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.
Do you HAVE to have just one t-shirt design theme per store?
I come up with a wide variety of ideas in a wide variety of categories.
Can I be successful without specializing in just one theme?
I notice pretty much everyone has just one theme except for the really HUGE stores which have a dozen or so categories and thousands of designs. Did you make a conscious business decision to have one theme for marketing reasons or is that just how you wanted to do it?
I have seen a lot of stores with one theme, and a lot with multiple themes. I think either one can be successful, they both have their own pros and cons.
If you have one theme, it is easier to build your brand image and focus your marketing efforts on a specific target market.
If you have a lot of themes, you will have a better selection, and designs that appeal to many different people.
One thing to consider is that if you decide to do multiple themes, make sure your designs aren't in contrast to each other. For example if you had some politically-themed shirts, you wouldn't want a "Pro-something" shirt next to an "Anti-something" shirt.
It's usually much easier to market a niche store with one theme than it is to try to compete with the "t-shirts for every subject" megastores like choiceshirts,tshirtking, etc.
But even within a niche, there are different areas you can target and still have a wide theme.
Personally, I'm going for multiple categories. One thing I've also noticed is that they tend to overlap a lot more than one might think. For example, my mom designed a lot of new age/spriritual t-shirts that we sell, but several customers that like those also like some of the humorous shirts and sometimes end up buying some of each.
Jasonda hit on the most important note - avoid selling things in direct contrast with each other. Some contrast is probably fine - e.g. customers looking at my geek shirts may not really care for the spiritual shirts, but probably won't leave the site because of them (and vice-versa). It's hard to say for sure of course, but my limited experience and instinct tell me that much
Now, if I had offensive shirts next to the spiritual shirts, that would be another story; some people still wouldn't care of course, but others would just leave even if there was a shirt they liked.
what i have found works for me is to do a store with related themes in a single store, but not to do a mega store with everything. But this is just me.
I have noticed what twinge is saying as well. People will buy two seemingly unrelated shirts. You have to know your customers. If you design and like two completely different types of shirts, there is a good chance that some of your customers will too. At the same time however, being the authority on one subject matter is also a big selling point.
im also going to be opening a multi-range store although with similar concepts... targeting a specific market is good when just starting and slowing entering alternatives seems to work well because you can build regular customers before you try to bombard the market doors. Focus on one market (type of person, etc) and build off that, sometimes investing it all in every subject will leave you broke! Take McDonald's for example, they started with burgers and fries.. and now they have breakfast pancakes and snack looking burritos.....
I think it really depends on the number of designs and products you have too. If you only have time or capital for a low number of products, finding a niche would probably be wise for marketing purposes and branding.
I think it really depends on the number of designs and products you have too. If you only have time or capital for a low number of products, finding a niche would probably be wise for marketing purposes and branding.
That's a good point as well. Having 10 categories isn't going to do you much good if every category only has 2 shirts in it.
Just one Theme per store?? 
