MARKET RESEARCH

CREATING A CLOTHING LINE

What are we doing?

• Identifying a niche market (write answers in sketchbook)
  • " In advertising terminology, niche market refers to a group of consumers sharing a common background, interests and consequently buying habits. The commonality may be age, race, hobbies, sports, gender, or any feature which creates a recognizable and quantifiable preferences that result in spending patterns and habits. The successful marketing campaign is one which effectively speaks to the interests of the individuals in a particular group and capitalizes on those interest in order to sell them something they want or need." from nichemarket.com
• Creating a profile of consumers in that niche market (write answers in sketchbook)
  • What do the consumers have in common?
    • While there is diversity in all groups, is there a majority in terms of
      • age, gender, location
    • Income level of the consumers
    • What are the spending habits of the consumers
    • Hobbies and interests of the consumers
    • Other important information about the consumers
• Researching the competition (write answers and paste pictures in sketchbook)
  • Identify other companies selling to the niche market
  • Print out some of their images and put in sketchbook
  • Based on the images, identify several trends in the market
• Designing your own products for the market (first sketch in sketchbook, then design digitally)
  • at least 3 t-shirt designs
  • based on your research
  • based on your own ideas
• Making items available for sale on CafePress.com
  • when designing, make sure you adhere to image size requirements of cafepress
    • for Illustrator: make sure you create a document that is 2000x2000 px.
    • for Photoshop: make sure the image size is 10x10 in. at 200 dpi
    • for more info, click here

CHECKLIST: What should I turn in /participate in? What will be graded?

• All above information in sketchbook
• The three digitally created designs
• Class Critique/Reflection
• Classroom citizenship (attitude, effort, clean-up)
  
  
  

What should I make sure to do? What should I think about?

• Make sure that your designs fit the niche YET are unique enough that consumers will buy your product over your competitors.
• Identify trends in the niche, but think of ways to change or go beyond the trends.
• Make sure that you are in control, not the computer. Have reasons for the design looking the way it does. Go in and re-do or change areas if needed. There is no need to rush.

What should I do if I need help?

Ask Ms. Epp. That is what she is there for!