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I cocked-up despite reading TMF 3 times! Any advice?

LateStarter

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Thanks LS, which promo banner are you referring to that is grey?

Edit: great recommendation on the theme, but way out of my budget atm at $350. Do you know any similar cheaper/free versions? I'm good at coding html/css sites in this same 1-page style but wouldnt warrant the time and effort which could be better used elsewhere.

Cheers
Your Free Delivery banner. I see on the main page that it's semi-transparent black. Which is why it looks grey on the Shop pages.

Have you checked out your site on mobile? It needs work. The logo disappears into the image colours. Same for the Jay Gianni text in the Hero Image.

Also, check your Google results. "Up to 50% off Luxury Fashion"? Sounds like you're selling other brands. And you have Hoodie, Tops, Jackets, Dresses, Jumpers & Cardigans listed as sub-links... but you have no products. WTF?

Don't let your ambition for your brand cloud your execution for your product!
 
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stormjb1

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Your Free Delivery banner. I see on the main page that it's semi-transparent black. Which is why it looks grey on the Shop pages.

Have you checked out your site on mobile? It needs work. The logo disappears into the image colours. Same for the Jay Gianni text in the Hero Image.

Also, check your Google results. "Up to 50% off Luxury Fashion"? Sounds like you're selling other brands. And you have Hoodie, Tops, Jackets, Dresses, Jumpers & Cardigans listed as sub-links... but you have no products. WTF?

Don't let your ambition for your brand cloud your execution for your product!

Yes, I've taken off all the products which aren't the hoodies I have stacked on my bedroom floor and updated the meta desc a few days ago based on feedback from this thread. Looks like Google just hasnt re-indexed my site yet.

Also yeah Im aware of the sh*t responsive display with banner image etc. TBH everything is on pause atm as I'm having surgery in 2 days. Also my macbook has just freaking died! fml.
 

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Good morning @Greg Rutkowski and @stormjb1 from Oz,

Excellent advice, Greg.

I've read your thread @stormjb1. You've already learned an important lesson. Not to stock up without pre-orders.

We started out by only making for people who ordered our Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover. First 40 covers. Then 100. Then 500. It was only when we reached 500 covers did we assume this was a business. Until then, we never made any covers in advance.

Once we realised this could be a business. We asked 6 neighbours to road test our product. For 6 weeks. Their feedback was crucial to our success in launching our product.

You've got to talk to the people who you think are your customers. Show them your product. And get a reaction. As Greg says, only by talking to people will you find out who wants your product. And why.

I've been in business for 23 years. I'm now trying to crack two big markets that I THINK are big for me. And until recently were closed to me. I couldn't find a way to open the door.

To my delight. I've finally found the key.

But I'm not making any assumptions that these markets are a given.

For the last month, I've been ringing people who are part of this market. Just collecting information. Not selling. Just getting to know what their current experience is with ironing. And ironing board covers. So I know exactly how to talk to them. When I make them an offer.

I don't sell ironing board covers, @stormjb1. I sell how different your ironing experience will be once you iron on my cover. I never talk first about the technical reasons why my cover is different to all others on the market. I emphasise the different experience you'll have.

Once they're interested in a better ironing experience. I can then tell them why it's different.

People don't buy a product. They buy what the product will do for them. They buy how they will look in your hoodie. And perhaps you're not selling them that concept.

Your idea to get a market stall is - to me - brilliant. But don't use it as an opportunity to unload stock.

Use it as an opportunity to get in front of people who you can talk to.

My partner, Victor Pleshev, the architect who designed the Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover for his mother. Travelled 60,000 kilometres a year. For 14 years. To any place we could set up a microphone. And spruik. Home shows. Agricultural shows. Field days. Markets in affluent areas.

We were getting in front of people who were telling us their ironing woes. And also telling us why they didn't iron. And why they would never iron. And why they would never pay a premium price for an ironing board cover. And why they would pay a premium price.

This is how I learned that not everyone who irons is my customer. And that only a small percentage of people who iron want a quality product. But the ones who will pay are hungry for quality. And once they become my customer. I will probably have them for life.

