Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, local marketing tips, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
I have the name of a brand of apparel I want to market (I'd rather not say right now though) and was trying to decide on my website address.
Should I use brandname.com OR should I use something like brandnameapparel.com or ....wear.com, or tees.com
You get the idea.
I'm thinking the ...apparel.com or wear.com would be more descriptive, but my tees (tees at first and I'll get into other clothing items later) are going to be heavily branded...and what I mean by that is that basically, I'm trying to sell an certain attitude.
thoughts?
Last edited by darwyn; February 20th, 2007 at 11:05 AM.
Reason: funky html tags inserted
Well, in my search to get a domain name, everything is taken except THEbrandname.com. So it's either that or brandnamewear.com. No one to my knowledge is using my brand name to sell apparel though.
I was just wondering which would be the most impactful.
I'm leaning toward THEbrandname.com
Of course, brand name = the name I'm not telling you yet. Sorry, I'm still in the infancy stages here but I think it's a great idea.
Last edited by darwyn; February 20th, 2007 at 11:27 AM.
Reason: funky html tags
...are going to be heavily branded...and what I mean by that is that basically, I'm trying to sell an certain attitude.
thoughts?
heavy branding meaning a lot of exposure ?
then any short name that its easy to remember is all you need. Look at the BRICK name, they sell furniture. No connection there.
I find when you add things like wear...tees...etc. to the brand name, you are boxing yourself in or confuse it with the same name brand that belongs to someone else (without the wear..tees..etc). Things change and you may need to expand into who knows what beyond t-shirts....
you could be selling tees today, but in a few years you may find that selling funky long socks is what your brand is know for. (example) ..it does happen.
heavy branding meaning a lot of exposure ?
then any short name that its easy to remember is all you need.
I find when you add things like wear...tees...etc. to the brand name, you are boxing yourself in or confuse it with the same name brand that belongs to someone else (without the wear..tees..etc). Things change and you may need to expand into who knows what beyond t-shirts....
you could be selling tees today, but in a few years you may find that selling funky long socks is what your brand is know for. (example) ..it does happen.
Heavy branding meaning I'd be selling this concept that happens to be on t-shirts. My efforts will be to make this concept synonomous with my brand...but yeah, I'm going to be do ALL the work (webdesign, tee designs, marketing, advertising, etc.), so as much money as that frees up as possible will be going to exposure.
So, in this case, I'd have to agree with you about boxing myself in. I'll check into buying that domain name (without ...wear, or ...tees).
Thanks! You guys have been a great help!
I'm still a good 3-6 months from launch (it's a lot of work! ), but I'll be posting a site review when I'm done.
Since my brandname domain was taken and after some thought, I figured I'd use THEbrandname. So I try to register it...and someone took it two days ago!!
ARGhhh!
So I went ahead and immediately registered brandnameWEAR and brandnameBRAND.
It'll do for now I guess.
Oh! ...almost forgot...hostmysite.com is registering domains for $2.95 till Wednesday the 28th! If you are going to register a domain, now is the time.
Since my brandname domain was taken and after some thought, I figured I'd use THEbrandname. So I try to register it...and someone took it two days ago!!
Well that stinks. I bet someone saw the post here and nabbed it. I know some artists that did that many years back as they later sold the names for a pretty penny. Sorry to hear.
Good Luck with your new ones.
Well that stinks. I bet someone saw the post here and nabbed it. I know some artists that did that many years back as they later sold the names for a pretty penny. Sorry to hear.
Good Luck with your new ones.
I was thinking that too, but I never mentioned what the "brandname" was here on these posts, for the exact reason you mentioned. I have to believe that it's either a huge coincidence, or someone did some some legwork to figure that out. Cuz in this thread, I mentioned I called and emailed the owner of the site.
It sucks, but at least I now have a relatively good spot to start my business.
Keep it simple (ie no "THe, Brand, apparel, wear, etc after for before your words." If need be settle on .net. Hello people... AmericanApparel.net. Granted they use americanapparelSTORE.com too, but they are a big company you are small and the extra words only hurt your brand in the beginning. I suggest reading the book 22 immutable laws of branding.
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Designer in fashion hungry D.C. www.jonwye.com
Brand name 
), but I'll be posting a site review when I'm done.
