Why Knowing Your Customer is so Important for Your Fashion Business

It should be no surprise that your customer should be at the center of your fashion business. It is her needs that your business serves. Having a clear idea of who your customer is can guide your marketing, determine what opportunities to pursue, and help you design products.

In any business, your customer and target audience will determine how you show and communicate your brand to the world. The colors of your branding, layout of your store, and styling of your website photography may all be influenced by the type of customer you are trying to reach. Knowing your customer will also help you build a consistent and effective “voice” for your messaging. Take note of how your customer speaks, writes, and shares on social media. Is it formal, informal, full of emojis? Find where she is and communicate in her language.

Deep knowledge of your customer will also guide what social media your brand should be active on. Where does your customer hang out? What groups is she in? Does she read emails, scroll a certain social platform, or listen to podcasts? There is no point wasting your time on a media channel that doesn’t reach your customer. Do the research and really get to know how your customer communicates and spends her time so that you can stay in conversation with her.

Knowing your customer isn’t just important for your messaging, it also helps you determine what opportunities to pursue and what products to invest in for your business. The more you can know about your customer’s lifestyle, values, problems, and wants, the better. Where does she shop? What pricepoints or other brands does she purchase? What matters to her? What does her daily life look like and what type of clothing is needed for those activities?

If your products can make her life easier, help her achieve something she desires, or alleviate a frustration that she has, you will end up with a happy customer and a profitable business. The key is to know your customer so well that you are able to read her mind and find the opportunities that are a good fit for your business.

In a fashion business especially, knowing your customer is so important. Clothing, sizing, and fit are so personal and specific to a type of customer. To design successfully for your audience, you need to know not only who she is, but what her lifestyle is and what she looks like. If you serve a niche market, this is especially important. If you research your customer and find out the majority are petite, or large-chested, or curvy, or athletic, you can use this information to design and develope clothing styles that are the perfect fit for her.

There is no one size fits all, in my opinion. Even for two customers who measure the same size, your customer may prefer a tighter or looser fit overall. There is no way to know this unless you know your customer.

Your customer’s lifestyle determines how you design your products as well. You may find that your customer base is primarily women working in a formal corporate world, or that many of them are mothers, or perhaps the majority travel frequently. This type of customer information can steer your decisions on fabric choices, functionality, trendiness, color, and even seasonality of your designs.

Even your customer’s values are an important consideration for your designs. Customers are more likely to get excited about your brand if you share in what they care about. What she values and cares about may be environmentally friendly materials, unique and exclusive designs, U.S. made products, womens’ rights, etc. Knowing your customer will help you determine what is important to her.

There are so many ways that knowing your customer is important for your fashion brand. What it all comes down to, though, is knowing how to best serve your customer and solve her problems. The more information you can find about your customer, the more your brand will resonate with your audience, and the more you’ll be able to design products that she’ll absolutely love.