We found ourselves and many of our clients running into the same problem statement when doing business in, or looking to enter into, the apparel industry.
The Problem Statement:
How can a medium sized brand stay relevant in the increasingly vertical apparel industry?
The Short Answer: Culture
No matter how efficient the vertical model becomes, there is still one valuable asset that cannot be emulated or overshadowed by efficiency. YOUR brand. Consumers have an uncanny way of detecting & rejecting the imitators within the cultures they identify themselves with. The vertical mega-stores, and all retailers for that matter, have a tendency to be inwardly focused within the fashion industry. They rely heavily on sell through percentages to identify trends that ultimately determine the direction of their business. They sell what sells. But why does it sell? Fashion itself is outwardly focused by nature. It draws its influences from outside cultures. Every consumer decision has a subconscious cultural line of sight, no matter what the industry. Our focus then should not be on the trends themselves, but the driving forces behind them. We must first learn the language of our culture in order to create any meaning. Once the mechanics of meaning are understood, we can then participate in where things are going.
At Kontorsion our aim is to identify the meaning your brand has created within its own culture and translate it in to the context of our own, the apparel industry.