Fashion Phoenix: How Tosin Joshua Of Reni Jaitu, Built Her Brand Despite Challenges Surrounding Rebranding And Pricing

As a fashion entrepreneur, many challenges arise when it comes to running a fashion brand efficiently. From staffing to branding, pricing and many more, fashion entrepreneurs need to make well thought out decisions for their company to grow.

And what better than having a fashion entrepreneur who has been through these challenges to share what worked for them?

That’s exactly what our Fashion Phoenix column is about. We discuss with various fashion business owners in the industry regarding their challenges and how they have been able to overcome them and use them to their advantage now.

Read More: Fashion Phoenix: How Boluwatife Olopade Builds A Brand That Prioritizes Customer Satisfaction And Gets Design Inspiration

Recently, we spoke to Tosin Joshua, the founder and creative director of Reni Jaitu on challenges she faced regarding pricing her products and the rebranding of her fashion brand. She also shared ways she was able to overcome these challenges and build her fashion brand to where it is now. Let’s get to it!

About Reni Jaitu

Reni Jaitu is a Nigerian womenswear brand that specialises mainly in bespoke and ready-to-wear outfits. Since their inception in 2016, they have offered a range of women’s outfits such as dresses, shirts, skirts and many more at affordable prices for their target customers. Although this fashion label was recently rebranded to Reni Jaitu from Tosin’s Signatures, they still offer the same unwavering value.

The fashion brand is owned by Tosin Joshua, a Microbiologist by education, but a fashion lover at heart. She decided to learn fashion designing in 2015, alongside several other skills she had an interest in.

“I decided to go to fashion school for a year and that’s where I learnt how to cut and sew. I loved it more than I had imagined, and started my brand shortly after that.” – Tosin Joshua

Rebranding

Rebranding is one thing that some fashion brands do, perhaps after a few years in the business. Rebranding is done either to change the brand name, strategy, unique idea, or perception.

The founder of the Reni Jaitu brand is one of those people that had to rebrand by changing the brand name while retaining the company’s mission and value. This rebranding, however, did not come without its challenges, and we had a chat with her about that.

“The vision for my brand changed, as I want my brand to be an international brand in years to come and the old name, Tosin’s Signature, didn’t feel like it.” – Tosin Joshua

Fear Of Acceptance: 

As a bespoke and ready-to-wear fashion brand which has been in existence for over 3 years, one of the challenges Tosin Joshua faced was fear of acceptance from existing customers. 

“I wasn’t sure how the reaction would be from my customers and if it was a good decision changing a name I had been using for over 3 years.” – Tosin Joshua

Social Media Audience: 

As a result of this rebranding, Tosin Joshua lost a lot of active followers on her social media pages, which affected sales in return.

Costing: 

In the case of Reni Jaitu, the founder had to do a complete overhaul of the previous clothing labels, carrier bags and other items that were branded, into the new one. As a result of this, so much cost was incurred and a lot of money spent.

At the end of the day, just like Tosin Joshua shared, she did not let herself get distracted by these challenges. She had a vision and she decided to go through with it, regardless of what happened.

“For fashion entrepreneurs intending to go into the process of rebranding, I would advise that enough research is done, and a rebranding strategy that would work best for your fashion brand is developed.” – Tosin Joshua

Pricing

Another challenge some fashion entrepreneurs encounter in running a reputable fashion brand is the pricing of their products.

In starting her fashion brand, it was difficult at first for Tosin Joshua to determine the perfect prices. She started with a certain price range, but after a while, she realised her business wasn’t so profitable.

How did she deal with this?

She took several classes to find a pricing system that works for her brand. So now, she considers the cost of production, target customers, their profile and income range. All these things would help price the products accordingly, according to Tosin Joshua, and would determine if they can afford your clothes or not.
As she shared with us,

“The first thing to consider when trying to sell is to make a great product that would speak for itself. Then, the next thing is to know your target customer. Once all these are in place, your customer would not find the outfits too pricey, and this is what has worked for me so far.”

One thing that is a given constantly in many fashion entrepreneurs stories is how they are always willing to learn to grow their brands. After all is said and done, how do you track or measure your success as a fashion entrepreneur? 

Like Tosin Joshua shared with us, by providing her customers’ value and ensuring they are 100% satisfied with their products, she can guarantee the success of her brand. Also, getting good reviews helps her to know if she is making good progress or not.

These are some of the challenges Tosin Joshua has faced in building her brand over the years, and the tactics that have helped her tackle these problems.