Go out and talk to people. Get a market stall. Just make sure your stall is in the right demographic area. You have a specific design that appeals to a specific ethnicity.

And.

Be different to other market stall holders.

Don't start selling your hoodie as soon as people walk up to you.

Write out a list of questions you want to ask people when they come up to your stall.

Including.

Why are they interested in a hoodie to begin with? What will it do for them?

What do they like about yours? Don't like?

And start asking. They will tell you everything you want to know.

This is how you learn about who your customer is. What they want. And about what you need to tell them about how they will feel once they wear your product.

Even if they don't buy yours. You will know why a hoodie is important to them.

So many people in business have no idea what the emotional reason is for buying their product.

Once you know that, you can go back to the drawing board and create a story that will help you sell your product.

I hope this helps @stormjb1. ~Carol❤

Thank you for the post Carol, very valuable!!!
 

Carol Jones

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D

Deleted50669

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My two cents; from a user experience POV I did not like that there are no products on the landing page. The model is in the background, but I have to go to menu to get to the live products. This is an unnecessary step in the process. I'd recommend having a featured product, at least, on the landing page.
 

AFMKelvin

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Awesome post! Thank you.

From all the feedback from this thread thus far, I either go super-niche, even more targeted e.g asian only, or widen the pot by what you suggested the 'new-age vegan' type. Im inclined on the latter as the pot is significantly bigger. But yeah I defo need rethink the entire messaging on the site.

I've picked up 'Cashvertising', 'Storybranding' and 'Write to sell' which I'll be consuming in the next 2 weeks to write the new copy in the new year. As well as learning Facebook ads.

I'm lacking all these skills and the time atm. But would you believe in my dayjob I manage marketing campaigns including copywriting for a billion-pound household media company LOL. It isn't that my skills suck per-se its just a demonstration of how easily and covertly personal development is ignored in the stifling corporate world. Just another reason to add to the long list of reasons for being an entrepreneur.

Yeah definetely go for the "new age vegan" type, there's so many niches and cultures that overlap each other you're bound to hit a target.

Don't try to do it all by yourself. The company you work for, outsources their marketing campaigns to you.

You should do the same with your company. Get on fivver, upwork or freelancer and outsource as much as you can. That way you won't overwhelm yourself and freeze up.
 

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I think you need to have your website designed a bit like this site....

https://eastofafrica.com.au/

Where the main front page focuses on what makes you different, tells your story, tells us your passion and build a connection with the reader... then funnel them to your simple store.
 
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B. Cole

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Perhaps I'm missing something, but I only see 2 hoodies with a paisley/yin and yang type symbol on the front. Did you pull the rest down for the season or something?
 

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There are 2 hoodies for women on the entire site. I understand you are bootstrapping, but it's gonna be hard to build a brand on that lean of an inventory.
 

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Perhaps I'm missing something, but I only see 2 hoodies with a paisley/yin and yang type symbol on the front. Did you pull the rest down for the season or something?

Yes, I did in order to narrow the focus of the brand. I had too many non-related products up before.

Im re-working the site at the moment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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stormjb1

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My two cents; from a user experience POV I did not like that there are no products on the landing page. The model is in the background, but I have to go to menu to get to the live products. This is an unnecessary step in the process. I'd recommend having a featured product, at least, on the landing page.

Do you have example sites of what you mean?

I was sort of following the clothing ecommerce standard of having a big banner which clickts through to the range of products.

E.g gymshark.com


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
D

Deleted50669

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Do you have example sites of what you mean?

I was sort of following the clothing ecommerce standard of having a big banner which clickts through to the range of products.

E.g gymshark.com


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good point, it seems there aren't any examples of what I described. I shop on Polo a lot, and they seem to use a similar model as you. That being said, it may still be something to consider.
 

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There are 2 hoodies for women on the entire site. I understand you are bootstrapping, but it's gonna be hard to build a brand on that lean of an inventory.

I know dude. But im not gonna invest a tonne of money into it without validation. Thats the mistake I already made! Ive got 100 of these hoodies sitting in stock.

The idea is to clear these hoodies first. And then going forward i will design and create a variety of samples which ill run on pre-order.

