Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, link building, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
What are peoples throughts on female and male models. The line is focused towards males. do i use a male/female/both? I am thinking a pretty girl could help sell a shirt but also it is a male who will be wearing the shirts.
Thanks
Last edited by Solmu; August 3rd, 2008 at 09:17 PM.
Reason: split into its own thread
I am thinking a pretty girl could help sell a shirt but also it is a male who will be wearing the shirts.
It depends on the product, on the target demographic, blah blah blah. But take a look at JBS men's underwear; their tagline for one campaign was "Men don't want to look at other naked men."
There are a few potential problems with their advertising campaign. For one they've got that whole Windsor Smith misogyny vibe going on - an automatic risk when using the sex appeal of women to sell a men's product (have you ever seen a chiselled man selling tampons?). For another, it's pretty offensive to the gay market (I would have thought a sizeable market chunk for high end underwear). You've got to look at not just who wears the product, but who actually buys the product - in the case of underwear it is frequently bought by someone other than the person who wears it (i.e. a partner), which is why the ads are designed to appeal to women.
On the other hand, JBS presumably figured they had an opportunity in the form of an untapped market segment (heterosexual men who buy their own clothes) that other companies weren't going after.
Small fish, big pond, vice versa, blah blah blah.
This is why market research is valuable, but they're one market example that's worth taking a look at.
If your target market is only men and you won't be selling to women, I wouldn't show a product shot with a woman in the shirts because it dilutes your marketing focus (which should be as targeted as possible). But if you are targeting both sexes, you can sell a mens shirt, call it "unisex" and show both women and men.
If you want to show a cute girl in the shirts to help sales, you can pull it off, but make the photo more of a "fashion" shot than a straight-on product shot. Maybe a hot girl wearing the shirt, and a hot guy in the background lounging around without a shirt on. Read a few fashion magazines to see what kind of photo I am talking about. That way, you're actually saying something about your brand, rather than the fit of the shirt itself.
Personally I would have a male modelling your garments, but also have at least one photo with a female modelling your garments. Whilst you don't want to develop a site that detracts from what you are selling, you also don't want to create a 'boys club' site either. Lots of women wear guys tees too.
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Re: using male or female models?
i have had women buy my mens tshirts...... i would have a pic of a man and a women together rocking the shirts..... maybe state taht they are unisex shirts or something....
__________________ www.237am.com with featured artists in the blog and other creative things that happens in my life like breakdancing, robottin', welding stuff and supporting the detroit cultures in hip hop, techno, electro, house, etc..........
Our shirts are meant for men, but could be worn by women. Primarily, men model the shirts, but we've utilized the cute girl in the guy shirt technique in some photos and at an expo. She was very popular at the expo.
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Re: using male or female models?
edit.... no more pics for you
__________________ www.237am.com with featured artists in the blog and other creative things that happens in my life like breakdancing, robottin', welding stuff and supporting the detroit cultures in hip hop, techno, electro, house, etc..........
Last edited by 237am; August 6th, 2008 at 03:15 PM.
The top picture works well, but the guy looks like he is stalking, hiding away in the bushes like that? The girl wearing the tee looks great though and really sells the product.
The bottom picture works less for me, as the female model looking direct into the camera is always going to detract us guys away from the shirt itself. I suppose it does raise the subject that it's the tees, that the models have to sell though.
Location: from detroit... now in lodi, jersey for a bit....pick me up
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Re: using male or female models?
hahaha....calling me a stalker.....jk...
this was a random pic my photographer did when he was adjusting his settings.... needed some front/back focus.....
i dont think its a bad thing to show women in guys shirts because alot of girls do wear them......
b
__________________ www.237am.com with featured artists in the blog and other creative things that happens in my life like breakdancing, robottin', welding stuff and supporting the detroit cultures in hip hop, techno, electro, house, etc..........
LOL gawd ... you do look like a stalker! Glad that was a test shot, the gal getting out of the car needs another facial expression (but, having her look at the t-shirt of the other gal was spot on, harder to tell what the "stalker" was actually looking at, lol).
Interesting point regarding the bottom photo, Will. The first thing I did look at were the eyes of the model.
using male or female models? 
Oooops 
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