Fashion Forecast

Daily Fashion Tips for Trendy Lifestyle

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Challenges India faces in Fashion, Apparel and Textile Industry

The Indian fashion industry has the potential to compete with other top countries in the world. However, we often fail to realize our full potential, leading to setbacks. India has several strengths that, if recognized and harnessed, could yield significant results. As an institution and trade, Indian fashion has immense potential, and we have the capability to dominate the global market. By valuing and investing in these strong points, we can bring about a revolution in the industry and establish ourselves as a major player in the global fashion world.

Indian Fashion Industry

The Importance of Advertising and Marketing Strategies in the Indian Fashion Industry.

The fashion industry is a showbiz business where advertisement and marketing are essential for creating awareness among the public. In fact, around 50-60% of people tend to buy products after seeing advertisements, and they often become loyal customers of the brand. Top brands, such as Nike, Adidas, Levi’s, Lee, and Lee Cooper, invest more than 50% of their operating revenue in advertising and marketing. However, the fashion industry in India often gives less importance to this sector, which results in lower turnover and less growth. The lack of awareness among the public about the industry and its potential is a significant reason for this. To expand the industry and establish a strong foothold in the global market, it’s crucial to focus on effective advertising and marketing strategies to create a buzz among potential customers. By recognizing the importance of these strategies and implementing them effectively, the Indian fashion industry can achieve great success and growth.

How Successful Brands in the Fashion Industry Generate Demand and Increase Customer Engagement.

Leading brands and labels generate profits not by cutting costs, but by creating awareness and attracting retail customers to buy their products. By increasing brand recognition and advertising, they generate demand and create a market for their products. Through effective branding and advertising, people get attracted to the product, and the brand’s reputation creates a desire to own it. By taking advantage of the “willingness and ability to pay” concept of demand, they increase brand loyalty and customer engagement. Successful brands employ both skimming strategies, where they set higher prices for their products and generate higher demand, and market penetration strategies, where they make their products widely available to reach a larger customer base. By adopting these successful strategies, the Indian fashion industry can create a demand for its products and establish itself as a dominant player in the global fashion industry.

The Failure of Cost-Push Approach in the Fashion Industry: Importance of Branding and Consumer Awareness.

It’s important for industry professionals to recognize that cost-cutting alone is not a sustainable strategy for success. While it may provide short-term benefits, it ultimately leads to a decline in quality, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, profitability. Investing in branding, marketing, and creating a quality product that meets consumer demand is a more effective long-term strategy for success. Additionally, as you mentioned, India’s domestic market has significant potential for growth and can be a valuable source of revenue for industry professionals. By recognizing and capitalizing on these opportunities, the industry can thrive and compete with other global brands.

Embracing Diversity: A Path to Success for the Indian Fashion Industry.

India is a country with immense diversity and a rich blend of cultures, each with unique styles, textures, and patterns. Our fashion industry professionals can tap into this diversity and use it to create a strong and prosperous fashion industry. In terms of fashion, apparel, and style, no country in the world can match India’s wide variety. However, our industry professionals have yet to see the opportunity this presents. By embracing and showcasing the diversity of Indian culture, the fashion industry can create a unique identity and set itself apart from other global fashion markets. This can attract a loyal customer base and generate significant profits for the industry.

Exploring Global Markets: A Key to Success for the Indian Fashion Industry.

Our industry professionals should broaden their horizons and consider the potential of markets beyond just first-world countries. As you mentioned, many successful apparel brands have recognized the potential of other countries and diversified to capture those markets.

There is no reason why our industry professionals cannot do the same. In fact, as you mentioned earlier, India has a unique and diverse fashion culture that can be leveraged to capture markets all over the world. With the right marketing and branding strategies, our industry can tap into these markets and create demand for Indian fashion products.

Furthermore, by diversifying to other markets, our industry professionals can also benefit from economies of scale, which can lead to lower production costs and higher profitability. It is time for our industry professionals to shift their focus from just the first-world countries and explore the vast potential of markets all over the world.

Breaking the Perception: How Local Brands Can Compete with Bigger Brands in the Fashion Industry.

It’s a common perception in the industry that local brands may not be as good as the bigger brands, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Every brand has the potential to produce quality products and provide good service. In fact, it’s important for local brands to focus on quality and customer satisfaction in order to compete with the bigger brands. As you said, the cycle of compromising on quality and then reducing prices to cope with demand must be broken to establish a strong position in the market. Local brands can build a loyal customer base by offering high-quality products and excellent service, which will ultimately lead to growth and success.

The Untapped Potential: How Local Indian Fashion Brands Can Benefit from the Huge Domestic Market.

The Indian domestic market is huge and has a lot of potential for growth. With a population of over 1.3 billion people, the demand for clothing is consistently high. Additionally, the growth of the middle class and the increase in disposable income has created an even bigger market for fashion products. This provides a great opportunity for local Indian fashion brands to capitalize on the growing demand and make a name for themselves in the industry. By focusing on quality, innovation, and marketing, local Indian brands can capture a significant share of the domestic market and expand their reach to international markets as well.

Article Credit: Fashion Studio Urban Purple

Photo Credit: DECCAN Chronicle

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Brand Building : Basics of Brand Building and Creating a Brand Identity

Brand Building is a tough task and needs a lot of helping hand especially when you are starting your brand. And your support are the people with whom you are doing business with. They can be your clothing manufacturers, vendors and customers. But the people closer to you are your customers with whom you interact directly. Its proven that one happy customer gives you more business than a $1000 Add campaign.

