The business goal of any apparel company is to maximize its profits. To maximize profits a company must sell their products by attracting customers. To attract customers a company must first be able to present themselves in a way that grasps the attention of consumers. In today’s world, the clothing industry finds itself sharply focused on the internet as a means to reach wider audiences while the popular use of personal computers and smartphones continues to grow. The internet poses a challenge to clothing businesses today for two reasons: 1) a distinctly different environment to promote one’s company 2) a new source of competition in the form of e-commerce to compete with. Many questions arise with these problems, and my research will focus on how clothing brands can effectively expand and differentiate themselves from others in the age of internet, using the knowledge of experts in the fields of marketing, branding, and the clothing industry. With the rise of cheap online-only stores, competition in the clothing industry has reached unprecedented height, and the need to stand out from the competition is essential for emerging clothing brands. In this current landscape of fashion most experts would agree with Carsten Keller, VP of Europe’s leading online fashion platform, Zalando SE, that a successful clothing brand must sell more than just clothes. Keller argues that “apparel consumers not only want to see a level of freshness in their products, but also in the entire shopping experience” [1]. This would explain the rise of brands and an upswing in brand based content in fashion. In Alina Wheeler’s book, Designing Brand Identity, this idea is explained in further detail. According to Wheeler, “individuals, communities, and organizations express their individuality through their identity” and a brand’s identity allows people to feel a similar connection with a specific company. Branding savant Wally Olins explained it as thus: “in a world that is bewildering in terms of competitive clamour, in which ration choice has become almost impossible, brands represent clarity, reassurance, consistency, status, membership - everything that enables human beings to help define themselves. Brands represent identity” [2]. Branding in the clothing industry is seeing consumers seamlessly intertwine a brand’s identity with a part of their own and it is revolutionizing the business. In his book, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Mitch Meyerson discusses effective tactics to markets one’s brand. Meyerson gets several testimonials from online marketing experts, and their advice on how to harness the internet is invaluable. One major dimension of the internet that is recognized as a crucial place to promote one’s brand is social media. Kim Garst, founder and CEO of a major social media marketing firm ‘Boom! Social’, gives the most compelling reason for using social media, saying, “Why social media? Because it’s highly likely that your target market is spending a good deal of time there. In fact, recent research indicates that 73 percent of internet users are now actively using social media” [3]. Now, while experts can’t argue with numbers, there is no clear marketing strategy on how clothing brands can do this effectively. To simply promote a brand’s identity via pushing brand content online is not good enough anymore according to branding expert Douglass Holt in his Harvard Business Review article ‘Branding in the Age of Social Media’. Holt claims in his research that “it turns out consumers have little interest in the content that brands churn out. Most view it as clutter—as brand spam” [4]. Based on Holt’s conclusion it seems that the ways brand content is effectively marketed has changed in recent years to a more subtle approach to marketing a brand’s agenda and influence. If the clothing industry has been forced to a more subtle marketing approach, then developing clothing brands might have a harder time differentiating themselves from each other. While all that is true, it remains easy to get a clothing line underway. There are countless guides on the basics of starting a clothing business that can be found online. On the everything online commerce website Lemonade Stand, there is an article titled “How to Start a Clothing Line: Your Complete Guide to Design, Sampling, Production & Packaging” that details the elements needed to start a clothing line, going in great detail about various aspects of the process. The problem: virtually none of these resources give council on how a company can truly emerge as its own entity rather than just another copycat clothing company that is simply following what has known to work ‘well-enough’ but has failed to give a guide to sustainable growth and success [5]. My research will aim to find the other 10% of a clothing brand that really makes brands unique and special so that they can sustain themselves and evolve. Pieces of this puzzle exist, but they have yet to be bridged together. My research intends to fill in the missing links between these resources in order to make a model of how to manage a retail business in an online environment. Engaging with successful brands’ online presences such as Supreme, Patagonia, and Tommy Hilfiger and using them as case studies will allow me to see patterns in the ways companies maintain a consistent identity and presence that reaches their target audiences effectively. I will also be conducting interviews with professionals in the world of marketing, fashion, branding, and a fellow entrepreneur who has started his own clothing brand. These interviews will provide crucial insight on the current state of said industry and how it has evolved and adapted to a technology dominated environment. Detailing how the clothing industry is shifting to incorporate marketing and branding online is important, because it gives everyday people who feel like they have something to offer the business the tools to make change. [1] Keller, Carsten, et al. “Succeeding in Tomorrow's Global Fashion Market.” McKinsey & Company, Sept. 2014, www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/succeeding-in-tomorrows-global-fashion-market. [2] Wheeler, Alina. Designing Brand Identity: a Complete Guide to Creating, Building and Maintaining Strong Brands. John Wiley, 2006 [3] Meyerson, Mitch. Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars. Entrepreneur Press, 2015. [4] Holt, Douglas. “Branding in the Age of Social Media.” Harvard Business Review, 9 June 2016, hbr.org/2016/03/branding-in-the-age-of-social-media. [5] Lazazzera, Richard. “How to Start a Clothing Line: Your Complete Guide to Design, Sampling, Production & Packaging.” A Better Lemonade Stand, 1 Sept. 2017, www.abetterlemonadestand.com/how-to-start-a-clothing-line/#37.