When & How to Expand Your Fashion Brand

Bret Schnitker  00:00

Go out on social media and say, hey, you know, I know you love this category. I know you love my T shirts. So great. We're thinking about launching this great collection of super soft sweatshirts. Give us your feedback. Let us know. Let social media help guide you.

Emily Lane  00:26

Welcome to Clothing Coulture, a fashion industry podcast at the intersection of technology and innovation. I'm Emily Lane

Bret Schnitker  00:34

and I'm Bret Schnitker. We speak with experts and disruptors who are moving the industry forward and discuss solutions to real industry challenges.

Emily Lane  00:42

Clothing Coulture is produced by Stars Design Group, a global design and production house with more than 30 years of experience.

Emily Lane  00:52

Welcome back to another episode of Clothing Coulture.Today we're going to be talking about as a brand. How do you know you're ready to expand your line? This is something that a lot of our customers come to us trying to decide, what is that right assortment? Is it too broad? Is it too narrow? When is it time to go into a totally new vertical? If you're all in women's and now you're going to go into men's, when do you know it's the right time, and how do you know what to expand into? So Bret, welcome back for this conversation today. Let's talk about, how do you know it's time.

Bret Schnitker  01:30

For every company it you know, it varies a little bit, company by company, but a real good you know factor is that once you've launched, and you have a consumer audience that's actively participating in your brand, daily, monthly, very consistently, that's a really good time to look at what other categories you can expand to,

Emily Lane  01:56

Right. This is Part of growing your business, yeah. So what makes sense from a product growth standpoint?

Bret Schnitker  02:05

Again, varies company by company. Today we live in, you know, a world where companies are launching with the best t shirt, the best underwear, the best socks, very, very narrow categories or capsule collections that are three to five pieces making a statement. And so for companies that are really narrowly defined, the best t shirt, expanding to a mirroring or a neighboring category, like a sweatshirt, might make sense. You own them in the t shirt business, moving into sweatshirt if you're the best sock company, maybe moving into underwear, if you're underwear, moving into socks, things like that that you know are related categories, complimented. That's a good term, complimentary categories. That makes, that makes really good sense.

Emily Lane  02:47

What about going much bigger? You know, you're, you're already committed to women's wear, you You're, you're all across categories and women's wear, but now you're like, Hmm, is it time to tap into men?

Bret Schnitker  02:59

Yeah certainly a much bigger financial decision. We know that a lot of women buy apparel for their male counterparts. Guys don't typically love to shop. In general, they find their favorite stuff, and they kind of just rebuy it, re wear it. So if you're a women's category and you expand into men's there's a high likelihood that the women that are attracted and actively buying your brand, if you have some selective items that you can drop in that are men's wear, those women will might buy it for their male counterparts. I think that makes a lot of sense and but, but you have a lot of decisions depending on the category. Some categories like bottoms are skew intensive and depth intensive. So that's a huge investment, and it takes a long time to build loyalty in bottoms. So really understanding the implications of particular categories, the investment the time the growth, is really important in making those decisions.

Emily Lane  04:02

This is almost reminiscent of so many conversations we have when you're starting a brand. I you know, it's like you've got to be realistic about the budget, you've got to get into a certain timeline, you got to have marketing all these all these things need to be well thought out. Yeah, it's almost like starting a new business when you're expanding.

Bret Schnitker  04:20

Yeah, for sure,

Emily Lane  04:21

such a way. What are, what are some common mistakes?

Bret Schnitker  04:26

Over expansion, too soon, too much inventory, not enough demand, not recognizing your market well enough, not understanding your consumer. Your consumer might be coming to you for a particular category. And be really happy with that, but another category, they have another favorite, and so if you expand into it, you might be disappointed. You know that that consumer isn't following you to every category. You've got to do a lot of consumer research. Good focus groups of your consumer base make sense today. Brands are actively conversing with clients via social media. So you know, in times past, we were we were dictating to consumers what we think they should be wearing. Today, it's more of a conversation, and so that provides an opportunity to reduce risk as you're expanding categories, go out on social media and say, hey, you know, I know you love this category. I know you love my T shirt. So great. We're thinking about launching this great collection of super soft sweatshirts. Give us your feedback. Let us know. Let social media help guide you. Let consumer feedback guide you. You know, I think today, that's a real amazing opportunity that we haven't had in the past.

