The following article is written by our guest blogger - Alicia Rother. Her specialty in marketing creates insights from different angles, which we believe will be interesting for any fashion brands to learn!
To learn more about her, please contact her directly through the link at the end of this article. Hope you enjoy the blog article for this month!
In the recent years, the fashion industry has experienced some major changes. With the progress of digital technology, brands can no longer rely on tried and tested formulas to sell their products to consumers.
Social media, instant communication, e-commerce and interactive 3D design tools have changed the way the audience sees fashion.
This means that if as a fashion label, you want to stay relevant and continue to evolve, you need to showcase your brand as one that can keep up with trends and time.
Sometimes, the right way to do so is rebranding fashion brand. In fashion, rebrand clothing can pay off quite well.
However, it might be slightly tricky to decide upon a good time for such a huge change.
When to Rebrand?
There are few things that you can observe to make a more informed decision.
If your fashion logo needs a redesign because it is outdated and doesn’t represent your new digital and modern brand image or mission statement, then a
Apart from the time you need to understand properly or your fashion brand is the way to go.
In case, your brand requires a repositioning in the market to connect with a wider audience, rebranding could work well too.
Other than that, factors such as the preferences of the audience are also important.
There are a lot of people who want to see something different and improved.
With a rebrand fashion label, you can also gain a competitive advantage as a new brand identity design, tagline or graphics could help you stand out immediately.
At the end, it is crucial to figure out whether the current branding is leading to the desired results.
If the audience is failing to connect with your logo, its message and core values, it’s time to think about a rebrand to something completely different.
What is Involved in Rebranding a Fashion Label?
When you are considering a rebranding strategy, it requires a lot of time and effort. This is not something that can be accomplished within a few days and needs to be planned well.
Apart from the time you need to understand properly how to rebrand clothing or how to rebrand your fashion brand properly.
Identify Goals for Rebranding
This basically holds true for any branding strategy. If your goals are not clear or well-defined, you could have problems with your marketing, promotions and reaching out to the consumers.
In a world that is quickly changing with technology and digitalization, you will have to face a lot of tough competition in the market.
So before anything else, it is crucial for you to identify the goals for rebranding.
Think about what you want to accomplish with the new visual brand identity, message or mission statement. The objectives or goals for a rebrand can include factors like:
- Increased Brand Recognition.
- Targeting a younger demographic of audience such as Gen Z.
- Highlighting an expansion or shift in products.
- Boosting Emotional Appeal.
- Adapting to Digitalization.
These are just a few things that you can keep in mind while defining the goals or objectives for a rebrand.
Burberry and Celine have set wonderful fashion rebranding examples. You will realize how both the brands have managed to showcase their shift towards digitalization effectively.
Burberry is one brand that has led the way for innovation and adapting to digital technology in a short span of time.
From being one of the first fashion houses to collaborate with Instagram commerce to introducing interactive gaming, the brand has done it all.
Their minimalistic rebrand connects showcases their shift towards modern trends and connects with different demographics successfully as well.
Image Source: logos-world.net
Target audience
The next step to figure out in a rebrand is target audience. It is critical that you define who and where your audience is located.
So if you are targeting people between the ages of 25-35 years, your rebranding strategy should be directed towards reaching out to them through various digital mediums.
As fashion label, you could introduce a new line to appeal to this age demographic and run a rebranding campaign via social media networks like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Establish Process
The design process of your rebranding is one of the most important. Once you have established the goals and identified your audience, you need to figure out exactly how to come up with something that will connect with them.
With a detailed process, you can send your message in the best way possible and convey your revamped mission to the consumers.
With a rebrand that emphasizes a shift towards digital technology, your visual brand identity elements have to be designed to showcase that.
So these are some of the steps in the design process that you should focus on:
Extensive Research in the Market
You don’t want to end up with a logo, slogan, fonts or imagery that are similar to a competitor’s.
This is why it is important to research and eliminate all the elements which will confuse the audience about your brand.
Highlight a Unique Selling Point
This is fairly obvious. Figure out what makes your brand different from the others and how you can incorporate that selling point into your branding strategy.
If you want to cater to a modern and tech savvy audience, then you can include minimalistic elements like sans serif fonts in your logo design.
