Where your product is seen and sold reveals volumes about your brand and your fashion line. In this blog, I will explain the importance of “place” in your marketing mix and show how you must integrate all the elements of distribution and placement to further define your brand, target your audience and build your business.

By understanding your customer through the Branding Series, you will come to find that the environment that your product is placed in has a huge role in your product's success. Planning where to sell or place your product is a very strategic decision in your overall marketing. It is important to consider your Brand Identity when determining your ideal placement goals for your brand. You can use your brand’s traits, mission, and pricepoint to determine the market and therefore product placement. Where you decide to sell your product helps support brand image, marketing, consumer perception and growth. 

Placement includes where you sell, how you sell and how fast your product gets delivered, where your product is seen, and even where it is found in the retail stores you sell in. If you rely on retail distribution, the stores you choose to be offered in establish your brand identification to your consumer. High-end stores, like Saks and Nordstrom, give your brand an exclusive appeal and enable it to carry luxury pricing. More accessible stores, like Walmart and Target, give your product  a comfortable, every day, convenient appeal and support an affordable price. 

If you choose to sell your fashion line online, the websites you sell on, the product description copy, and even the photos you use to feature your product also add definition to your brand identity. Furthermore, the speed of fulfillment, and even the packaging it is shipped in reflect on your brand and the brand image. Your speed of fulfillment is also part of placement. The faster and more dependable you deliver can build consumer trust and loyalty for your brand. 

When buying products in your fashion line is perceived as an effortless transaction that is quickly and efficiently fulfilled, it is very probable that the consumer will buy again and become brand loyal. How the shipping box looks and is packed can also fulfill or disappoint buyer’s expectations. If you are selling a high-end product and it arrives with dull or no packaging, it can make your consumer perceive it as lower end and maybe not as exclusive as they expected. This can lead to consumer disappointment. In successful marketing, exceeding customer expectations puts you on the fast lane to success.

Where you are placed and located in the retail stores is also important as well. Products with a special section are perceived as more exclusive then products bunched in the rear of the store with the rest of the other choices. Placement near the cash registers may also be a strategic marketing choice for some types of fashion products that inspire impulse buying. Unique hair berets, glittering shoelaces, and interesting scarves are a few examples where special “near checkout” placement can inspire impulse buying.

The reputation of the retail outlets you are featured in makes a difference, and there’s much more to it than simply the store’s reputation. Retail distribution usually requires selling wholesale through a distributor and using an independent sales representative who sells many different products to that specific retail chain. Logistics and transportation define your brand as well. If your product must go through a complex chain of logistics to get from the manufacturer to where the consumer buys it, it is important to closely monitor every link in this logistics chain.  This includes monitoring your product from the time it leaves the manufacturer’s location, loading it aboard a ship, shipping it across the ocean, transporting your goods from the docks to the distribution warehouses,  moving from those warehouses to the actual retail outlets, and then finally, your placement within the retail stores. Each one of these elements can add time and expense to your fulfillment, your product’s availability, and ultimately how and where it is featured when it finally reaches store shelves.

Streamlining the logistics that get your product from the manufacturer to your retail sellers is as critical an element of your marketing mix as any other element. If you are not delayed and an ample supply of your product is readily available, that means you will be able to sell more products and grow your business.

Your choice of retail outlets is extremely important in defining your fashion line to the target market.  A product sold in Nordstrom or Saks is perceived differently than one sold at Walmart or Target. Your choice of which retail outlets can sell your product affects how your audience will perceive you. If you have a high end fashion line with luxury pricing you will probably want to make it available in the higher end retail outlets. That would be consistent placement with your brand image and reinforce  your brand identity. If you have an everyday product for busy women, it says a lot about your product if it is easily available and effortlessly affordable in Walmart or Target.

Online distribution also says a lot about who you are. When selling online from your own website, how you feature your product on your website can help promote and support your brand image. If it’s an upscale product your website should portray elegance and exclusivity. If it’s an everyday product, your website should feature your product as easy, convenient, affordable, and accessible with FAST delivery.

Most products, including high fashion products, need to have a presence and sell on Amazon; otherwise, you will be missing out on an enormous new audience of buyers who can discover your product. Selling on Amazon does not really define your product one way or the other; however, how you describe, price, and fulfill your products from Amazon can say a lot about you and the ease and accessibility of buying from your company.

There are Boutique websites where people shop to find unique items. Etsy is one of them. Placement on these sites gives your product an image of one-of-a-kind uniqueness. This perception can be very appealing to certain audiences and simply the placement on these websites helps you promote your unique image and appeal to your audience.  

Where you sell can be just as meaningful to your target audience as what you sell. The consumer perception of your brand and your product is very much defined by the type of outlet where they buy it from. If it is an easy, everyday product, it should be readily available in popular outlets and on consumer friendly websites where your customers normally shop. If it is a premium product, you may choose to sell through luxury retail outlets and boutique websites. In any case, where a consumer buys your product can reinforce your brand identity and when they are consistent, placement in the right places can help build your brand image, develop brand loyalty, and grow your business.

Need help with pricing your product? Join “The Perfect Price” workshop on May 16th & May 23rd 2022 Where we will go over Costing, and Pricing your product. The Worship will also include Q&A and 1:1 pricing advice from Anna Livermore. For questions please contact: vmorainquiry@vmora.com

Have a Marketing plan already, but need help with producing your line? V.Mora can help you take your brand voice and turn it into products. We will help each step of the way to design, develop patterns, and connect with the right vendors for your project through our Production Development and Management service. Please contact us if you are in need of the Production Development and Management Services below:

• Sourcing 

• Technical sketches 

• Pattern Making

• Prototype making 

• Sample Making

• Fittings 

• Digitizing and Grading

• Marker Making

• Manufacturing

Please contact us at: vmorainquiry@vmora.com