How To Pick A Niche Apparel Product For Your Brand
The fashion industry is a 3 trillion dollar industry. This means huge opportunities for both existing brands and newcomers. To get off the ground properly, startups need to place themselves in a fairly small niche, where their target customers are, with a healthy amount of competition. By doing this, startups increase their chances of growth.
A niche apparel product is a small subset of the market for a specific demographic, product type, a particular price point, or certain quality. Their target audience has particular needs.
The advantage of finding your own “pocket” is less competition. You have higher chances to sell your apparel product to the exact right people, that actually want and need your product. You can potentially even charge more because of the lack of competition. This also increases brand loyalty and gives the brand a bit higher buying rates.
Since your target customer is right there, you will not have to spend as much money on marketing. Talk to the customers in their language, authentically, and by telling valuable stories, they will not have to be “sold to”.
These 5 steps will help you determine your niche market.
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What are your passions and skills?
You are the engine behind your brand, whether alone or with a team. If this is your first business, you will soon realize the ups and downs, and how hard you have to work in order to succeed.
Passion will make your work easier. What passions do you have that can be related to the apparel industry? Are you a biker? Do you love tailored suits? Are you streetwear obsessed?
Entrepreneurship requires 24/7 work. If your passion doesn’t lie here, you should then NOT launch a clothing brand. If you truly are passionate and have genuine interests in related segments then you’re on the right track. Customers in niche markets tend to be very knowledgeable, They will know if you are not authentic or knowledgeable.
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What values do you want to be reflected in your business?
The apparel market is extremely saturated. Today’s customers buy brands based on values and what they represent. These can be sustainable manufacturing or growth.
By making a list of values, you will narrow down even more on your target customer, demographic, and positioning. Is it sustainability, transparency, local, quality standards, for a specific gender, etc? If you have a hard time coming up with ideas, start listing the values that you love with your favorite brands.
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Who is your customer?
Define your target customer, in order to know their preferences, where they shop, what they like, what they don’t like.
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What problems can you solve?
Most of the successful apparel brands in the market, solve some sort of a problem for their target customer. What pain points does your target customer have and how are you going to solve this for them?
Suppose you travel frequently and most of your suits get easily wrinkled during your trips. You would like to design a suit that doesn’t wrinkle, stays fresh, and looks sharp in all situations. This suit will require certain materials, manufacturers, and price points. Other customers want that niche.
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Perform thorough market research
Know the market you are entering. These include your competitors, price ranges, the quality your competitors offer at various prices, style ranges, colors, materials, marketing, stories, and pitches.
What is there and what isn’t? Check as much what isn’t on the marketplace as what is. Analyze that later. Why is there a gap? If you see a potential gap, that’s your chance to fill it. If the gap is very clear, can that mean that there is no opportunity there? Talk to retailers to get clarification on this.
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