The importance of advertising your fashion brand cannot be overemphasized. Every fashion brand, no matter how big or small, has to advertise to get clients to patronise them.
This week, we spoke with Brand Consultant and Communication Expert, Jeffrey Adebayo, about advertising campaigns for fashion brands, its features, how to reach the right target audience through advertising, and many more.
Mr. Jeffrey Adebayo is a Brand Consultant and Communications Expert with a demonstrated history of results in information technology, digital media, entertainment, print technology, and the services industries. He is also the Creative Director at Joeinks Brand and Consults.
What is Advertising?
According to him, “Advertising is an act of marketing/sales communication that deals with the practice of calling public attention to one’s product or service.” For every advertising activity you carry out, in addition to creating awareness, sales should be your ultimate goal.
The effectiveness of your advertising campaign is determined by its impact on your books (bank account) at the end of the year or month. Your popularity on social media and the number of followers you have does not necessarily say how effective your adverts were. This is what is called Instagram vs. Reality.
What Types of Advertising Campaigns Are Best For Fashion Brands
When it comes to advertising campaigns for fashion brands, you cannot take a one size fits all approach. Every fashion brand requires a different type of advertising campaign depending on the size of the business and its target audience.
You do not want to spend money on an advertising medium you cannot afford or sustain.
For Startups, the best way to approach advertising is to go the traditional method;
- One-to-One Marketing,
- Relationship Marketing,
- Word of Mouth,
- Referrals.
All of these involve a level of digital component.
For Medium-Sized and Bigger fashion brands, full-fledged digital marketing and branding campaigns are needed.
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that utilizes the internet and online-based digital technologies. You might need the help of a professional for this so you get the most out of it.
Digital marketing can further be broken down into web-internet based marketing and social media marketing.
What’s the Best Way to Carry Out These Advertising Campaigns?
For Startups, in carrying out your advertising campaigns, you need to focus on customer building. Enhancing existing relationships with customers and improving customer loyalty should be important to you.
Your advertising relies on the impression you leave on people. This is traditionally the most important type of marketing strategy. When you give quality services to customers, they will promote your brand.
Also, for all fashion businesses,
1. Give your Brand a Face
Giving a face to your brand is important. The face doesn’t have to be yours, as the business owner, it could be any face that is consistent to an extent. It could be that of a loyal customer that always sends photos of him/her wearing the outfits you made or any other person.
People relate most with brands that have a face. That’s why big brands use brand ambassadors
2. Post Pictures of Clients Wearing your Outfit on Social Media
Get pictures of clients wearing your outfits to post on your social media pages. Also, get client feedback and testimonies to capture and post to your social media as well. When prospective clients see feedback and testimonies, it gives them the confidence that you know what you’re doing.
3. Give Discounts
Everyone loves a freebie. Give discounts to clients to keep them coming for more. You could offer referral discounts, free delivery to clients, or maybe even give a discount on a particulat item if a certain amount of money is spent by the client on your fashion items.
What are the Features of a Good Advertising Campaign?
Having a good advertising campaign involves deliberate marketing and advertising activities geared at creating a perspective and emotional attachment to your fashion brand by your target audience.
The objective here is to create in the mind of the prospect the perception that there is no other product on the market quite like your product.
What is the Best Way to Reach a Brand’s Target Audience Through Advertising Campaigns?
1. Start with a Brand Statement
Having a brand statement for your fashion brand is important because it shows the direction your brand is moving in. In advertising your fashion brand, you need to ensure that all the elements of it evolve around that brand statement.
For example, Levis – A style for every story’ Jantzen – All girls are gorgeous in Jantzen; Nike – Just do it!; Sapphire company – affordable luxury
Other brand elements like logo, brand colours, music, models, pictures, settings, brand values, brand messages, etc also have to resonate with your target market.
Note: Your brand statement is not cast in stone and can be changed over time. As your brand grows and you understand the market better, depending on what you want to achieve per time, your brand statement can change.
2. Advertise Consistently
The more consistently you advertise your fashion brand, the more prospective clients will see what you are doing. When you advertise consistently and your brand is always in the memory of clients they will eventually buy from you.
3. Add Value
When all customers see of your fashion brand is you asking them to buy something, they get tired. Don’t always be in their faces because you want them to buy, you need to add value too sometimes.
Content helpful for mental health or even something on how to properly match colours or tips, tricks, and hacks they can use for their everyday fashion needs can be helpful. In adding value you can get creative and talk about so many things.
4. Paid and Sponsored Ads to reach more people
One thing about paid and sponsored ads is that they allow your brand to reach an audience that will naturally be out of your reach. They take your fashion brand beyond your local space to potential clients everywhere.
5. Data Mining
Data mining is the practice of examining large pre-existing databases to generate new information. The future of fashion in Africa is digital.
Digital is the future of Fashion in Africa.
It is projected that in 2024, the fashion industry will make an estimated revenue of N4B online! That’s why it’s important for every Fashion house to eventually have their website.
From these data, you can draw up useful information. For example, when you want to make a new collection, you can find out which designs clients will like from this data, even things like the colour preferences of your target market can be gotten from it.
How Can Fashion Brands Make their Advertisements Unforgettable?
1. Give your Brand a Face
Yes, it is here again. Giving your brand a face helps make your brand feel more personal to people. Your brand needs to have a face to be memorable.
2. Manage Expectations
When you put your brand out there to be something, do not disappoint clients. Let your clients get more than their expectations and not less. This is also part of having good customer service in your fashion brand.
When you say an outfit will be ready at a particular time, make sure it is ready at that time. Do not ever be a ‘promise and fail’ fashion designer. Delivering on time shows that you have good work ethics.
3. Take/Make Videos and not just Pictures
While it is important to put quality pictures of your work out there, it is also important to put videos out too. These days, the algorithms are high on videos.
What are the Challenges Fashion Entrepreneurs will Most Likely Face in Advertising their Fashion Brands?
1. Trust Issues
It is not easy to gain the trust of prospective clients easily in fashion because people like staying with what they know. With the rate at which fashion designers disappoint clients in this part of the world, gaining the trust of new clients will be quite a challenge.
By following the above steps though, you should be able to win clients’ trust eventually.
2. Price Competition
The fashion industry is one that is quite saturated and so there will always be people who charge less than you do. In overcoming this challenge, you need to know who your target market and who your competitors are so you know the best approach to take to pricing.
To learn how to price your fashion products so as not to have your business run at a loss, click here.
What are the Advantages of Advertising for Fashion Brands?
1. It will Expand your Clientele Base
The more you advertise, the more reach you’ll have which will eventually lead to having more clients. Clientele growth will then translate to revenue growth.
2. It Helps Develop Your Skills
With an increase in the number of clients you have, Your designs and apparels will get better. The demands of the new clients will challenge you to be better and have a competitive edge.
In closing, Mr. Adebayo said, “Be free to explore and create new things. I consider the fashion industry in Nigeria, to be a growing one, hence, there is plenty of space on top for you. Pay attention to details. Create with your target audience in mind. Don’t stop Advertising. Be unique (be you!). And stay passionate.”
