Revisiting The Brand Case Study That Broke The Internet (Kind Of) In the first days of 2020 I published a case study covering the rise and fall of Mansur Gavriel. TL;DR–they kind of bungled their initial success and had to sell the business sideways to a private equity firm. This was the piece that probably “put me on the map” in terms of my social media presence and ~thought leadership~. I wanted to revisit it here and update it to cover what has transpired with the brand since 2020. First,...
12 days ago • 8 min read
Read My Influencer Playbook Before You Pay That Fashion Girlie $10K For An IG Story Influencer marketing is a hot topic in the DTC community, but does that advice apply to fashion? What do you think? If it did, would I be writing this newsletter? I’m going to share everything you need to know to develop an effective influencer strategy for your fashion brand, no matter your stage of growth. Influencer & Affiliate Marketing 101 The mechanics of affiliate marketing: you incentivize people to...
19 days ago • 8 min read
Direct Response, Product & Brand Marketing: How To Set The Right Priorities For Your Growth Stage One of the most common issues I see in my consulting work–for all brands, not just fashion brands–is a lack of focus in marketing strategy. Brands have a list of core marketing activities and new initiatives to test. The list is too long for the brand’s lean team. And as a result, none of the marketing is executed particularly well, and no one understands what is actually contributing to growth....
26 days ago • 5 min read
Improve Your Product "Hit Rate" With These 5 Reports & Analyses We’ve talked a lot about the power of merchandising. I can’t overstate how the growth of a fashion brand hinges on a good merchandising strategy. A “good” strategy is one that serves the needs of your key customer acquisition channel. And for many folks reading this, that channel is Meta advertising. I covered the pillars of a strong Meta product assortment strategy here. When fashion brands work with me on a marketing audit...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
5 More Brands With Swipe-Worthy Meta Ads: Mens Edition In my first “5 brands to watch” newsletter I focused on women’s brands. I got a few requests to do a men’s edition of this concept, so here it is! A lot of mens brands are more focused on fit and functionality, so there is more “traditional DTC storytelling” going on in these ads. I think that all brands can learn from this; even fashion-driven brands should build mythology around a few of their products. First, I want to thank this...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Everything I've Learned About Markdowns & Promos From A Decade+ In The Fashion Industry We’re a few weeks out from Black Friday/Cyber Monday–a perfect time for me to share what I’ve learned about markdowns and promotions from more than a decade in the fashion industry. Keep these frameworks and tactics in mind as you plan next year’s promo calendar and inventory buy. The Purpose Of Discounts The purpose of running discounts and promotions is to motivate consumers to do something they would...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
It Seems Like Every Brand Offers At Least 10% Off For Email Opt-In–Should You? If you visit an eCommerce site, odds are good that you’ll be hit with an email opt-in popup almost immediately. Most popups will offer you a discount between 10-25% off your first purchase…if you opt into email. This has been going on for so long that many brands do it reflexively. “If we don’t do it, we’ll get beat out by the competition” is the thought. But is that true? No. Does that mean you should stop running...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
Jenni Kayne Case Study: The 5 Types Of Products You Need To Grow Your Brand With Meta Ads Jenni Kayne built a nine-figure brand with a combination of smart merchandising and the strategic use of direct marketing. When your customer acquisition channels and your product development pipeline are in sync, great things can happen. I’m going to use Jenni Kayne to help illustrate my 5-part framework for building out a product assortment when Meta is your top source of new customers. Here are the 5...
2 months ago • 5 min read
The Most Successful Fashion Brands Pass Through These 3 Growth Stages Wanted to expand on my LinkedIn post. I think this framework will help a lot of fashion brands who are wondering “why am I not growing”? But first, I want to thank this week's sponsor: Inventory Planner by Sage. If you're still doing planning in a spreadsheet, you're leaving money on the table. Inventory Planner's software is informed by decades of retail expertise to help you maximize the ROI of your product assortment. To...
2 months ago • 5 min read