# Establishing your BRAND



## Heath (Oct 24, 2007)

Your ‘brand’ goes far beyond your t-shirt business name and logo. It is your whole image and the way that you are perceived by your customers. It’s your reputation and it’s the emotions and attitudes that are associated with everything you do, and all that your business stands for. 

With a t-shirt business, strong branding is extremely important, because it helps customers to identify what you are about. It will differentiate you from your competitors and, by practicing what you preach, will create a desire within your customers to be associated with your business. They'll want to 'belong' to your brand.

Branding is not just about portraying an image through clever marketing. If you try to portray an image that isn’t true, then your customers will see through that. You really need to find out what you, as a business, are all about. Then, constantly and clearly portray that brand, making sure that your staff, website and product do the same.

Below are some common brand values that I have noticed within the industry;

To make people look fashionable, to promote an adventurous life, to fight for freedom of speech, to make a political statement, to make people laugh, to be innovative, or to portray a particular sub-culture’s values, as in a surf or skate brand.

_*What is your 'brand'? And what does your t-shirt business stand for?*_


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## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

I agree Heath, your brand is your reputation. .... JB


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## dr8ggnbomb (Mar 7, 2008)

Heath and JB, thank you for your posts...very helpful.


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## Heath (Oct 24, 2007)

Not a problem! Let's hear some feedback from other members with t-shirt businesses.

What is your 'brand'? And what does your t-shirt business stand for? Do you have a particular theme that keeps consistent across all your designs?


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## Titere (Sep 14, 2006)

I've been thinking about having one brand of fashion/night club theme shirts. I was thinking to give it my Initial and Last name. I know Im not famous or anything but if people like my designs and buy the shirts then my name/brand will be on the streets. If armani can do it why cant I? (I know, he has fame and money).

Joe


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## sickStar (Sep 13, 2007)

My brand started as a design house first and I do custom orders. I try to establish great products but most of all, great customer service for all my customers. You don't want to burn bridges when trying to put yourself out there. Through pushing these two points, I have been able to gain a strong following and interest for my own tshirt line that I have become real busy in recent months!


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## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

eRecto, that is the key customer sevice, and a quality product. The product being top notch will eliminate damage control, but making your customers feel special is key. .... JB


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## Heath (Oct 24, 2007)

Totally agree guys.

Once you have defined your brand, you must establish consistency of your key brand message throughout your website, in all customer interactions (phone and email) and within the product itself. 

Simply setting standards is not enough, you need to constantly evaluate the image that your business is portraying to the public, and ensure that it is in line with your brand values. 

This means allowing staff to give you feedback about any inconstancies within your business and accepting their advice! If your brand stands for one thing and a customer sees another, you will be in danger of damaging your reputation.

The best way to lead is by example. If your brand projects a friendly image that claims to care about people, but you treat your staff poorly, then your reputation (and sales) will suffer. Stay true to your brand.


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## Binary01 (Jun 2, 2007)

your brand has to come from your heart and motivation... this way you can always stay creative

i have seen some designs that just look plain and typical...... no character or anything...

but to each his/her own....

right now i'm working on my brand and i really want to do casual wear....... but to get the name out, you need to push the t-shirts to get some street credit and the buz out there

b


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## noelroc (Feb 23, 2008)

I'd like to think that I have a catchy name- GRAFFI-T'S. I think that would be a great step in helping people remember whose clothes they're wearing. Just like if you see a great commerical, but forget what the product is - what is the point. And of course quality and designs are good too. Specifically, I started this to put great graffiti or street art/murals on shirts. I think it's something that is unique.


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## embloom (Jun 10, 2007)

Noel
Great name! If it hasn't already I'm sure it will do for you what you want it to & more!
It's descriptive, clever, creative, catchy, easily identifyable & memorable.
imho - It really is what everyone's looking for in a brand name.
Greaaaaat name!