Emily Lane  05:46

Oh that's a really great point. I imagine having the right expertise in place is really critical as well. I mean, it just because you're really good at one area of development doesn't mean you have the resources or or expertise in place for a new you know, we've, we've seen companies in the past that were very, very skilled at men's designing men's wear, and then all of a sudden try going into women's wear, and just it doesn't succeed, because the team that's in place really has had that core focus in that one category. Do you have some advice for people and making sure that they're aligning with the right team to help you with that expansion?

Bret Schnitker  06:26

Well, making those decisions wrongly affects brand equity in a big way. You know, consumer loyalty is only as good as consistent, elevated, great quality on target to your customer product and so, you know, expanding must be thought out methodically for sure. And you know, I wholeheartedly agree with your statement that you've just got to make sure that you've got the the not only the team in place, but the resources in place to execute that expansion Well, customer brand, right? And to brand it. But you know, if you have a certain product, that customers have come to you and and and trust you in expanding to a different category, that you might not have as much experience and and failing to do it well calls into question a whole bunch of things. So it's, it's important that that you're very, very cautious and you're sure about that roll out.

Emily Lane  07:29

How do you make sure to preserve the strength of your core product? So you know, you're making an expanded expansion. You're dedicating new resources. It's the new shiny object. How do you make sure that you're staying true to your core business?

Bret Schnitker  07:47

Not ignoring it, making sure that you are still servicing that customer, you're still dialog dialoguing about that core product. A lot about core product is not only once you've established your your consumer and that core product. And they trust you in that product. They like that product. Making sure that you have inventory in that product is super, super important. Making sure that you're continuing to tell that story, making sure that as color trend shifts, you're you're changing colors in that product. You know, making sure that that product isn't doesn't become stale, is really important. That's all really good core product of of our business can make up 40 to 60% of a successful brand, even a fashion brand.

Emily Lane  08:34

Oh, absolutely so, right, yeah. And, as you mentioned, sometimes it is the entire brand, yeah. Like, we're seeing a lot more of that.

Bret Schnitker  08:42

A lot of brands get really excited about the shiny objects, the little fashion and fat items, and they start to ignore the importance of core product. And we've seen challenges where they run out of inventory, they run out of sizes because they're chasing kind of these fashion items, and customers start to lose confidence, and they start looking elsewhere if they can't get that product. So making sure you have adequate inventory levels in all sizes, in key core colors, is really, really important.

Emily Lane  09:11

Yeah, I love this. You've said in the past, when your famous phrases, Bret is you either over buy or under buy, you never buy

Bret Schnitker  09:19

the right amount

Emily Lane  09:20

exactly and, and when we advise clients, we talk about the importance of in your core product. That's where you go deeper, because you only have more weeks of supply if you have a couple of slow weeks, yeah, so that-

Bret Schnitker  09:33

Slow seller, so colors, that's just more weeks of supply. You're not really forced to mark down core product. If it's all season, all year round,

Emily Lane  09:41

Right That makes a lot of sense. Well, I think that does it for today. See you later. No, do you have any other final thoughts?

Bret Schnitker  09:49

No,

Emily Lane  09:49

No, okay, so we really are ready to wrap this one up. Okay, well, thanks for that. If you have any questions about good assortment planning you're thinking about expand. Your line into additional styles, new collections, and need some help navigating that. Feel free to reach on out. That's what we're here for. And do not forget to subscribe to stay apprised of upcoming episodes of Clothing Coulture.

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