A big thanks to everyone who attended FBI’s Meet the Resource Members event on July 28,2010.  If you’ve ever read this blog before, then you know I’m a HUGE fan of networking.  Really! And FBI networking events are a great opportunity for those in the fashion industry, or those who want to get into the fashion industry, to make connections and meet a lot of talented, knowledgeable people. 

Due to traffic, I didn’t arrive until after 6:00 p.m. so I missed a number of people I would have enjoyed meeting.  However, since this was a Meet the Resource Members event, it was the perfect chance to meet new resources and find out about their products and services.  Each resource had a table with their marketing materials and a display of their products or services.  This gave our attendees the chance to meet with each resource one on one, or just mingle with other members and catch up on industry news. 

Frances, Erin and Egle were hard at work making the evening a great success.  I, selfishly, had a chance to catch up with Resource Members Staci Riordan of Fox Rothschild, LLc - author of one of my favorite blogs, ”Fashion Law” as well as new resource members Nouvolution and Visual 2000 - both are ERP software for the apparel industry and both are great additions to FBI’s Resources. 

I also had a chance to catch up with the hardest working woman in the apparel industry - and that’s saying a lot, because I’d like to think of myself as pretty hard working, but I have no idea when Arlene Battishill ever sleeps.  Don’t believe me?  Check out her Twitter feed for LA Scooter Girls.  Her Go Go Gear and Scooter Girls products have gone from 0 - 60 in the blink of an eye, and it just keeps growing.  When she asked me if I had a few hours to come over and help pick orders, I don’t think she was joking.  OK, Arlene, let me know what day to come by and I’ll pick, pack and ship for you.  Seriously. 

Another one of our members, Korena Ellis, needs to be the next 0 - 60 success story from FBI.  She has a unique idea, with great designs and an inspirational story.  Her curent line consists of jewelry, made from lost wax casting, which gives each one of her pieces a hand made look and feel and sets it apart from many other brands.  Her designs are empowerment pieces and are meant to create personal inspiration in the wearer while also creating a fashion statement.   The designs are unique and will translate very well from jewelry to apparel - screen printed tees are a natural next step, but the symbols work well as prints, on hats, as logos and more. 

What Korena needs now is a business partner, someone who can help take her ideas and products to the next level.  In any situation like this, it requires an investment of time, energy, effort and probably some money.  If you, or someone you know, is looking for the opportunity to get involved with a growing brand and has the business acumen to merchandise and market a brand like this, get in touch with me or contact Korena directly. 

I actually connected Korena with Arlene in the hopes that Arlene had a few words of wisdom to get Korena to the next level.  Then again, I know what Arlene went through to get to the next level and I don’t know if taking that same path will lead to the success of Scooter Girls.  So network, if you’re out there and listening, do you have any ideas for Korena?  I know we’d all be interested.

Don’t forget…come by the Sourcing at MAGIC seminars August 16 - 19. FBI will be presenting 4 seminars and you’ll want to attend them all! 

Jill Mazur is an apparel industry consultant with Fashion Business, Inc.  email:  jill@fashionbizinc.org

Jacquelyn, our intrepid Director of Membership, has more activities on her plate than any three people I know. Yet, she and our FBI Board Member, Ernesto Mantilla, along with a group of talented videographers put together some great videos highlighting a number of fashion related activities as well as a tour of the California Market Center.

Click here for a video highlighting last month’s MAGIC show.  Click here for a video from the FBI’s Designer Launchpad fashion show, and click here for a tour of the California Market Center.

More and more people are turning to social media and youtube to spread the word about new products, trends, services and other types of promotion.  If you or your company are looking for a low cost way to create brand or identity awareness, you really need to look into Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace, Youtube and more for ways to inform and update new and existing customers.  Look for upcoming FBI seminars to help jumpstart your online and social media marketing campaigns.

Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated.  Email:  jill@fashionbizinc.org

Let’s hope that what happens at MAGIC doesn’t just stay in Las Vegas. Let’s hope that the excitement, energy and dare I say it, enthusiasm I felt at last week’s MAGIC show is carried forward throughout the year. It was nice to see a lot of foot traffic, new faces, new brands and even orders being written. I know this isn’t a barometer for the economy, but it was encouraging none-the-less.

It’s a lot to see and do with all of the shows happening at the same time: POOLTradeshow, PROJECT, MAGIC, S. L. A. T. E., WWDMAGIC, STREET and more, it’s hard to keep track of everything and impossible to see everything unless you have a pair of rollerblades with you. I was excited to be a part of the SOURCING at MAGIC marketplace and seminars. FBI presented a number of seminars and panels on a variety of topics. Frances Harder and the FBI team presented seminars on “No Risk = No Sales: How to Plan, Merchandise and Brand your Product in a Global Market,” “Turning a Bad Economy Into a Profitable Business Opportunity” and “Retailing for Profit in a New Economy.” I’m not sure how Frances had any vocal chords left after four seminars, but she was still raring to go at the FBI cocktail event Wednesday night at the Hard Rock.