I've been listening to the Lean Startup and that is one of the recommendations. I also reached out to a VERY successful clothing entrepreneur on Instagram and he recommended the same.

Either way this will be a good experience for me to learn from.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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stormjb1

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Yeah definetely go for the "new age vegan" type, there's so many niches and cultures that overlap each other you're bound to hit a target.

Don't try to do it all by yourself. The company you work for, outsources their marketing campaigns to you.

You should do the same with your company. Get on fivver, upwork or freelancer and outsource as much as you can. That way you won't overwhelm yourself and freeze up.

I've been considering outsourcing some of the marketing activity after your suggestion. As the time and learning curve required for even facebook ads I just cannot afford right now.

Have you had good experiences on Fiverr for marketing specifically? I've hired load of graphic designers there which overall has been a good experience. Cheers
 

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Hi guys,

I’ve read TMF at least 3 times if not more, alongside numerous recommended reads, and still I made absolute noob errors in judgement.

If you trawl through my profile you’ll see I was defo a wantrepreneur in earlier years looking for a quick money-maker.

However, over the past 6 months I’ve been working on a new clothing company which I’m fully committed to.

The Cock-Up
I launched this clothing line aimed at a very specific group, based on what I perceived as a need without actually validating the need. D’oh!!!

I’m of mixed heritage: British/South Asian. In conversation with my fellow mixed-racers or South Asian friends and family I always noticed complaints of how there were no fashion brands which represented us or that they wished South Asian clothing was suitable for daily wear.

If you don’t know South Asian clothing is over the top glamorous patterns, stitching and symmetry (google ‘Sarees’). With that in mind I figured I can create a new twist on an existing product (clothing) a’la blue ocean strategy. By mixing western clothing with South Asian patterns.

I went on to produce 100 high quality hoodies with very detailed asian pattern prints, thinking by the time I get delivery of the products I would have run a pre-order and sold out. Of course it didnt materialise that way mostly due to dayjob commitments.

I launched my website and started influencer marketing for over 1 month now, but I still haven’t got a single sale!

My Instagram influencer marketing has been targeted through popular asian influencers and ‘Henna’ artists. Henna is the temporary indian tattoos of which patters heavily influence asian clothing. The reach has been up ~280k instagram followers with OK click-through rates. the product posts get plenty of likes, even compliments via the comments but nothing else of substance.

So now I’m sitting on £2500 ($5k) worth of branded stock with expenses going up everyday due to fixed costs. Moreover, I’m losing objectivity due to emotions coming into play.

My website
What am I doing wrong?
Does my product suck? Or is it my website? I’ll be super grateful for any honest feedback negative or positive.

www.jaygianni.com

(In hindsight even the brand name sucks, nothing about it say south asian inspired clothing. Its me Jay, and my sister's cat’s Italian name Gianni. Wtf was i thinking!)

Next move
Do I proceed with this particular clothing niche? Or is this a sunk cost fallacy?

I’m thinking of just setting up a market stall and sell the items at break-even if not a loss, and then retreat back to the drawing board.

I will not quit on the clothing line mission, however am considering quitting this niche. Or should I persevere?

I’m not getting any ‘feedback echoes’ as per Unscripted , yet.

Many thanks
- Jay

TL:DR Im sitting on £2500 ($5k) worth of branded stock. Any advice on my next move?
In my opinion, the huge "JAYGIANNI" on the arm sleeve of the sweater is unappealing. You haven't created a brand yet, no one knows your name or your product. I understand putting on there to try to build some brand recognition, but I think that should come after you are a serious clothing company. People are going to buy your shirt because of the design, not because of the brand.

I haven't built a clothing company before, because it is brutally difficult, but that's my opinion (I am not in your target market either).
 

JM35

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A
I know dude. But im not gonna invest a tonne of money into it without validation. Thats the mistake I already made! Ive got 100 of these hoodies sitting in stock.

The idea is to clear these hoodies first. And then going forward i will design and create a variety of samples which ill run on pre-order.

I've been listening to the Lean Startup and that is one of the recommendations. I also reached out to a VERY successful clothing entrepreneur on Instagram and he recommended the same.

Either way this will be a good experience for me to learn from.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Also, what makes these hoodies female only? Why can't they be sold to men as well?
 
