Section 2 focuses around developing a brand profile for a new start up brand. Considering: brand buildings begin with a clear definition of the target customer, advertising and promotion of a fashion brand. The brand should reflect an image that can promise customer satisfaction. Brand names are complex and they represent something special to each customer group - It is this combination of tangible and intangible factors that help create a certain image or association in the eye of the customer. The final outcome will be 6 boards with 250 words defining the concepts and ideas for the brand.
Research elements for each board:
Brand Manifesto - What does the brand stand for, what is the brand vision, ethos and principles? what features or attributes set the brand apart from the competition?
Brand Personality - How will the brand communicate with its audience and in what tone? Formal/ friendly etc. What will they say?
Target Audience - Who are they and what do they want/ need? Who else do they buy from? Why would they buy from this brand?
Brand Visual Identity - Logo, Typography, images and colours; you can propose, design or develop.
Brand Assets - Promotional tools used to tell others about the brand; Social Media content, narrative, possible campaign visuals and product packaging etc.
Brand Sustainability - How sustainable could it be? How important is sustainability now? Looking at other brands today in similar positions and developing.
Group 9
Xin Shu Brand Manifesto
Joseph Lyons Brand Personality
Sophia Lund Target Audience
Chelsea-Anne Macapagal Brand Visual Identity
Maisy Pratt Brand Assets
Martha Heron Brand Sustainability
Stallion Jeans Limited
Perfection in detail!
Shanav’s vision for Stallion:
To become the most compelling technologically advanced fashion brand.
To be a top market player known for sustainable practices and state-of-the-art product customisation.
To be known as a premier quality clothing brand across the UK.
Shanav’s mission for Stallion:
To cater to the growing and evolving demand for high-quality, sustainable fashion at reasonable prices.
To drive growth by building lasting relationships with partners, suppliers and customers whilst also being environmentally responsible.
Shanav’s inspiration and information behind Stallion:
Shanav is the business owner, working alongside small freelance designers. He comes up with concepts and they put the garment together (production fulfillment is from a factory in India, unsure if it is his personal factory - makes it more difficult to control ‘sustainability’ aspects).
For teenagers, young professionals and students with “minimalistic decent taste”.
Competitors - Abercrombie and Ted Baker. Mid-market, not H&M but not high end.
Orders so far have been wholesale; making uniforms for a factory in Watford.
Indian manufacturers have certificates saying their practice is sustainable.
Zero waste denim. Using scraps to make flip flops, sneakers and pencils.
Customers propose what they want to the Stallion team, premium smart casual dressing. (Who deals with this inbound info? Where/ who is the target market)
£80 - £170 price range for the fully customisable denim jeans. You can add embroidery, coloured threads, buttons etc. (If garments are fully customisable what happens with the returns? If customers make these decisions and they don’t want the product, there will be a lot of waste. Most brands don’t let the customers dictate too much as it could destroy the brand image).
Targeting for the website to be ready in Spring 2022.
Other garments include; jeans, polo shirts, knitwear and jumpers.
Competitors:
The brand name:
Researching different competitors gave a good picture of the main brands in the denim industry and why people choose to purchase from them. As a start-up we would strongly advise changing the name. To our team Stallion feels aggressive and perhaps misogynistic, especially if we are looking at creating a unisex brand (I think that is Shanav's goal) the name doesn’t seem right. My task is to look at the target audeince and as a group we didn’t know how to go about changing the name as Shanav had invested so much time and money into it including getting it trademarked. If it was left up to me, the first thing I would do would be to change the name, but I undertsand that may not be as easy as one thinks.
The logo:
The logo too is something I am afraid doesn't seem quite right - see below - I understand it goes with the name and that’s fine but upon googling “horse photo” I found a rather identical looking image. It was available as a free download on a design website. To keep Stallion on the right track to “become the most compelling technologically advanced fashion brand” I would advise changing the logo to make sure it was designed from scratch and is therefore unique and doesn't resemble anything someone can readily find online. After all if a designer brand had copied its logo from elsewhere everyone would find out, it would not foster support within the fashion industry.