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## memuddy (Jan 14, 2009)

Hi,
My brand name is My Soul. So what do you think, is it any good?
Thanks, Bob


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## Random Obj (Jan 11, 2009)

Finding your identity is not easy, and targeting a specific market can be even harder.... but you can do it! If I can give you any advise I would say to:
1) figure out who "you" are before you print anything (you'll waste money trust me)
2) make sure that your products are top notch quality!


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## embloom (Jun 10, 2007)

memuddy said:


> Hi,
> My brand name is My Soul. So what do you think, is it any good?
> Thanks, Bob


Bob
What kind of things do you sell?
Mike


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## Sicboy Worldwide (Dec 12, 2008)

Thanks to everyone who has left something here for others to grow on!

My clothing brand is "sicboy". My target market is the 'action sports industry' as you know it is a core market involving mostly unorganized (for the most part) sports, like surf skate and snow boarding etc. The inspiration for my brand is an old song by social distortion 'sick boy'.

I want my products to be cool, yet family oriented in the sense that there is something for every one- young to old- male or female.

I am using community store fronts to launch my product and gain some brand recognition. My goal is for partial in- house production and manufactor on some things and outsourcing on the rest.

Someday i would like to be an industry noteable, but time and money will determine that! 
I am rich in personal determination and family support so we will see where it goes.

Best of luck to all who are laboring in this industry to sustain and feed their families!!

Benjamin "sicboy"


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## Allurre (Jan 1, 2009)

My brand: Livin that luxury (LTL).. A Premium Business Streetwear. A Luxury Streetwear collection.

Aiming to explode in the upper scale street fashion market =)


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## withindustries (Aug 2, 2007)

a simple thing to push your BRAND is to have everything you do, come back to the same message... your wbsite must look pro... and your business cards, fliers, car decals, store front, basically everything must look similar and push the same theme...


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## AllForOne (Dec 8, 2008)

Im pretty new to the forums but one thing I have learned about branding is to know your target audience and go after a niche. I see a lot of people try to sell a million shirts by marketing to everybody but in studying a few successful brands I noticed they went after super niche markets and then became extremely popular. Look at Affliction, they went after fans of MMA which isn't the biggest group of consumers but the brand exploded from there. My company name is All For One which is our way of saying that we have one cause and one meaning which is to support the cause of homeless dogs and our market is fashionable people who love their pets and want to save as many homeless animals as possible. I would love this to explode and be able to pay my bills but our main company goal is to eventually reach $1 million in donations to pet related charities and animal shelters. Hopefully I can share some knowledge with everybody as I have already learned so much from the community here on the forums.

Thanks,
Brandon


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## memuddy (Jan 14, 2009)

Hello,
I also love animals. I am going to donate 4 % of my profits to local charities including animals & people.
My brand name is SoulShare.
Thanks, Bob


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## dogphat (Jan 30, 2009)

Thanks for the advice. Just starting out, hoping to get into the humour side. Calling my shirts "Dogphat".
Mick


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## blvdhustlr (Jun 30, 2008)

Surf and Skate brands are the best examples of this in my opinion, Now by doing this you obviously be down sizing your market so to speak, for instance i wouldn't buy a fox racing shirt, wouldn't that be a bad thing? Not that I am against this my brand slightly favors the Fixed Gear Bicycle crowd, just a thought. Also curious who thinks street wear in general is to broad of a genre? Oh one brand that has a good grasp of the whole spectrum is famous stars and straps but they started out just a socal brand with nothing really behind it, well besides the bros in inland empire.


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## Trevarious (Aug 5, 2009)

i think it is important to make sure you have some kind of shirt that is the "original" design from your brand. the one that begins the brand as a whole, if you understand that.


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## jimmy-B (Nov 6, 2008)

Big thanks to everyone who has posted! I just recently started a T-shirt company and I am marketing towards the action sport world like quite a few people on here. It's called NOXii (noke-see) Clothing. I am specifically marketing toward the amateur athletes. I grew up racing motocross and now how it feels to get support from companies who actually want to help you. I plan on show casing a different athlete each month and sponsoring the athletes who don't have the rich parents to back them up. 