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gazzagb22

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Hi guys,

I’ve read TMF at least 3 times if not more, alongside numerous recommended reads, and still I made absolute noob errors in judgement.

If you trawl through my profile you’ll see I was defo a wantrepreneur in earlier years looking for a quick money-maker.

However, over the past 6 months I’ve been working on a new clothing company which I’m fully committed to.

The Cock-Up
I launched this clothing line aimed at a very specific group, based on what I perceived as a need without actually validating the need. D’oh!!!

I’m of mixed heritage: British/South Asian. In conversation with my fellow mixed-racers or South Asian friends and family I always noticed complaints of how there were no fashion brands which represented us or that they wished South Asian clothing was suitable for daily wear.

If you don’t know South Asian clothing is over the top glamorous patterns, stitching and symmetry (google ‘Sarees’). With that in mind I figured I can create a new twist on an existing product (clothing) a’la blue ocean strategy. By mixing western clothing with South Asian patterns.

I went on to produce 100 high quality hoodies with very detailed asian pattern prints, thinking by the time I get delivery of the products I would have run a pre-order and sold out. Of course it didnt materialise that way mostly due to dayjob commitments.

I launched my website and started influencer marketing for over 1 month now, but I still haven’t got a single sale!

My Instagram influencer marketing has been targeted through popular asian influencers and ‘Henna’ artists. Henna is the temporary indian tattoos of which patters heavily influence asian clothing. The reach has been up ~280k instagram followers with OK click-through rates. the product posts get plenty of likes, even compliments via the comments but nothing else of substance.

So now I’m sitting on £2500 ($5k) worth of branded stock with expenses going up everyday due to fixed costs. Moreover, I’m losing objectivity due to emotions coming into play.

My website
What am I doing wrong?
Does my product suck? Or is it my website? I’ll be super grateful for any honest feedback negative or positive.

Hi guys,

I’ve read TMF at least 3 times if not more, alongside numerous recommended reads, and still I made absolute noob errors in judgement.

If you trawl through my profile you’ll see I was defo a wantrepreneur in earlier years looking for a quick money-maker.

However, over the past 6 months I’ve been working on a new clothing company which I’m fully committed to.

The Cock-Up
I launched this clothing line aimed at a very specific group, based on what I perceived as a need without actually validating the need. D’oh!!!

I’m of mixed heritage: British/South Asian. In conversation with my fellow mixed-racers or South Asian friends and family I always noticed complaints of how there were no fashion brands which represented us or that they wished South Asian clothing was suitable for daily wear.

If you don’t know South Asian clothing is over the top glamorous patterns, stitching and symmetry (google ‘Sarees’). With that in mind I figured I can create a new twist on an existing product (clothing) a’la blue ocean strategy. By mixing western clothing with South Asian patterns.

I went on to produce 100 high quality hoodies with very detailed asian pattern prints, thinking by the time I get delivery of the products I would have run a pre-order and sold out. Of course it didnt materialise that way mostly due to dayjob commitments.

I launched my website and started influencer marketing for over 1 month now, but I still haven’t got a single sale!

My Instagram influencer marketing has been targeted through popular asian influencers and ‘Henna’ artists. Henna is the temporary indian tattoos of which patters heavily influence asian clothing. The reach has been up ~280k instagram followers with OK click-through rates. the product posts get plenty of likes, even compliments via the comments but nothing else of substance.

So now I’m sitting on £2500 ($5k) worth of branded stock with expenses going up everyday due to fixed costs. Moreover, I’m losing objectivity due to emotions coming into play.

My website
What am I doing wrong?
Does my product suck? Or is it my website? I’ll be super grateful for any honest feedback negative or positive.

www.jaygianni.com

(In hindsight even the brand name sucks, nothing about it say south asian inspired clothing. Its me Jay, and my sister's cat’s Italian name Gianni. Wtf was i thinking!)

Next move
Do I proceed with this particular clothing niche? Or is this a sunk cost fallacy?

I’m thinking of just setting up a market stall and sell the items at break-even if not a loss, and then retreat back to the drawing board.

