Launch a Kick-Ass T-Shirt Brand. T-Shirt Magazine
only thing it guaranteed was confusion and lack of sufficient action.
It’s better to over-act then over-plan. Yes, there are financial risks associated with running a t-shirt brand, and mistakes can have negative effects on your bottom line, but don’t be afraid of taking action and making mistakes in the process. You can have the perfect business plan and still fall short of your goals. That’s okay. Just review what went wrong and reset your goals and objectives. The point of planning is to provide you with clear direction and focus to make your brand successful.
CHAPTER 5
RESEARCH
There’s no getting around it. You need to arm yourself with knowledge while developing your brand. It’s important for a brand owner to be aware of what is happening in the t-shirt industry in order to maintain an edge over other brand owners and to discover the best way of reaching the customers you want. Here are some of the most important things you should research prior to starting your t-shirt business.
Identify Your Niche Market
Chances are, you’re somewhat familiar with the term ‘niche.’ By definition, a niche is “a place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing,” “pertains to or is intended for a market niche” or “has specific appeal.” In other words, your niche market is a classification of the specific kind of people for whom your t-shirt brand is intended. To simplify this concept, here are some basic examples using fictional t-shirt brands:
The niche market of Ponies4Ever would be people who love ponies and horses and who have probably visited a ranch or rode a horse at some point in their lives. Monsta Truckas clothing brand might appeal to fans of the monster truck scene.
But neither of these fictional brands would be created to appeal to people outside of their niche, such as the niche market of “tech geeks.” There is less of a chance that tech geeks or any other outsiders to the brand’s niche would be attracted to the products released by either brand. Now, you might be thinking, “But I want to make t-shirts that anybody would love.” This is the classic mistake of trying to please everybody, and it typically won’t do you any good. In fact, every successful brand, whether it be in the clothing industry or some other industry, leaves out certain groups of people in their branding and marketing efforts in order to zero in on specific niche markets.
Identifying your niche market is a vital aspect of developing your branding and marketing strategy. Here are easy ways to decide who your t-shirt brand is intended for.
1) Identify different niche markets you would be classified under by listing your interests and hobbies. These niches might be suitable targets for your business.
2) Decide what kind of people you’d want to wear your t-shirts. Rock stars, you say? Your niche market would be rockers and fans of rock music.
3) Think about the kind of people who would find your products valuable or even benefit from them in some way.
Once you have identified your niche market, consider the estimated size of the market in order to determine if it is a profitable niche. Are there enough people in this niche market to keep your business running? Would the people in this niche market even be interested in t-shirts? The town of Beaconsfield, Iowa has a population of 11, making Beaconsfielders one of the worst choices for your niche market. Don’t make the mistake of choosing too small of a group.
Availability Of Idea
So you’ve got a great idea for a t-shirt brand. Maybe you’ve even designed some t-shirts or went as far as producing a batch of shirts already. Awesome! But hold your horses, buddy. Before getting overly excited about this new idea of yours, you’ve got to make sure it’s not already being used. When developing an idea for your t-shirt brand, research should be a part of the process. Conduct an extensive Google search to make sure that your brilliant idea is also a unique idea. Search a variety of word combinations that could be used to describe your brand to fully ensure that nothing similar exists online.
Look out for any similarities in other clothing brands out on the market. If your brand revolves around a theme, be sure that no other brand presents the exact same theme in the exact same way you planned on presenting it. If another brand is already based around the theme you planned on running with, presenting the theme in a new way will differentiate your brand. For example, one brand might be based on a horror theme while another horror-themed brand presents it in a cute way. Cute zombies.
Availability Of Brand Name
Before choosing to stick with a name, find out if the name is available for use and is not trademarked. You can run a trademark search on the US Patent and Trademark Offices website at USPTO.gov. Also check to see if the name is available as a domain (preferably a URL ending in
.com). This can be done on GoDaddy.com. Perform a Google search of the name in quotation marks to see if anything else exists with the same exact name.
If you find out your brand name is being used, it might still be ‘available.’ You’re only banned from using a name if another company using the name is also selling clothing. Although this is the case, it would still be silly to use a name already being used, as this may cause brand confusion, especially if you happen to be targeting the same niche market. Hopefully you haven’t already printed 200 t-shirts only to find out that your brand name is already being used by another similar business.
About Your Brand
In some cases, you will have to further educate yourself on the actual content or theme of your brand, as it will make developing ideas easier. For example, if your brand is about cars, it would be a good idea to learn all there is to know about that topic, from the history of the automobile to every car model ever made. This additional knowledge enables you to implement solid branding.
Believe it or not, in some cases you may also have to research the meaning of your brand name. If you make up a word or a name, for example, you should always Google it to make sure it makes sense and is appropriate in all major languages. You don’t want to ignorantly make up a name for your brand that you later on find out translates to “urine” in German.
Or maybe your chosen name means something positive to you but ends up being a synonym for something else. One day I came across a really cool clothing brand with awesome branding. They requested to be featured on T-Shirt Magazine To write a comprehensive post, I needed additional pictures of their products, so I did a Google Image search for their brand name. What came up inspired me to write this segment. Their brand name, apparently, was also the name of some rare human deformity that was pretty repulsive to look at. It would suck for their fans to Google their name only to see what I saw. Probably an innocent mistake on their part, but you might want to avoid making that same mistake. Make sure you research your brand name and anything else related to your brand.
Get Feedback
You’ve got a great t-shirt brand developing in your mind, and it’s 100% awesome to the max. Or is it? Do other people think your idea is awesome too? And we’re not talking about your mommy and your best friend Mark. You’ve got to get other people’s opinions on your ideas—people who don’t know you, because they couldn’t care less about hurting your feelings. You need to hear the truth about your idea before going too far with it. We’ve all seen bad ideas taken too far.
Feedback is important, not only for beginning your t-shirt business, but for maintaining it as well. Be ready for all kinds of feedback, and use your judgement to decide what to listen to. Ask for feedback from associates, co-workers and even strangers. Simply proposing the question “What do you think of the name (insert brand name here)?” can give you a good idea of where your brand name stands upon first impression.