Have you ever wondered how to get your fashion brand the publicity it needs?
How to ensure that the media attention you are getting is the kind of attention that will lead you to success?
There are many answers to this question, but first, let’s understand what exactly PR can do for your fashion brand.
The Role PR Plays in fashion
Cultivate brand influence
PR Specialists help fashion brands cultivate and maintain an ideal public image. Because they don’t pay for publicity or media coverage, PR Specialists in this industry must find innovative ways to keep the company’s brand name in the public eye.
But remember, it’s not just about being in the public eye; it’s also about being seen by the right people. This specialization is key to maintaining the ‘ideal image’ you require for your brand.
Let them know you exist
PR helps fashion brands achieve everything possible to spread the word. There are a couple of ways this is achieved: Organising events alongside building relationships with celebrity stylists are some of the strategic ways of getting your brand out there.
The goal is to involve the brand with some of the most influential persons in the fashion industry. Failure to efficiently communicate an attractive brand image will prove the brand’s PR efforts useless.
Indestructible Branding
One major factor that will give your brand the edge it needs over other brands is great branding. Your branding needs to show the public what you are all about before articles and press releases come into play.
The real question is, what is branding?
According to Pearl Lemon, Branding is a marketing strategy that involves creating a unique name and image to establish a presence in the consumer’s mind. Branding achieves this by creating a problem or having a relatable identity.
That is what we call indestructible branding!
Indestructible branding in the fashion industry
It’s the image that every person in the public eye must have when they experience your brand. A good brand must have distinctive traits that can describe the brand. Traits that serve as a trademark solidify the company’s niche in the market. If you don’t have a distinctive brand, you can easily be forgotten without even a footprint in the industry.
It’s not just about the products
It’s also about the emotional significance behind the products: People thrive on belief systems, so it’s important to communicate what your brand stands for. Interweaving this representation into your branding will allow the public eye to build an emotional connection with your brand.
What methods actually work?
Now that we have covered branding, a significant aspect of fashion PR, the next question is; how can you make your brand indestructible using PR?. Without a strong brand, the media will not be interested. A PR campaign using tried and tested methods can effectively build awareness of your brand:
Make it practical
- Here are some practical methods that major brands have used. Utilize them and jump on the train to success!We’ll start with the simplest; Reach out to social media influencers, bloggers, tweeters, celebrities, and brand ambassadors. Why? These kinds of people use their beloved followers’ views as currency. Their followers have an emotional connection to their brands. These followers connect with what the celebrity connects with, so it’s a great way to reach people who would have otherwise never found you.
- These people are influential and powerful, and they are the ‘one out of ten’ who tell the other nine where to shop, what to buy, and more.
- Another way to get the right media attention is, have an event – A well-planned and well-executed event. You can invite influential people in the fashion industry, social media, and potential customers. Examples are; a store opening, a ‘meet and greet’ party, or even a collection launch.
- Create an experience that people would be encouraged to share with others and that media publications will find worth writing about.
- Photography is very Important! Read that again. Have you? Good, because it is important to remember that this is a visual business. Good quality pictures will peak more attention than articles and word of mouth. So it’s important to have visually attractive pictures to share with the media.
- Catchy story Lines keep your brand image organic. Fashion journalists and editors are always looking for things to write about. However, an official press release that sounds like a sales pitch will get you nowhere.
Create a story that will impress and connect with your audience.
You can take several angles; you can mention a gap your brand is filling in the industry or an interesting fact about the way the brand was founded. After all, fashion is an expression of an identity! Keep it fun and exciting.
Lastly, Look out for current trends in fashion. The fashion industry is influenced by the perception of what’s “in style,” which is constantly evolving. Your brand needs to keep track of these trends and understand where it fits in.
But, your brand should also aim to set trends and stay ahead of the game.
Find a niche the brand can pull off seamlessly to create a desire for the brand’s products. There are also political, environmental, and economic trends that might require the brand’s involvement. This requires you to evaluate what trends fit within the brand’s identity to broaden and increase the impact of its image.
Do it right
As public expectations have changed, fashion brands continue to utilize marketing strategies that involve social media, blogs, search engine optimization, and PR agencies. This reinforces that fashion PR is an essential component of your fashion brand. One way to scale your efforts is by using a fashion PR agency to take your brand to the next level. You can create a brand to last many generations if you do it right.