I will not quit on the clothing line mission, however am considering quitting this niche. Or should I persevere?

I’m not getting any ‘feedback echoes’ as per Unscripted , yet.

Many thanks
- Jay

TL:DR Im sitting on £2500 ($5k) worth of branded stock. Any advice on my next move?



(In hindsight even the brand name sucks, nothing about it say south asian inspired clothing. Its me Jay, and my sister's cat’s Italian name Gianni. Wtf was i thinking!)

Next move
Do I proceed with this particular clothing niche? Or is this a sunk cost fallacy?

I’m thinking of just setting up a market stall and sell the items at break-even if not a loss, and then retreat back to the drawing board.

I will not quit on the clothing line mission, however am considering quitting this niche. Or should I persevere?

I’m not getting any ‘feedback echoes’ as per Unscripted , yet.

Many thanks
- Jay

TL:DR Im sitting on £2500 ($5k) worth of branded stock. Any advice on my next move?

Hi Jay,

Hi Jay. Branding OK. Not enough choice to keep people on the site for long enough to be tempted. First hoody, issue with being able to see the design, picture too dark. Use another picture. As with other comments, your about tells the story but the product doesn't sell it. Tweak it, as described in Unscripted . Have you tried some on Ebay? Millions of potential customers there and you don't lose anything if you don't sell. Not sure about Amazon. What about Not on the highstreet too? At least if you try other mediums you can obtain feedback from non-niche markets.

Not sure if the pay part of your website is working. Just tried to access the cart and had errors. May just be my work network restrictions but have a look anyway.

If you are passionate about it don't give up yet. But the market is telling you something. What is it? Be objective about your website, your product and your target market. Step out of yourself and your situation. You could even do a market stall and get customer feedback. That could be posted on your website too as testimonials. Clothing is a touch market, lots of competitors. What makes you stand out?

Kind Regards
Gary
 

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I've been considering outsourcing some of the marketing activity after your suggestion. As the time and learning curve required for even facebook ads I just cannot afford right now.

Have you had good experiences on Fiverr for marketing specifically? I've hired load of graphic designers there which overall has been a good experience. Cheers
I've never used fivver for marketing. Only for graphic design.

Try posting a wanted ad on this forum their's many marketers here.
 
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Hi guys, I havent quit on this. Just took a little longer to update my website and business structure backend than I expected due to many personal reasons.

Please check out my new site, with better branding (I hope). The brand is more a representation of myself now and feels more authentic. The copy is still a work-in progress as are the number of products.

Any initial feedback from you guys would be very much appreciated! To give you an idea of what it looked like before see attached.

And heres the updated site.

Live Mindful

I'll be writing/outsourcing some blog posts on the topic of travel and mindfulness in coming weeks to generate inbound traffic from search.

Thanks
 

Attachments

  • FireShot Capture 9 - Live Mindful – JAYGIANNI - https___www.jaygianni.com_.png
    FireShot Capture 9 - Live Mindful – JAYGIANNI - https___www.jaygianni.com_.png
    1.6 MB · Views: 20

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I totally agree with StompingAcorns.
I love to see the colorful patterns, beautiful fabrics and elegant traditions of Indian clothes and culture, although it's usually spelled Sari in the U.S.
The idea of East meets West clothing from London and India sounds like it could be a real winner!
I imagine something like the awesomely colorful, fun, stylish, very expensive clothing of Dolce & Gabbana.
Innovative forward-thinking designs and expert tailoring, featuring bright Asian fabrics and the high quality, traditional craftsmanship and creativity of London fashion! Wow this is going to be good! When will your new fashion line first participate in Fashion Week and get covered by Vogue and Firstview?

The concept is fine, the initial product line is mediocre, and now I'm going to rip apart why the web site is awful!

The site shoves an enormous SIGN UP SIGN UP SIGN UP NOW YOU FOOL popup in my face before I've seen ANY content at all.
I HATE THAT!!!!
If I wasn't following the link to see a personal story from the Fastlane Forum, I'd be INSTANTLY GONE at that point!

Look at how MJ does it here! You have plenty of obvious opportunity to sign up, but there's no full screen SIGN UP SIGN UP SIGN UP NOW to block you from exploring Fastlane Forum, discovering a lot of value first until you're ready to sign up!

