How to Define Success (in your Fashion Brand)
Success is an interesting word. Mostly because it is entirely subjective and yet we continually try to define it. As firms and corporations, we give ourself measurable performance indicators and sales targets to make sure we are on track and aligned. In the fashion world however, the range of brands and businesses is so wide, I would argue there is more than one metric of defining success. So as a small or large brand, what do you set out to do? And how do you measure your success?
The first measure of success is the most obvious, and that is sales. Sales revenue and units shifted is the key indicator of how successful ie. profitable your small or large brand is. As we know, profit is a vital metric to measure the success of any brand (for those who do not know: profit = sales revenues- (operating expenses and then COGS)). While sale revenues are integral (entirely) to keep your brand alive, they are not necessarily the best way to keep an operation going in the long term. A short term boost in sales doesn’t necessarily create long term success, for example.
The second, and more modern factor, is social media following (or the social proof factor). Social media can be a good indication of how your brand is perceived by the market. But again, numbers here are misleading. A brand with a good social media following can have struggling or even declining sales, and a brand that looks good on social media doesn’t always translate into a good business.
Another potential metric is meaning. As we learned in business school, a brand is a promise well delivered. How well is your brand delivering its promise to customers? If you are a brand driven by sustainability and good working conditions for workers, are you fulfilling that promise? If your promise is to continually reinvent the brand and the product set in your category, how well are you redefining yourself? If your promise is customer satisfaction and convenience à la a brand like Nordstrom- are you succeeding in what you set out to do?
I would argue that each of the points I am highlighting roll together, and actually point to the only relevant measure of success for any brand- and that is how well you reach your end customer. Any great brand, large or small, should have clearly defined target customer, and all of their actions should be aligned with reaching and catering to the needs of that customer. If you have a large social media following, but you can’t convert, then that is great, but you don’t have a functional brand. On the flip side, if you have a great sales machine with very little brand value built in and around it, that is not a recipe for long term success. Lastly, if your brand has meaning and promise but no vehicle to reach or communicate with the end consumer, then the brand might as well not exist. On the flip side, if the brand has no meaning or purpose, then by its nature it cannot stand apart.
As a brand, there are two integral things that need to be thought about upfront, and continually revisited along the process. The first is who is your target customer, and what are their wants, needs and desires? The second is, who does your brand want to be in the market, and what does it stand for? It is great business practice to continually return to these questions, and ask how well your brand is achieving those goals.
Therefore success should be measured only by how well you reach and please your end customer, and how well you are communicating your brand messages. Nothing more, nothing less. All the rest will follow.