Here you can see the Stallion logo on the left … with the near mirror-image found on Google.
Other Stallion brands:
I also have been checking out other Stallion brands, it seems to be quite a popular name with other similar companies. This is a further reason why Shanav should take into consideration changing the name. We need things that set Stallion apart, to ensure he has customers and to create a desire around his brand.
This was the first Stallion brand I found on Facebook, complete with a trademark and all! I contacted Shanav as I thought this was his brand (even though he said that they had not launched yet) I was confused as it sounded almost identical. This Stallion is a clothing company selling similar items to Shanav, based in Eastbourne, they have also trademarked their name Stallion Clothing Ltd.
This is a store called Stallion on Amazon, selling polo shirts.
Stallion Jeans, retailer selling custom jeans “fitted for the Stallion you are.”
A similar name and concept.
Stallion Clothing Brand, I found on Instagram.
Here is the trademark for Stallion, from Shanav.
Stallion‘s Instagram:
When using Instagram to promote your brand it is really important to create your own aesthetic, that helps the posts flow well together and present your garments in the best way possible. I think for Stallion’s Instagram it would be worth doing some promotional shoots to show the garments on real people (whether that be in a studio or a location that fits the brand well). Instagram can easily look cluttered, so perhaps going with more refined posts, thinking about the colour palette and garment presentation, the goal is to sell your clothing. I like how Shanav has put the slogan in the bio, you can tell its a clothing brand and it has a link to their Facebook shop. Making it easier for people to establish what your account is for definitely helps. I am not sure about the bag photos (in the middle photo at the bottom), the effect is quite distracting and perhaps makes it unclear as to what the garment is. You want to showcase the best bits about your brand… moving forward I would suggest starting again. Keeping it clean with whites and more neutral colours, if you are doing garment images have them on a rail and then on a model (studio shoots are straightforward and very effective). I personally am much more likely to purchase clothing when I can see it on someone, as opposed to a hangar - it is easier to understand the fall of the garment and also potentially associate with the model as a co-customer. One other point I noticed was (third photo) the different hangers, this can look messy and unprofessional, definitely worth investing in a pack of hangers that are all the same style and colour.
Mock up shoot:
Here I have designed a mood-board for a promotional shoot idea. I think keeping the location simple and using a studio is a good idea, that way you can focus predominantly on the garments. Make sure to use a different range of models, is important so anyone can wear your brand. I have no products to work with so I have included some jeans I found online, but I would advise producing samples before Stallion launches to do a shoot. This way it will help take the Instagram to a more professional level and get the word out.
Returns:
Another rather large factor to consider is the returns side of things. If you overcomplicate your designs and will create anything that the customer wants, what do you do if your customer is unhappy upon receiving their jeans? Returns are common, what are you going to do with a pair of jeans that cost someone £170 that are smothered in badges and coloured threads? Chances are that no other individual is going to want those, let alone be able to fit into them? Letting the customer have such a large say in the design of a product under your brand is a risky business… they could just be wasting your time, but more importantly that isn’t going to help create a successful brand-based business.
This project has been exciting and challenging. For starters we weren’t given much information at the beginning to work with, so we had to work almost from scratch in areas. I think as a brand there are gaps that need significant focus in order to become a “top market player” and this includes serious consideration of who the real demographic is. When Shanav was asked who Stallion is for, it sounded like he wasn’t all that sure himself. The fashion world can be brutal, you have to be able to back yourself all the time. My advice would be to start from the beginning: putting together a vision or moodboard as to who the real Stallion customer is; do more research to find Stallion’s niche audience/buyers; after identifying them first (age, ethnicity, gender, income band etc). Then look at developing products that will suit them, having an organised marketing strategy ready to launch the brand. I feel until this is done, Stallion may not go all that far as a brand. There were complications with the name, both with the single gender meaning plus issues with how many other clothing brands share the same name. When there are so many denim brands out there it is going to be very tough to set Stallion apart - building this key aspect will make the investment of time and money more effective.
Groups presentation boards in the folder.
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