Then there's a slow loading carousel-of-images slider, but for only two images. Both of which pictures say, Here's something about sitting on a lakeshore on the mountains. I would expect the site with those two images to sell beef jerky and camp stoves, and discuss what types of tents help backpackers climb above the treeline! Both pictures have totally meaningless hype-filled slogans demanding I click to review some unknown collection based on some inane slogan, rather than showing me some samples of the merchandise to entice me to click! The pictures make me think, "from the cold mountaintop lakes of Colorado!" Nothing at all about either Britain or Asia. Nothing at all about colorful Asian-inspired clothes.

The red floating menu stuff at top right is illegible on the black mountain behind the guy in the "Awaken" picture.

Scrolling down,
I get a pageful of bland hipster nonsense airhead faux-enlightenment philosophy, or so it seems.
Then I eventually get to a VERY COOL picture of the patterns of Asia!
And below that, FINALLY a discovery that pattern's on a hoodie... which has, even larger than the cool Asian print, some Italian sounding name giant printed on the sleeve! WTF!
The pictures look like they were snapped with someone's very cheap phone cam. Framing, focus, brightness, contrast are all awful!
Then there's a totally arbitrary price, totally arbitrarily marked down for no reason... and below that, the clearance section!

YUCK!!

"I’m of mixed heritage: British/South Asian. In conversation with my fellow mixed-racers or South Asian friends and family I always noticed complaints of how there were no fashion brands which represented us or that they wished South Asian clothing was suitable for daily wear.
If you don’t know South Asian clothing is over the top glamorous patterns, stitching and symmetry. With that in mind I figured I can create a new twist on an existing product (clothing). By mixing western clothing with South Asian patterns."

THIS IS AN AWESOME INTRO! Why isn't it on your web site along with your own picture!

I think you should dump the brand name and restart.
Something like East Meets West, or London To India, or Commonwealth Crossroads, or Glamour Of Asia, etc.
Choose whether to try to make your own products, or first serve as an importer of great clothes from SE Asia that fit your theme, plus some exciting stuff that fits the theme from around the UK... to make money, develop a clientele, and then launch your own line to people who already know and care what you're about.

If you want to keep the Jay Gianni name... if you succeed, people will call you Mr. Gianni from now on and constantly ask you how an Italian guy got into Asian fashion. If the name's really important to you, make it a "parent company" name with distinctive branding for the Asian stuff. I would expect nice suits and silk ties for the men, and classic wedding and sun dresses for the women, all designed in Milan, from the Jay Gianni house of fashion!

"Live mindful" is a lousy slogan for people not selling meditation retreats. NOTHING about that suggests "British/South Asian," "mixed-race," "over the top glamorous" or for that matter even "clothing!"

The menu says contact us but doesn't give a physical location.
Instead of Returns, just have that under a generic Customer Service link. Why get people immediately thinking, "This will probably be so bad I'll want to get my money back?"
Why link to an empty blog from the home page???
If someone's this careless about their home page, will they be able to get my order right? If the model's head or arms are randomly cut off in the pictures that are supposed to show off the product, will the design also be as carelessly off-center and washed out if I order the clothes?

I think you're doing the right thing to rethink this. I'd love to see the concept succeed. Back to the drawing board is my suggestion! Since you're doing your own launch on a shoestring budget, join the 30 day copywriting thread. The second half of Collier's book includes LOTS of winning sales letters for clothing. Get older J Peterman catalogs too (back when Peterman was writing them himself), for a dose of killer Emotionally Evocative copy selling attitude and mystique, which just happens to have clothing attached.
 

socaldude

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I'm no expert in this field.

But the sweatshirt isn't compelling. The other clothing isn't bad at all. The website is not bad.

Your reasoning may be valid and you may indeed have yourself a niche but does you target market really make purchasing decisions the way you think they do?

I've read people buy into fashion to meet a certain self-image and feel good but often times we miss how they make buying decisions. People might say "OMG that looks so cute"! then turn around and not buy it.