It’s exciting to be a part of these seminars. We met a lot of interesting people with great stories to tell and great products to bring to market. We even signed up a number of new members, excited to take advantage of a discounted FBI membership rate for the MAGIC seminars. I know how excited and eager people are when they have a great idea or design to develop and sell. The challenge becomes how to bring that product to market. MAGIC and all of the related tradeshows are a shining example of people and companies who were able to successfully launch their ideas and sell them to targeted consumers. FBI seminars, classes, consulting and training are all designed to support fashion businesses from inception to profitable multi-million dollar brands. I speak from personal experience when I say that it’s thrilling to see our members “fly the nest” and become the next great brand. It’s not without a lot of hard work and long hours, but by taking advantage of the FBI membership, our members benefit from our expertise, knowledge and know-how to help them navigate the pitfalls of this industry.

I’m looking forward to MAGIC in August, 2010. I hope to see more FBI members showing their lines and doing great business. I know if they take advantage of their memberships, they’ll be well on their way.

Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated. Email: jill@fashionbizinc.org

Fashion Business, Inc. is asking for your input to help us conduct a study of the apparel, footwear, textile and accessory industries. Specifically, how the recession has affected job opportunities within these industries over the past 12 months.

We’d like to know a few things about your business. This study is anonymous – any information you include about your business will be kept confidential and only used for data gathering purposes. We will be happy to provide you with the results of the study, should you so desire. Please indicate this on your response, along with your email address.

1: What is your sales volume today (in dollars)?

2: Over the past 12 months what percentage of your sales volume has increased or decreased?

3: In the past 12 months, have you had any layoffs or reductions in staff? If so, how many people or percentage of your work force.

4: In the past 12 months, have you hired staff for any existing positions?

5: In the past 12 months, have you hired staff for any newly created positions?

Thank you very much for your time today. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Jill Mazur

Independent Apparel and Business Consultant

Email: jill@fashionbizinc.org

Simply put, Viral marketing is a way to utilize existing social networks – mainly online or by word of mouth – to generate buzz for a business, product, person, event, etc. Using video clips, text messages, blogs, images, games, promotional items and more, the goal of viral marketing is to reach a targeted market of consumers without having to spend money on standard marketing or advertising campaigns. Seems like a good idea, right? Maybe. It really depends on your customer and target audience.

Viral marketing can be very successful when launching a new product or brand to a carefully targeted audience. Introducing a new energy drink? Hip, trendy nightclubs may be a great place to promote it. Saw a celebrity wearing your design at last week’s movie premiere or awards show? Tweet, blog, post it on Facebook and email all of your clients and contacts a link to the video or image and tell them where to buy the product. Sometimes you’re the beneficiary of someone else’s viral campaign and the next thing you know, you’ve got a best-selling item on your hands.

I was talking to a colleague the other day about marketing her new product. She mentioned to me that she was thinking of spending her advertising budget to remodel her office instead of buying ads in trade publications and magazines. She was hoping to capitalize on viral marketing instead to maintain interest in her products and generate new customers. Problem is – her products are basic apparel items targeted to the 45 – 60 year old female demographic. Not necessarily the prime audience of a viral campaign. Her response to me was “Well, Oprah Tweets!” Yes, Oprah Winfrey “Tweets” and getting a product mentioned by Oprah is a fabulous example of viral marketing. But don’t hold your breath hoping Oprah will mention your product on her program, magazine or next Twitter post.

Take a page out of many retailers’ handbooks – spend your advertising dollars and energy wisely. If your customers expect to see your ads in traditional print media, keep placing your ads there and create an online presence to help increase your market share. Is your presence mostly online? Keep your website up to date and make sure your home and product pages look fresh and exciting. Launching a new brand or product line? Figure out whom to target first and how best to reach them. Just don’t expect your product to sell itself if you’re not out there selling to the right audience in the right place.

As for my colleague, she realized her customers probably didn’t know what Twitter was, let alone how to use it. If Oprah was Tweeting about her product, most of her target audience would miss out on Oprah’s wisdom. Her office remodel would have to wait. Her traditional advertising works for a reason, that’s where her customers find her products.

Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated. Email: jill@fashionbizinc.org

Results from a Recent Twitter User Survey:

Alex Cheng and Mark Evans of Sysomos Inc. created a survey on how much (or how little) Twitter is currently being utilized.  Before placing all of your viral marketing eggs in the Twitter basket, think about this - after analyzing information from 11.5 million Twitters accounts, they discovered:

• Just 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity
• 85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update per day
• 21% of users have never posted a Tweet
• 93.6% of users have less than 100 followers, while 92.4% follow less than 100 people

Read the full survey results on their blog.