I think the biggest part of a brand isn't the clothes themselves, although they still need to look good, but it is what each and every individual who supports the brand actually gets out of it. 

I love this site and the great community within it! Keep posting and helping those who are trying to get off the ground...it's priceless.


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## NigelT (Jul 25, 2009)

I just stumbled on this thread and thought it was a great idea. In the last year I have found that it is so important to know who you are an what you stand for, then go after that niche with your brand. We started without doing that and things didn't work out, but now we have got that sorted.

My brand is called mayamada and is about showing off a positive confident energy. We're quirky types, so everything has a lighthearted tone to it too.

It took us months to get the brand idea solid in our heads and next year we'll start pushing that out with our first t-shirts.

My advice to anyone starting out would be to take the time to figure that part out first. A few month even if that's what it takes.


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## dmfelder (Oct 25, 2008)

I kind of giggled when I saw this post. My company provides print on demand shirt fulfillment services with a large focus on helping our clients develop their brand. We attach branded hang-tags, put a branding sticker (their logo) on the outside of the package, offer additional branding (below the back collar, for example)...yet some folks in this forum don't see the value in it. I guess it depends on what you're trying to do with your business.

If you're just out to print a funny tee and disappear, then maybe it's not that big of a deal. BUT, if you're looking to be the next Affliction, Diesel, or Von Dutch, then branding is a GIANT deal. By far our most successful clients have a strong focus on specific demographics, and aggressively go after publicizing their name (emails, social media, etc.). While I don't know how these giant companies got so famous, direct to garment printing and fulfillment is a great entree and it keeps down the capital investment before you go in too deep.

I guess everyone sees it differently, but in my opinion, growing brand awareness is as important as securing a good domain name...at least to our clients.


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## NigelT (Jul 25, 2009)

I agree totally. I some ways the brand is more important than the product. Of course you need a great product, but you can have that and still not succeed if you don't have good branding/marketing.

Everyone has certain products (not just clothing) were you will buy something from the company almost automatically just because you've already bought into the brand. I think that's very powerful.


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## adam.smsg (Oct 22, 2009)

Amazing post. I think thats what a lot of tshirt brands lack these days. I try my very best to have a strong "brand". Only thing Ive had issues with is having a brand message (which I literally change daily). I REALLY under estimated that aspect.

But the look, the feel, the textiles I come up with are definitely cohesive. It helped that in my first job out of school, I was mostly doing branding. Dealing with color pallets and logo marks. Very helpful...

its the business part of it all that I have no clue about, lol.


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## Almightees70 (Oct 6, 2007)

My brand I'm in the process of building is Passion Clothing. It's a Christian based clothing line where I use unique graphics along with scriptures to create T-shirts for believers to wear that challenge them to share their faith.


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## micromaui-closed (Mar 9, 2010)

this is a good post! I think you have to have a personality- Thats what is missing in todays marketing. Slick flashy gradients and cute off beat names dont work alone. I focused on my love of dogs


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## GrapeCloth (May 20, 2010)

Be consistent! Have a message and portray it in your art, conversations, ads... In your way of life. People pick up on passion - they shy away from boredom! 


Live The Good Life.
www.GrapeCloth.com


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## Loyal Clothing (Feb 14, 2011)

Awesome post here. My company is called "Loyal" and my target market is the action sport's world. My mission pretty much is stay loyal. everybody or most have us have skateboarded when we were kids. Why did we? well we were loyal and did it for fun. I rode BMX for 15 years, and I did it because I loved it, and that's what I want my company to represent. Stay loyal right I mean who cares what your doing if your really passionate about it don't give up because someone else says it's dumb. In less than a year I have seen my company grow a lot. Retailers are calling me and I have to actually turn them down, because I don't want to over saturate the market. But branding is very important and yes you have to live your brand.


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