When it comes to promoting your brand, majority pursue you for paid advertisement. But the truth is, you should only do it when you are fully prepared. You don’t want a customer bounce back from your landing page or look at your product and bounce.  Running ads can be the best thing you do for your business. It’ll put you and your products in front of people that want to buy them. But the road doesn’t end here. Here is why. Potential customer clicks on the add and go to your landing page. If that page does not meet the expectation the buyer seen in the add, they will bounce. So, those who make you believe that paid advertising is the secret, believe in an open mind. No amount of advertisement will get you sales if your products do not match the expectation.

Creating a market for your product depends on how you want to present your product in the market. You have to be convincing on your USP. There is a thin line between persuading your customers to help and making them bias. People hate being sold to, because they just don’t want to buy stuff, they want to make their lives better. And whatever they buy is merely a means to an end. So, before you start making any product you must figure out an unique need and design your product accordingly. If your products are addressing your customers need they come to you.

Brand identity building no doubt takes more effort than other business functions. Moreover, there is no set process for it. So, you have to act as the market behaves. For some its a cake walk but for some it is climbing the mountain. We offer service suitable for startup apparel brands. The solution for the small players comes in many form. Low MOQ clothing manufacturing, affordable tech pack design service and many more services. Apart from this we partner with many social media aggregators,  influencers and bloggers.

With Years of consulting experience, with clothing brands, We know the pain areas. And we know exactly what it takes to build a brand from scratch. Although we don’t guarantee  to solve all your difficulties. Yet we have something to offer that can ease your business establishment process. If you consider this as two sides of a coin where one side is design, production and logistics. We extend our support completely with our one stop solution. You don’t have to keep sourcing. We do it for you and make sure you get the best products to sale. So that you can focus 100% of your time in building your marketing infrastructure.

Consistent growth is important aspects of a growing brand. So is in case of an apparel brand.  Your brand image and value is seen based on steady and at what rate you are growing. And there are two aspects to measure brand consistency.

  1. Is your sales volume and average rates of your products, and the point of sale location.
  2. How consistent you are in bringing in your products. In simple words how often you are dropping your collection in a particular period of time.

So, to build and grow an apparel brand and building a brand identity needs this consistency. You need to penetrate your sales efforts and introduce your products in a regular basis. This is a continuous  process and needs a consistent approach. This is a team effort needs to partner with tech pack designer and clothing manufacturer.

For a startup it is important to drop your collection on a regular interval. As long as you drop new styles to your collection it will give a reason for your customer to come back to your store. There’s nothing worse than going silent for months, then posting a few days before release. No one should be expecting a startup brand to be dropping on a regular basis, but an estimate is nice to have. In other words dropping on a regular basis gives a reason for your customers to stick to you. And you are more likely to get customers added to your sales channel. But, if you are dropping a collection once in a you cannot keep those customers.

Now giving advice is easy but when it comes to executing it there are many constraints. Availability of funds, your profit margin, sales and operational and logistics limitations. No matter what, you have to check your financial viability before you take any further step. And based on that you have to take your decision.

The best way to move forward is by keeping your designs and tech packs ready. Once you have a suitable vendor and you think you can invest on production, you can move forward. Negotiate with your vendor about MOQ and cost / piece for each style before you place order. If you have the tech packs ready you are in a better position to negotiate with the vendor. A vendor gives more importance to people who are well prepared. And most vendors do not entertain people who do not have tech packs for quote. So, think twice before approaching a clothing manufacturer because your first impression counts.

You can tie up with a fashion design studio to prepare your collection and tech packs. If that you find expensive, you can otherwise source a freelance fashion designer. And when you do it make sure he has Industry experience in any quality apparel production unit. This helps understand if he/ she has worked on the floor and understand the techniques. The designer should have expertise in garment fit technique and body fit measurement. There are many good tech pack design service providers who can give you complete end to end solution. You can take the help to get the tech packs done. Once you are ready with tech pack design you are good to go for clothing manufacturing.

As clothing startup, drop each quarter to let your customer know you are in business. It is important to make yourself in the picture and be in the mind of your customers. This will help customers know that you are serious in business and take you seriously. Figure out how you can streamline your operation supply chain and get a steady sales. This is possible if you follow the process. Have a constant business relation with a tech pack designer and clothing manufacturer. Moreover, you have to stick to them for a longer period. This will improve trust level, reduce cost and streamline your back end operation. The more smooth your back end operation the more time you can focus on sales and other aspects of your business.

It is always better to drop one or two styles every month than dropping entire collection once. So, when you are planning your collection start with 5 styles and then move on with one or two styles every month or two. First drop is difficult to introduce and with every drop your operation gets easier. So, you can take your time to source the right tech pack designer and manufacturer. Once you are comfortable with team you can focus on sales and marketing. If you are going with simple styles you can take the service from tech pack template store for your tech packs. Tech Pack Template is an online store selling tech packs of generic styles and size chart. Browse through the styles and pick your styles from the wide range of collection. You will get the tech packs that are gone through several testing process for perfection.

Fashion brands constantly need technical designer and clothing manufacturer for regular collection drops. We at fashion studio urban purple offer end to end apparel design and production support to brands across the world. Our service includes clothing design, tech pack design, sample development and clothing manufacturing service. The whole idea is to support apparel brands with our end to end supply chain. Check out our affordable apparel design and manufacturing package that we are offering for new and start-up fashion label.