A plain white T-shirt is just a plain white T-shirt…
Or is it?
Jami Slotnick
For The Philadelphia Fashion Incubator
at Macy’s Center City
May, 2018

• RealValue vs
PerceivedValue
• Brand Positioning
• Brand Persona
• Brand Reputation
• Brand Nostalgia
• Brand Research
• Brand Awareness
• Brand Power
• Brand Messaging
• Brand Evoltion
Branding in 2018

RealValue vs
PerceivedValue

BrandValue vs
PerceivedValue
Let’s get real
Real value refers to how much it costs to produce a product,
how useful it is to the buyer and how much its
individual components have.
• Generally easy to measure
• Costs of labor, materials shipping, marketing, product
development

BrandValue vs
PerceivedValue
Perceived value
Perceived value is a more abstract measurement that
represents how much customers feel a product is worth. How
much money was fetched for Michael Jackson’s shoes during
the Christie’s Auction?
• Harder to determine
• Scarcity (including artificial scarcity)
• Novelty
• Cache

$?

$24 $240

$24$240

$2.40$2.40

JudgmentalVariables
Fabric content
Customer Experience
Cache
Style
Merchandising
Price
Aspiration
Quality

How do you market this white T-shirt?
Here Are Three Great Tips
Liz Lang Spills

BrandValue vs
PerceivedValue
Two stores may sell similar
dresses that cost the same
amount to produce, giving
them identical real values.
However, one dress will likely
have a higher perceived value if
its designer has a reputation
for extraordinary design and if
the dress was featured in a full
page spread of Vogue and
spotted on the red carpet
adorned by Rachel Zoe.

The same is true for jeans.
Let’s take a closer look…

Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.
Celebrity-fueled campaigns were big in the 1980s.

Magazine
Newspapers
Billboard (Out of Home)
Radio Spots
TV Commercial
Point of Sale/In-store
Direct Mail
Product Placement
Word-of-Mouth
1980s
Website (banner/hyperlinks)
SEO/PPC
Social Networks
TV & Social Integration
TV & Ecommerce Integration
Blogging (main/influencers)
Web Radio/Podcasting
Satellite Radio
Mobile Phone
Opt-in email/database
Partnership marketing
Cross Marketing/Multi-product
Fuse/Hybrid Marketing
Brand Shorts
Advertorials
Alexa
Street Teams
Contrived Events
Ellen
Review Sites
Custom App
Plus everything from
1980
Now

That’s called a paradigm shift.

What would this famous campaign look like in
today’s new media world?
Go.
You have 10 minutes to work in teams of 2-3.

So, it actually looks like this - nearly 40 years after the
scandalous CK campaign.

Brand Nostalgia

Fastest way to create emotional connectivity.

Brand nostalgia speaks to a generation much like fashion.

Brand Persona

BrandValue vs
PerceivedValue
What is it?
A brand persona is a collection of personality traits, attitudes
and values that your brand emulates on a regular basis to help
connect with a certain audience segment. It can be a person,
character, mascot or idea.
The easiest way to create a personality for your company is to
envision the type of person you think would be most interested
in our products and services, and create messaging for them.

These people all what to buy a white T-shirt.
But they all do not what to hear the same thing.
Demographics lie. Psychographics are trending.
Tell me I’m hot.
Tell me that your t shirt
is 100% cotton.
Tell me that i can pass as
a NoLIb Hipster

What matters
Independent Record Labels
Good Pho
A really good city bike
LaColombe Coffee
Apple/VW/Gap
Clean water in Uganda
Skiing in Telluride
Wingbowl

What matters
LGBT Rights
A Gluten-free Diet
Fashion
Finishing Online Degree
Global Warming
Hiphop Dance
VegasVacations
Birthday Celebrations

What matters
Kardashian App
Yoga
Hillary in the White House
Fat-free Everything
Johnny Depp/Adam Levine
Photography
Summers in Jersey
Blowouts at the Salon
Girls on HBO
Addicted to Dylan’s Candy Bar

How do you appeal to all of them?

What about them?

By appealing to everyone, you could be appealing to no one.
Know you’re audience and speak to them in a variety of ways.
Commit to a distinctive brand voice or platform.
(BTW, you need not shout it.)

Brand Research

Who is my target market/s?
What do they think now?
What do I want them to think?
What promise, incentive or offer can I make
to get them to think that way?
What is my competition doing to reach them?
What is my #1 key differentiator?
How will I measure success year one and beyond?

Brand Research
A ton of money is
spent on research.
Brand research is a critical component of business success
for two reasons. First, it provides a business with hard data to
make effective decisions. Second, it gives a business deep insight
into consumers' minds, because let's face it, consumers don't
always act the way they say they will..

Brand Research
Surveys
Focus Groups
Interviews
Competitive Landscape Audit
Google

Brand Positioning

Brand Positioning

Brand Positioning
What is it?
A brand`s positioning is the place in the consumers mind
that you want your brand to own. It is the benefit you want
your consumer to perceive when they think of your brand.
A strong brand position means that the brand has a unique,
credible and sustainable position in the mind of the consumer.

