Most young fashion brands struggle for one of two reasons:
- They can't find their first hit product that truly connects with the marketplace OR
- They find that hit product, but they can't develop another winner that resonates at the same level
In this week's issue, I'm going to share a simple framework to help brands solve the second problem and explain how each part of it works. I call this "the hourglass framework".
Before we get into it, I want to thank this week's sponsor: Move Supply Chain. Move Supply Chain helps fashion brands prevent stock outs, improve product margin and increase sell through rates. Think of Move as your fractional COO for supply chain.
Click here to book a quick fit check.
Why "The Hourglass"?
I chose an hourglass for this framework because it illustrates the way that a brand must narrow or widen scope as they move through each phase of the framework.
Hero Product–the center of the hourglass–is the tightest, most defined scope. It literally applies to one thing.
Brand Charter & World Building are the broadest, most widely applicable aspects of the framework–you can use these to move your brand outside of fashion products while maintaining your authenticity.
Some brands start with a Brand Charter and work down the hourglass, but most bootstrapped brands start with a hero product, then work up through differentiators and brand charter, and then work back down to product line extension (and maybe world building).
Let's dig in to each part of the framework and what it means:
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Hero Products
This is where many bootstrapped brands start. As we've covered in past issues, fashion brands typically go through three stages of growth, [link] starting with capturing existing demand.
Capturing existing demand is a product-focused endeavor, so many brands start with a singular product that connects with the market (even if they launch with a multi-product collection).
For example, Outdoor Voices' first big hit was color block leggings. Ralph Lauren launched with mens' ties (under the Polo brand). And Lululemon started with leggings.
Some brands take a different approach, starting with a brand charter and distilling it into hero products. If that describes you, then read on, and work your way back here.
Hero Products capture the brand's unique aesthetic, embody its charter, and contain its differentiators.
Wether you go "tops down" and start with the Brand Charter or go "bottoms up" and start with the product is up to you.
The "bottoms up" approach is less risky financially, because you're able to get feedback from the market before you publicly commit to any brand attributes (which are hard to go back and change once they've been locked in).
Differentiators
These are the qualities that allow your brand to stand out from the rest of the products and brands on the market.
Because the fashion market moves quickly, and because barriers to entry are lower than ever, it is harder to maintain true differentiation over time. That said, consistently living up to your promises does add value; most knockoff artists fail to do this.
A truly differentiated product offering stacks two to four differentiators from across a range of categories: aesthetic tribe, design signatures, gender, occasion/use case, functional features, price, age/generation and fit/body type.
I'll define these in more detail in a future issue.
Here is a tangible example:
- Alo Yoga entered the activewear category (occasion/use case)
- They priced themselves at the high end of the mass market (price)
- They designed for sexy Instagram baddies (aesthetic tribe)
- They applied a trend-driven, almost fashion-focused lens to the activewear category (design signatures)
There are a lot of other "sexy activewear" lines out there, but none of them have the brand power and desirability of Alo.
Part of that is a function of marketing strategy–how you amplify your brand positioning and imbue it with meaning. That's beyond the scope of this issue, but I'll cover it in the future.
Brand Charter
The brand charter contains two things:
- A simple statement that defines who the brand is for and why it exists
- A description of your core customer, reinforced with real market research
Ralph Lauren's brand charter could be summarized as "luxury Americana". Tibi's brand charter could be summarized as "creative pragmatism".
This should not be a multi-paragraph manifesto. You want to distill the brand down to its essence. Ideally, the idea should be broad enough to span multiple product categories within fashion, and outside of it.
Your core customer matters most when the product line is more focused. But you need a rock-solid understanding of who your customer is: what they value, where they shop, who they trust, the other brands they purchase regularly, what their life is like, etc.
You want to avoid a situation where you are designing for a customer that doesn't exist, or for a market that's too small to support your growth goals.
Everyone wants to dress the 21 year old size zero influencer with the glamorous lifestyle...and that's why her entire wardrobe consists of free clothes.
Product Line Expansion
Now, we move down the hourglass, using the brand attributes we defined at the top to expand successfully.
I've worked with several clients who can't translate the success of their "hot item" into sales of almost anything else they produce.
That's why the brand platform and differentiators are so important–they provide guardrails for new designs, making them more likely to resonate with your audience.
Most of your products should live up to all of your differentiators. Let's go back to the Alo Yoga example:
- Sexy, fashion-forward aesthetic
- Priced at the high end of the mass market
- Activewear/active inspired
The core category–workout sets–is a perfect fit. Another popular category–matching sweat suits–also checks these boxes (the cuts are sexy). The brand's tennis capsule also sits well within these guidelines.
A recent launch–leather handbags–is more questionable. A bag can't really be "sexy", but it is part of a woman's wardrobe.
But the bags were not active-inspired or high end mass market. Instead, many were pure fashion bags priced over $1,000.
This move had many observers scratching their heads, but only time will tell if the launch was successful. This could be part of Alo's strategy to transition from "active brand" to full lifestyle brand.
World Building
This is the base of the hourglass, and not every brand gets here. World Building is where you define the attributes and experience of your brand outside its core category.
Ralph's Coffee and Polo Bar are Ralph Lauren's spin on hospitality. And these brand extensions make perfect sense (and continue to be financially successful) because they feel like a natural extension of the campaigns, stores, products, etc.
If Ralph Lauren was personified, he or she would dine at Polo Bar. It helps that Ralph Lauren is...a real person...who eats at Polo Bar.
Fashion brands can achieve eight and even nine figures of annual sales without addressing world building.
But the brands with the most staying power–the brands that become integrated with the broader culture–don't sleep on this aspect of their positioning.