Fashion is definitely a tricky business. Customers are difficult to predict and stingy. They ask themselves questions like what will people think when they see me with this on?
 
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There's some really sick stuff in Late Bloomer's post above!

I don't see any About page now (has it been removed?), but the biggest issue now is not so much the website itself, it's more of the concept you're trying to sell to the audience. I really like the type of designs shown here : https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1...l_patterns_660_x_440_660x440.png?v=1522438012

If you could show your potential customers how great they would look if they wear your clothing with those awesome designs above, wow. In fact, perhaps consider removing the "JayGianni" giant text on the sleeve of your clothing and replace that with those Eastern patterns, just like a tattoo sleeve on the arm. That would look cool.

No one wants to wear clothing with some ugly unknown giant text plastered on it, unless it says NIKE/ADIDAS/UNDERARMOUR/EVERLAST/VERSACE etc.
Those big brands can put f*** on anything and people would lap it up like crazy and queue for 72 hours just to smell it. Google "Adidas Yeezys".

Think from a customer's point of view. Would I want to wear a hoodie with ADIDAS on it? Sure, it would show that I'm cool and hip, but would I want to wear one with "JAYGIANNI" on it? No, I don't want people to laugh at me thinking it's something bought from Taobao.com, where they're notorious for having meaningless weird "English" words on their clothing, like "Averotx" or "Baijunghuang".

When your brand has taken off, got established, is associated with popularity and coolness, has celebrity backing, then you can just slap the "JAYGIANNI" text all over the clothing and sell that for US$200, with no other designs whatsoever.
Take a look at this trash of a design from Supreme : Supreme All Over Logo Print Thermal New Size M $150
(apologies for the harsh words, but I hate "SUPREME". Off-topic rant: Those guys who queue for 3 days, fight with each other in public for Supreme clothing, pay US$500 for a Supreme t-shirt, are the sheeps of sheeps)

The photos also need fixing. The quality look like those pics sent by chinese suppliers. Heck, even the cheap goods on Aliexpress looks better. I feel for clothing, the photos will be the one doing most of the selling and not the copywriting. The photos need a story, so if one of your design is Balance, the model needs to show that she's one with nature, at peace with herself, some kind of pose, not a generic standing one.

@Late Bloomer : The Collier book you were referring to in your post above, is it this one:
41cdmOrINYL._SX315_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

?
 
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Late Bloomer

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The Collier book you were referring to in your post above, is it this one:

Yes. There's a free pdf version, scanned but full of typos. If you have a hard time finding it, let me know. I just finished a detailed review of it in the 30 day copywriting challenge thread.

on the sleeve of your clothing and replace that with those Eastern patterns, just like a tattoo sleeve on the arm. That would look cool.

That's a great idea, a shirt or sweatshirt that would make people do a doubletake about whether it's decorated clothes or skin. This could be an impressive theme for an Asian inspired, East Meets West line of clothing for people with an adventurous, cross cultural kind of mindset. Theme doesn't mean all the clothes would have to be that way, but some of them are.

The photos need a story, so if one of your design is Balance, the model needs to show that she's one with nature, at peace with herself, some kind of pose, not a generic standing one.

I agree. If this is a lifestyle image identity brand based on how people want to feel about themselves, the photos have got to show that.
 

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Yes. There's a free pdf version, scanned but full of typos. If you have a hard time finding it, let me know. I just finished a detailed review of it in the 30 day copywriting challenge thread.

Yes, I found the PDF version, but then again, I came across another book:

515ADZvr-IL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


It seems pretty interesting, so I bought it (Amazon Kindle version, pretty expensive for a ebook that's only 130 pages), but if building cult/lifestyle/iconic brands are your thing, this book would give you some insight into the psychology of it.

Only bad thing is, it's written in a very dry style, exactly similar to a PhD marketing thesis. The academia sort of writing style, if you will.
 
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Late Bloomer

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I haven't seen that book. Dan Kennedy has a book on marketing to the affluent. Excellent book and very readable. Come join us in the copywriting forum. There's an initial group of books to review but I'd love to see that thread, or another one, continue with further marketing books.
 

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I just took a look at the website again. Aren't all the products still the same as before? I didn't see much of a change.
 

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