A brand’s positioning usually results in a tagline.
And that tagline is drilled into
our heads over and over again.
on multiple platforms in multiple ways.
You will tire of your tagline way
before the rest of the world.

I’m lovin’ it
Because I’m worth it
If you don’t look good, we
don’t look good
You’re not you
when you’re hungry
Don’t leave home without it
The ultimate driving machine
A diamond is forever
The best a man can get
Play. Laugh. Grow.
Maybe she’s born with it.
Maybe it’s________

Brand Awareness

What is it?
The extent to which a brand is recognized by potential
customers, and is correctly associated with a particular product.
Expressed usually as a percentage of target market, brand
awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months
or years of a product's introduction.

Ways to do it
• Partner with other brands
• Refer a friend
• Guest blog
• Tap social influencers
• Good old fashion PR
• Be philanthropic, kind and network with intention

Here’s how other giants did it.
• How will you create optimal brand awareness among your
target market?
• How will you differentiate yourself?
• How will you cut through the noise?
• How will you keep it going?
• What’s your end game?

Brand Reputation

Brand Reputation
Dolce & Gabbana
Abercrombie & Fitch
Urban Outfitters
John Galliano for Dior
Steve Madden
Starbucks
Comcast
Facebook
The Weinstein Company
The Trump Organization

Brand Reputation
What areYOU doing right now to
monitor your brand’s reputation?
There are free and low cost options
that will help.When is the last time you did a
vanity search for yourself or your brand?
Have you set Google Alerts?
Are you tracking hashtags via Hootsuite?
Check these tools out when you have a moment.

Brand Reputation
What’s your brand
image right now?

Brand Reputation
Your Look Book is One Click Away

Brand Reputation

Brand Reputation

Brand Reputation

Brand Reputation

Brand Reputation

Brand Messaging

Brand Messaging
Brand messaging refers to the underlying value proposition
conveyed and language used in your content. It's what makes
buyers relate to your brand by inspiring them, persuading
them, motivating them, and ultimately making them want to
buy your product.
What is it?

Brand Messaging
FollowYour CoreValues.
What is important to you?
You are a big part of your business, and your customers love
and value what you do.Your core values should be at the center
of your brand messaging so that they are as authentic as
possible.
It is not possible to develop a strong brand message that is the
complete opposite of who you are as a person.

Brand Messaging
KeepYour Messaging Simple It’s hard to keep up with a million
brand messages. As a business owner, you should not be trying
to think about every customer under the sun; you will not be as
sincere that way. Pick just one or two concepts to convey, so
that you can concentrate your content and make
it most effective.

Brand Messaging
So, what are some of the best brand messages of
the 21st Century? Let’s take a peak at what
Ad Age says.

Brand Evolution

Brand Messaging
Businesses need to show evidence of being alive—businesses
learn, grow and evolve just as people do and their visual
personality needs to reflect that.
Brand evolution allows you to stay connected with your
customer. People should be able to identify with your brand and
even take ownership of it. If your customers can’t connect with
your brand, you will not get your message across to them
effectively.To succeed at this, you must be alert and open to
design trends.

Brand Evolution

Where might you find these lines? What store?

Have you ever wondered
why their logo is smiling?

David Lamer, founder of fashion tech consultancy Core Brand
Advisors, pointed to Lark & Ro and said Amazon was building
“very sharply priced product — it’s basically easy items that
people will gravitate to and search for.”
While many industry executives see Amazon as a competitor,
Lamer said the danger tied to Amazon isn’t so much that the
web giant is going to steal business from apparel companies, but
that apparel companies aren’t going to keep up.
“Amazon is a threat to the fashion industry because it’s a
technology that the fashion industry ought to be embracing in a
big way and they’re not,” he said.“Big data not something that's
going to happen in the future. It's happening right now."

This reflects a
behavioral shift.

Brand Power

Brand Power
The ability of a brand to attract a major share of
its particular market
What is it?

Fashion = Controversy
Fashion = Sociological Mirror
Fashion = Free Expression
Fashion = Power
Marketing all of this is a responsibility.
Fashion = Provocative Ambiguity

Our world is continually
changing and we as a
human race are continually
changing our reaction to it
as we grow and learn.

Sexism
Race
Drug use
Political views
Human rights
Gay rights
International acceptance

Messages from the fashion world have always been
viewed as “pushing the ethical envelope.”
Should we care?
Yes.
Especially if you
reach my eyeballs. I could be your
target audience
in 10 years.

Remember fame, fortune and other gifts
don’t happen right away.
Sales overnight.
Brands overtime.

Take 5 minutes and thinking about these questions.
Write down your answers and share them with everyone if you’d like.

How can you continually evolve?
As an artist?
As an entrepreneur/business person?
As a community steward/change agent?
As an emerging brand?
As a mentor and a leader?
As a future successful fashion icon.

I survived
Jami
Slotnick's
Presentation
and all I got
was this
lousy T-shirt

Hey, let’s stay in touch
jami@splatworld.tv
jamislotnick@me.com
www.jamislotnick.com