SIR THORNEY

Fashion has always been the place for exceptional marketing. To say the very least, it’s an oversaturated market, which results in fierce advertising campaigns.

Whether it’s Gucci’s focus on brand recognition, or Boohoo’s relentless promotion using display advertising; the marketing is always big and bold.

In the case of indie clothing brands, things start to get complicated for the advertising. With a much smaller marketing budget than mainstream brands, indie clothing approaches the industry with an immediate disadvantage.

Additionally, the quality of clothing is simply awful. I can get a soft cotton blend t-shirt from H&M for about £3/4, but indie clothing brands will price a scratchy 100% cotton t-shirt at £25.

When you’re selling a lesser product and don’t have the resources to do a large advertising campaign, things become difficult (unless you’re an online personality with a large following). Because of this, indie clothing brands are forced to become experimental with their advertising.

As with any fashion related brand, the branding is the focus, but for indie brands this is especially important. Without a strong sense of identity, an indie brand has no USP; you might as well be buying clothes from AliExpress.

Many indie clothing brands tend to borrow from Supreme and Off White’s advertising campaigns as a result.

There’s vivid colours and urban themes across the marketing material, an almost ’90s aesthetic. The adverts are closer to contemporary art than promotional material; it’s loud, and when paired with influencer marketing it’s effective at creating intrigue for the brand.

Intrigue is a powerful tool, especially when the quality of clothing is sub-par. Yes, people are buying an overpriced hoodie with a heat pressed clipart logo, but the advertising makes the consumer feel like they’re buying into an art movement.

Whilst it is backed by influencers, take a look at Teddy Fresh as an example of an indie clothing brand with a strong sense of branding within the actual products. Whilst they’re not doing anything particularly original, the colour pallet is instantly recognisable.

Teddy Fresh isn’t very prominent with its advertising, but the clothing’s unique colour pallet transforms any person wearing it to be a walking billboard. Through this, they’ve definitely enjoyed a lot of growth.

Of course, the production level is much higher than what you’d typically see from a student backed clothing brand.

These brand’s ability to quickly grasp people’s attention is what makes them so special. They’re innovating what has helped brands like Supreme, Yeezy and Off-White succeed, experimenting and pushing the marketing further; potentially giving us a glimpse into what to expect from these larger brands in future years.