Take the examples of Prada, Moschino and even Louis Vuitton, you can see how the brands have adapted their brand symbols to highlight a new era of fashion and digital technology.
Prada introduced an entire virtual reality section which allows consumers to have an interactive experience through the brand’s stores across the globe.
The simplistic variation of the company’s emblem shows how it’s progressing with modernization and taking measures to appeal to different generations.
Redesign all the Marketing Material
From product packaging to advertisement and social media posts, you should redesign everything before introducing the rebrand.
This will help in the internal and external alignment of branding strategies and increase recognition within the audience.
If you want to try something new, you can launch a different clothing line with a virtual reality fashion show and include your new brand elements within that.
Communicate and Design
This is one of the final steps that could complete your rebranding. When you have finalized all the factors given above, you should communicate with the design team and get their input on ideas.
For any rebranding to work, a brainstorming session could be ideal to figure out what connects with the audience in the best way possible.
However, if you are clear on all the ideas and know exactly what you want to achieve with the rebranding, then you can communicate that in a brief to your design team.
The branding guidelines can help designers create a visual brand identity that is relevant to the brand and matches your vision.
What Opportunities You Should Capitalize On
In order to rebrand fashion labels successfully and pull off the new strategies, it is important to identify the opportunities that you can capitalize on.
As stated above, the digital era has given the fashion industry quite a boost in the recent years and actually played a role in its survival during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These are some of the advantages that your fashion label could gain from.
3D Fashion Design
Given the recent developments, you cannot deny the power of 3D fashion design. Sophisticated digital prints, virtual rooms and models, as well as augmented reality tools are being adopted by fashion houses across the globe.
With the pandemic shutting down the world, 3D fashion design helped brands come up with sustainable solutions to keep their audience interested and maintain a steady bottom line.
There are actually CGI models created with 3D technology to look as human as possible and model various clothing lines and designs.
In fact, there is a successful CGI model, Shudu, who’s known as the first digital supermodel and has an Instagram following of over 200,000. Shudu has been featured in campaigns for Balmain as well.
Image Source: nationalnews.com
Other than that, there are software such as Scanatic™ DC Suite that make it possible for people to simulate their clothing samples in 3D so that they can reduce waste and make changes accordingly.
This gives you an opportunity to rebrand through the launch of a digital collection on Instagram or Youtube.
Image Source: Atacac Instagram Posts
You also have more opportunities to collaborate with influencers and give your consumers an interactive experience with a new clothing or shoe line.
Digital Retail Brand Experience
With digitalization comes the experience to expand on opportunities in retail. Brands like Burberry and Gucci have been incorporating 3D fashion digital tools in their stores as well as on their e-commerce platforms to allow users an insight into the items and content.
These companies have made use of digital changing rooms that let people try various items and decide upon the best ones.
Other than that, fashion houses are also integrating AI or Artificial intelligence and using instant Chatbots to communicate with consumers in real time.
Finesse is a recently launched fashion brand that uses AI technology with 3D prototyping to improve its designs and analyze how many pieces of each item should be made.
Interactive Virtual Reality
By now, you have a good idea of how virtual reality is being integrated into fashion brands. Recently, it has helped many of them increase their reach and maintain a sustainable model of business.
As a fashion brand, you have the opportunity to utilize VR and AR tools that let users try on clothes with accessories.
There is also the change to offer consumers to watch a collection in real time and make a purchase instantly.
Balenciaga presented a virtual fashion show in 2020 to launch their capsule collection and allow people a closer interaction with the brand.
Dior is another example of a brand that has introduced an augmented reality feature in collaboration with Snapchat.
It lets the audience see how a particular pair of sneakers looks through the lens of the camera in the app. This is another attempt by the fashion to rebrand for the younger demographic and diversify.
Conclusion!
These are some of the things to keep in mind when rebranding your fashion label.
Hopefully, you will be able to achieve your goals with the right strategies and avoid any mistakes like confusing the consumer or losing your message in the rebranding.
It is important to remember that you need to show your growth and relevancy with the new branding.
Author Bio:
Alicia Rother is a freelance content strategist who works with small businesses and startups to boost their brand reach through creative content design and write-ups.
Her area of expertise include digital marketing, infographics, branding, and graphic design. For service inquiries you can connect with her here.