experience of your brand before they place their first order. And for existing customers, your social media page becomes that reliable space to stay in touch.
3. Focus on things that make your brand unique
When it comes to creating content for social media, digital media in general, it’s natural to feel saturated. Since there are plenty of fashion brands, every idea you choose might have already been executed by a rival in your industry. The key is to create content that sets your brand apart.
And one way to do that will be to create videos and images that tell your brand’s story. In other words, visuals that tell consumers about what makes your brand different. Videos promoting your products can add value to your marketing efforts. But if you are working on strengthening your brand image, then you need to talk about more than just your product. Here is an example.
Videos like the one you see above make a striking impression on the audience. When they know that the brand has a strong purpose, they would be more trusting of the brand.
The global apparel market was valued at a whopping 1.5 trillion in 2021. It’s safe to say that this is one of the most competitive industries, perhaps one of the toughest to survive in if you do not have a strong plan to set yourself apart.
For this, you should be talking to your customers about things that other brands don’t talk about. You should be talking to them about the things that make your brand unique. Things that no other brand can replicate.
4. Don’t ignore the power of Reels
Reels are a hard-to-ignore trend on social media. Everyone knows that. But in the world of fashion branding, Reels matter even more. Because with Reels you can provide a virtual shopping experience, a virtual experience of the glitz and glamour that your fashion brand is all about. And this helps shape your brand image. That’s why Reels are valuable resources for fashion branding.
There are many ways in which fashion brands use Reels. Some ideas include:
- Outfit ideas with shoppable links to the products featured
- Introduction to the seasonal collection
- Styling tips
- Celebrity-inspired outfit ideas with recommendations
These ideas are both fun and informative. Exactly the kind that works for fashion.
Even big fashion labels like Burberry use Reels to keep their audience hooked. Burberry also uses Reels shopping featuring its popular collections and bestsellers.
With ideas like these, you not only make the most of social commerce but also show your customers that you aim to simplify and personalize their experience at every step. If they can shop from the same place where they find an outfit idea, they would be more willing to take that next step.
The thought of consistently creating and editing videos bothering you? Choose a Kimp Video subscription. One monthly bill and all your social media video requirements are covered.
5. Find new ways to engage customers
Since social media is about communication, conversations, customer engagement should be your top priority. And since fashion branding is about building your brand for its long-term growth, you need to focus on strategies that help create a loyal customer base. Social media can be your best companion in this.
Moreover, social media helps you show your customers that you are an early adopter of trends. That’s important because a fashion brand that does not keep up with trends would be the last place that people head to for fashion shopping or even fashion recommendations.
The below image shows a Story post from the fashion brand PacSun. It provides a link to a customized Spotify playlist for customers. Music and fashion – there is no direct link, yes? But Spotify, music in general, is something that most people connect with. Therefore, talking about a topic that most people understand is a great way to initiate conversations. And that’s exactly what the brand does here. That’s brilliant social media strategy we would say.
Kimp Tip: Story posts disappear after 24 hours. But you always have the option to save them in the Highlights section on your brand’s Instagram page. If you are looking for a more interactive way to connect with your customers on Instagram, have a strong Story strategy for your brand. And remember, your Stories should be visually consistent with the posts on your Grid. Moreover, you can add custom covers for each collection in your Highlight section and therefore further boost the aesthetics of your page.
Need help creating Story posts and custom covers to adorn your Instagram Highlights? Sign up for a Kimp subscription and get unlimited designs for your brand.
6. Inclusivity in the real sense
The revenue of fashion brands advocating diversity is almost 19% higher than that of others. But we see people talk about inclusivity as a marketing trend. The truth is, it goes beyond that. You might be tempted to explore the idea of inclusivity in your marketing designs but before you take that step, ensure that your business model is in line with the content too.
Responsible shoppers today see beyond the ads. They do their research on brands they shop from. So, if your ads feature models from diverse ethnicities but your team culture and other practices do not indicate anything similar, your campaigns might backfire. Therefore, authenticity stumps the desire to keep up with what other brands are showing in their ads.
Fashion is often a way in which people make a statement. A way in which they show their personality. Therefore, authentic ads connect best with customers. And so does authentic corporate culture.
In the above video the fashion brand, Kirrin Finch does not just delve into the topic of inclusivity superficially but also shows how the brand strives to create gender-neutral fashion. And shares customer experiences to underpin the idea.
7. Ethical fashion and sustainability are the way forward
With fashion branding, you are not just selling a product but your brand itself. You want people to see your brand for what it is and build long-term rapport with it. The internet has made it possible for people to find out more about the brands they love and also to discuss the ups and downs of these brands with other customers. That’s why the ethical fashion trend is booming. It’s a move towards more ethical cruelty-free practices, ethical sourcing of ingredients, and a sustainable approach.
Adopting these for your fashion brand is one way to show that there are enough reasons to take your brand seriously. For established brands, this sometimes means making a switch. In other words, swapping out old ways and fabrics and adopting more eco-friendly ones.
Gucci’s decision of banning animal fur products is one such move. Considering how popular these products were in the past, it was not an easy move for the brand but an ethical one. And that’s why the brand was applauded for its decision by many other organizations.
Another way to future-proof your brand is to adopt sustainable practices. Nearly 73% of millennials are ready to pay more if the brand focuses on sustainability. This comes as a wake-up call for many brands.
Kimp Tip: Some of these transformations can be difficult to explain to your customers. Visuals come to your rescue. You can use videos and images to announce the changes in your business and use visual storytelling to explain to them why you made that decision. This is one way to help them empathize with your brand and support your decision.
8. The community-approach
In addition to engaging your customers, it is important to help them feel like they belong to a community of like-minded people. There are many online forums like Facebook Groups that make this possible. Live chat, virtual live sessions on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and many other live interaction and discussion forums increase the visibility and brand presence of a fashion brand. 53% of consumers prefer buying from businesses that have live chat support.
All of these factors show the need for a fashion brand to focus on adopting a community approach. This way you are making sure that your customers do not feel like outsiders. And one platform that has been helping brands do this is Discord.
Discord set new trends in the world of social media with its live chat rooms and other features. Now it has become a space where brands have live virtual interactions with their customers. Adidas has an official Discord page where it connects with its customers for Q&A sessions and more.
9. At the end of the day, choose what works for your brand
Bottega Veneta made a drastic move and quit social media. The brand took to Twitter to announce that it would be exiting from social media in 2021. During a time when social media is the happening place for fashion retailers, this was a pretty bold move.
However, the brand chose to launch its interactive online magazine to fill the gap. And this was because the brand was ready to try something new. It was ready to experiment and figure out what works for the brand and not simply go by what works for other brands.
Drastic steps like these might not suit most brands. However, there is one thing to take away from Bottega Veneta’s decision and that is – marketing does not have a universal approach. You need to identify where your target audiences are and based on that find the right social media or digital platform to focus on. You also need to aptly identify the right type of content based on your audience. A/B testing and regular audits of your marketing strategy make all the difference.
Give your fashion branding a makeover with Kimp designs
Fashion branding has many layers to it. From introducing your brand to new leads to sustaining the trust of your existing customers, there are many things to focus on. Visual content makes it easier to communicate your message to your audience and accurately represent your brand in front of them. In other words, your fashion branding designs can make or break your brand. Working with a professional design team like Kimp ensures that your branding designs are as fashionable as the clothes your sell.
Register now and start your free 7-day trial of Kimp.