# Please help me narrow down a Niche!!



## smcroyal (Jul 10, 2011)

Hi I own a clothing line that's meant to be inspirational all of our designs are meant to inspire and motivate. But in 2013 we are trying to narrow down what exactly our niche is, we have bright bold designs that is very much streetwear but I think we are all over the place becuase were not skaters,not hipsters,not goth just some young men thats all about going hard at what you belive in . Im going for a streetwear ages 17-27 line thats all about ambition and living life to the fullest, whats a good what to market something like this? thanks


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## BigRedThreads (Jan 17, 2013)

first thing that comes to my mind is someone with their head on straight and wants to do the right thing. Maybe, college students. I don't know why but someone who likes Christain rock comes to mind. It has to be someone that is willing to listen to such motivations and wants to wear a message like that.


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## HostMyPrint (Dec 5, 2012)

Sounds like you are designing your own work. Since the inspirations came from you, you should target people just like you!


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

with only rather a vague description of who you think your customer is, it's rather hard to suggest to do this or do that without half of it being guesswork.  

who is your customer ~ exactly? i mean, more than just an age range and a somewhat nebulous mind frame, which is great to know, you should probably be a *lot* more specific than that. supposedly, being go-getters, they plan to, do, or have attended college, eh? where do they live (inner city, suburbia, rural, what part of the country)? what's their income level? are they religious, and if so, what denomination? what's their race? male/female? married? kids? what are their hobbies? how do they spend their money? do they have/use credit cards? do they shop online? if so, where do they shop, what do they buy, and how much do they spend and how often? where do they work? do they drive? what do they do with their leisure time? spend it on the computer, go some place, a mix of both? what's their political affiliation? how important is fashion to them?

i think there are a few highlights in that non-comprehensive list that you would really want to know about, eh? if some of those questions seem intrusive or too personal, well, heh heh, what can i say? those are the kinds of things you need to know about if you're on the fence between pursuing putting your brand in a boutique shop downtown or concentrating more on skywriting your name in the sky. answering just the above questions should give you enough to think about and research and help nail down who your customer is, what they have to spend, and how they spend it, and where. asking who, when, where, how and why can be quite revealing in general situations let alone marketing t-shirts, lol.

the 'why' part is the most interesting aspect to me personally. it goes to the psychology of it. on a less subjective level (or, perhaps, objective ~ i guess it depends on how well you know your customer, lol), why would someone choose your shirt over someone else's? to me, you have a lifestyle brand, and in that you need to show the customer what wearing your shirt tells the world about them, eh? i believe there are going to be different challenges with a lifestyle shirt than with, say, jokey tees. 

what i've seen a lot of is a lifestyle brand that not significantly better than anyone else's, yet in the 'about us' section there's almost always a bit about being unique. then they have some guy modeling the shirt, or some guy's girlfriend, standing against a brick wall of some kind. yeah, real original there... just like the 'unique' shirts. sometimes there are variations, but typically the pics don't portray any kind of actual lifestyle! telling me who you think i want to be then following that up with the same themes as everyone else in terms of the shirts themselves to the 'marketing' of them just tells me you've done what everyone else in your shoes has been, e.g. followed the status quo. just my own little rant about those kinds of sites, lol. 

after having an online presence, you need to let your customer know who you are, and to do that is being where they're going to be first, if that makes any sense. a site in itself is meaningless. are you able to go out in real life and really hawk these things? not saying that's appropriate or not in your case, but it would be a good option to have if you're able to. 

i believe that having a lifestyle brand is probably the hardest to really get going because it probably takes the longest to establish in the minds of the customer as representing a certain thing. selling sports, jokes, trends... you could do that right from the rip, no? so, yeah, i would venture to say that you really have to put in the time for a lifestyle brand.


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## ForbiddenProphet (Jan 21, 2013)

Can we see your work? I might have some ideas. 


Forbidden Prophet
www.ForbiddenProphet.com


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