Unfair Comparisons

Nigel March 22, 2011 No Comments

I’ve only recently been a fan of the Johnny Cupcakes. If you’re starting up your own independent clothing brand, it probably won’t take you very long to come across one of the biggest players in the market. Being based in London, I was naturally exited to here that he was opening a store right here in our very own Carnaby Street.

Given that the launch was a week ago I realise I’m a little late on this…but who wears a watch nowadays anyway?

I was one of the super fans that camped out (I don’t have the patience!) so I decided to go the weekend after launch and check out the new addition to his bakery theme shops. As well as the surprise at seeing a piece of London turned into a quaint little bakery, I also got the chance to meet the man himself!

He was kind enough to give me and a couple other t-shirt startups his time with a mini-lecture covering some of the important things to consider when starting up a brand. I’ve got to say it’s always a pleasure when people who have achieved success remain humble and accessible like that.

Looking at the launch and the reaction, I figure many people in the same position as us were thinking something along the lines of: “How could I ever reach that stage?!”

But talking with him made me realise that when you’re starting out you need to avoid comparing yourself to already established brands. It was clear to me that he, like everyone else that has started anything significant has had to struggle though the early stages.

By all means set the goal of getting to where these guys are – big ambitions are a must. Even though I’m pleased with the start we’ve made, I always want our own t-shirts to be better, our designs to be better and our brand to be better.

But it’s always worth remembering that these guys – Johnny Cupcakes, Ugmonk and Tokidoki to name a few – have been around for years and have had all the struggles and made the mistakes your going through now. You can’t expect to be a breakout hit after a year and comparing what you’re doing now to what they’ve been doing for years is unfair on yourself. It’s better to focus on your own brand and making your own path…but some help from the experts shouldn’t be ignored either!

By the way, if you are a starting brand, I advice you to check out his story. That’s not to say his way is the only way, but it should inspire you to find your way.

Some Thoughts On Developing A Brand

We recently decided to completely re start or t-shirt brand.  Everything is being done from scratch as we look to make a really great brand and product for people.  I always thing it’s good to know when something isn’t working and make the decision to stop, make changes and most importantly, learn from the experience.  As we go through the process of building a brand, some thoughts came to mind so I thought would write them down for anyone in a similar position.

When you start out a brand I think there are some crucial things to consider:

Brand

Image source: logodesignworks

If you are looking to put out a brand that can be recognised it must be given serious thought.

You t-shirts must have some kind of link between them, something to hold them together something that people can sink there teeth into so to speak. There are so many brand out, what makes your different? They don’t need to look the same, they don’t need to even all be t-shirts, but there should be something to attract people beneath the designs themselves. That just my opinion anyway. I like the brands developed by people Johnny Cupcakes, Tokidoki and Superdry because of their strong concept that shines in everything from the website to the product to the people behind product.

Team

Image source: icebirdy

Are you doing it yourself or in a group? If by yourself have you got the right skills? You might be good at design but if you can’t get the business right then you might find it difficult to get traction.

I’m a fan of working with other people who are good at what they do, so we have a small team of people here. If you have a team make sure you’ve got the might mix of people to cover all the angles.

  • Vision – What is the long term plan for your brand, Where are you going with this?
  • Product – The designs you create to the physical the t-shirts you put them on.  Print, material, packaging etc
  • Business – The foundation of it all.  Sometimes the boring parts, but essential to making something successful

Even if you’re in a group, be prepared to wear different hats when starting out. We recently had to do taxes for the first time and the only thing it taught us is that we needed someone to do this for us next time! Really, it was not fun (respect to people who have to do this for a living!)

Plan

It’s an oldie but a goodie: “He who fails to plan is planning to fail” – Winston Churchill

Once you have all the pieces together how exactly are you going to make it happen? What’s the next step. I’ve never been a big fan of pages and pages of documentation (you’ll see why in a bit), but you need something on paper so you (and everyone in the group) know what you are going can coordinate actions. If you don’t have the discipline to even write down a plan of attack, you’ll probably never make it to the castle gates (not sure where that analogy came from…).

Adapt

Allow me to contradict myself. As soon as you start that plan you scribbled down, it’s going out the window. Let me explain. Things change and rarely ever go exactly as planned and you need to be flexible. This is why I’m not for hugely detailed plans, because that’s fairytale and it won’t happen like that.

Enjoy it

Image source: mjagiellicz

Last, but probably most important. Don’t do something you’re not going to enjoy. We only at the very start of are journey and it been tough, I can’t imagine what experienced and successful brands are going through but I hope to find out as I’ve enjoyed it so far.

Do you agree? Disagree or have anything to add? Drop a comment or vist our Facebook page.