While media coverage of new design talent is often condemned to a cluttered back page of the big mags….the ladies at the blog Little Designer Book have made it their business to pluck out the hottest new designers you’ve never seen. Smartly written with a cute dose of humor founder Andrea Pohlot simplifies the scavenger hunt buyers go through in order to keep their floors infused with fresh labels.

The blog also shines a light to industry resources and events that help fashion entrepreneurs develop, manage and market their businesses.  They even featured a post on FBI and its founder, Frances Harder.

LDB is must read for boutique owners, designers and anyone who wants to know what’s next…right now.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know Twitter is the newest craze.  Newscasters haven’t even figured out how to conjugate the verb yet (Twitted..Tweeted…Tweeting…who knows?!) but everybody seems to want to talk about what it means to tweet…

Lets start with the elephant in the room…”What the heck is Twitter?”  In the beginning I was hearing the name so much I mistakenly thought I knew exactly what Twitter was about.  Everybody knows what Twitter is right?!

Twitter describes itself as answering the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. Other people on the site can “follow” you…These folks are conveniently called “followers”.  And of course you can follow other people you choose. You can broadcast messages or even engage in 140 character< conversations on the site.

In essence it is micro-blogging.

The trick for businesses is that the content you share even in these baby tweets must also be worthwhile to read. Yes, if you don’t have anything interesting to say then..don’t say anything.  People tend to like quiet people much more than annoying ones….

You can’t just blah blah blah about your product or upcoming season.  You may just have to step out of your box…make yourself a personality.

Hey..you watched project runway last night–that dress was a mess; You know what networking events are going on during the MAGIC show, You know where people can find cheap parking for the L.A. Textile Show.   People love a little inside scoop served with a dash of humor…

Make yourself interesting and provide entertaining or informative content to your current and potential customers.

The best part about Twitter is that you can do all this randomness in 140 characters or less right from your cell phone. Wow…now desktops are really out of style.

It’s Genius!

For more information on using Twitter for your business check out the insightful new book Twitter Power by Joel Comm

Facebook has 100 million users log on each day. 100 million users that are on the web and given the right motivation would be happy and willing to share your message with their circle of friends.

So how do you get your hands on these folks?  It starts with the understanding that social media is authentic, its real…it’s not about ordinary run of the mill marketing or promotions.   Its about relationships.  And like relationships….it’s tricky.  Doing the right things could lead to eventual unconditional love…while one email too many could make you seem like a cyber stalker.

In his book, Facebook Marketing, Steven Holzner, lays out how businesses can use social media to make their companies grow. With words and images he explains how the old marketing rules don’t necessarily apply and what you can do to get in the game.

Check it out and don’t let the social media revoloution pass your business by.

Many successful apparel companies have never created or needed glossy full color lookbooks to sell their wares.  Often times as far as buyers are concerned if they like the product and the company has great samples and good line sheets–that typically does the trick.

However in this oh-so jumbled marketplace standing out from the crowd couldn’t hurt.  As long as you can afford it (pro look books at the entry level will be at least 5K).

With some stylish lifestyle photography you’ll be on the fast-track to building your brand and bringing your product to life in the eyes of potential buyers.  Also a well put-together lookbook can add to your professional image–making buyers less skeptical that you’re a fly-by-night new company that will be here today gone tomorrow.

Its a judgement call. If you feel like all your other selling ducks are in a row (good showroom, line sheets, color cards and website).  Save the 5-15K it takes to produce a nice lookbook and plan some extra sales trips. Or do the photoshoot only–use the shots on your website and put the printing costs back into your marketing budget.

There are a lot of trade shows out there…From Magic to Pool to Project to Curve to WSA to ENK to Designers and Agents to Thread…and the list goes on and on and on….

So how in the world would you know what show is right for you?

Take the season before to shop around. Here are a few tips to get you started…..

1.  Research Trade Shows on the Web–To get started finding the show that is right for you visit an industry specific site like infomat.com, which lists most of the fashion related trade shows.  You can also do a simple google search for your specific category (i.e. shoes, lingerie, kids).  Then logon to the shows website to see screen shots of past shows.  Some sites also show lists of past attendees–so check for your competitors.  If they are there… it could be a clue you should be too.

2.  Call the Corporate Office–The office of the show is there to sell booths.  And if you have the money to do a trade show you are their target market.  Give them a call to get more details about the past and upcoming markets.  Ask about past traffic?  Marketing and PR Opportunities?  as well as Participation and booth building fees (if required).

3.  Go Visit–Once you’ve identified some shows that may be right for you go for a visit a season ahead.  Although the traffic may be different depending on the season you can still get a feel of whether the vibe of the show suits your style.  Again take advantage of the show’s sales offices…ask them to give you a tour as well as provide you with a pass to wander around by yourself.

As with anything else make sure you seek out some objective sources whether in person, old newspaper reports or blogs that give you an inside look at the shows you’re considering.  Shows can be very expensive…doing your research in advance will help you feel confident you’re making the right decision for your finances and your brand.

Happy Show Hunting!