Know-How Exchange : Branding

What country are you based in? The corporate promotional market in the U.S. is huge. Being a member of either ASI or PPAI as a supplier opens you up to access to every major distributor of corporate apparel. Many distributors (like my company) have the decoration capabilities in-house, so you would just sell wholesale to the distributors. There are specific search programs your apparel would be featured in, that distributors use when looking to locate a specific type of product for a client. Beyond that there are many tradeshows all over the country you can present at to show your line, and most distributors are pretty receptive to having an outside sales rep come in and do a small presentation of what they can offer.

Just something to think about if you are looking to expand and gain presence beyond the retail market...

Hope this helps!

Are you marketing to consumers or looking to get retailers to stock your clothing? These are very different skills and require very different approaches.

A colleague of mine at Intrepidhttps://www.intrepidagency.com/helped increase sales of a clothing company as well as to help get their products into Macy's department stores. Check out their "Work" under "Media Relations" to see the case study on the clothing company, Shade Clothing.

I agree you should be looking at a marketing or PR agency that has experience in your industry.

If interested, contact Chris Thomas at Intrepid. You can find his contact information on the web site above.

I would recommend Chris to anyone wanting his services. He is a solid communicator, a recognized veteran in the PR industry and has garnered many awards and accolades for his work with proven success.

Hi, I think that more information is required about your business and the markets you are going after before anyone on the forum can provide you with specific ideas or direction. Also is it a consumer plan or a trade plan you are looking for? I would advise that you determine your specific goals and objectives, clarify your expectations and determine your budget before you begin your search. What I recommend that you pull together is a briefing document incorporating the following: A description of your business, what your marketing objectives and strategies are, who your primary and secondary target audiences are (both consumer and retail), what is the key messaging you want to communicate about your brand, what the key elements of a marketing program need to be, who your competition is, what your points of differentiation are, your budget and your timelines. This will really assist whoever you approach with preparing a proper proposal for you. I agree with Randall's suggestion to post the project on Marketing Profs. I have many years of experience in the apparel industry in retail and manufacturing, including menswear, and your project sounds quite interesting!

All the best,
Linda Whitehead
Zuz Marketing

As a 20+ year marketing strategist/marcomm veteran (who's also earned her stripes by achieving her Accreditation in Public Relations --APR), I offer some thoughts for you to consider:

***Although public relations can be an effective marketing tool, public relations is not marketing. Therefore, if you should use public relations, do not expect direct sales, much less an easily-measurable ROI attached to that tactic.

***Your marketing plan needs to also include marketing tactics, such as direct response.

***Before you begin (or have a professional begin) a marketing campaign, you need to clearly understand your brand, your "Unique Promise of Value" that you deliver to your customers.

By starting with defining your brand, not only do you automatically propel yourself past the competition (by understanding what makes you uniquely different from that competition) but also you then can easily identify your ideal customer, which further leads to better understanding how to reach that customer (marketing plan), and to better crafting marketing messages for that ideal customer that truly resonate with him, improving your chances of building that relationship, subsequently leading to sales.

I specialize in helping businesses better understand and articulate their brands. I would love to help your brand succeed.

Creatively, strategically yours,

Sandra Eggers
President
Purple Eagle Marketing