Exercise 1

Goals: to engage with branding elements; to conduct preliminary research and brand development, for use in designing Project 1; to create a unique and appropriate name for a fashion line the student has invented themselves; to define its brand elements

Identify an emerging market in the fashion industry specializing in either men's or women's clothing and accessories. May also be for:

• children
• both men and women
• or men and women and children

Your demographic is open, and you will need to identify the demographic that your fashion line will appeal to, making sure that it's appropriate and could deliver a profit for investors.

Use research to back up your decision-making.

State the following:

• What your fashion line will specialize in, and why it's a profitable market.
• Who your demographic is.
• Why they would want to engage with this brand, and how they would do so.
• What reassurances the brand gives.
• What promises the brand would give.
• What is your fashion line's big idea, ideally stated in one sentence.

Find imagery of the following, sourcing it from image searches online, or from your own photography/imagery archive:

• 2 images of your target demographic 
• 2 kinds of cars your target demographic would drive
• 2 kinds of watches your target demographic would wear
• 2 kinds of coats your target demographic would wear 
• 2 kinds of posters, books, toys, or other ephemera they would own
• 10 logos of your competition in fashion
• 3 logos that have a similar look and feel to your company

Come up with 10 names for your fashion line, that may fall into the categories in our textbook: founder, metaphor, descriptive, acronym, fabricated, magic spell, combination of the above. Consult the section of our textbook that covers naming, and qualities of an effective name.

Consult our textbook, and its sections on...

1. What is branding?
2. Who are stakeholders?
3. Why invest?
4. Brand strategy
5. Positioning
6. Big idea
7. Customer experience
8. Names and Naming, there are many parts of the textbook that cover this
9. A Process for success 
10. Questions to ponder
11. Market research

Due Tues. Jan. 19
Exercise 1: worth 30 points total
10 uniqueness
10 appropriateness
5 depth of research
5 professionalism/presentation