Branding a Clothing Line – Tips, Techniques and Inspiration

What’s the secret formula behind the success of companies in the fashion industry? One key answer lies in perfecting the branding of a clothing line.

Whether you run a clothing brand, a home bakery, or a subscription box service, one question will consistently arise:

What can I do to keep up with the best in the game?

Even if you’re already at the top, are there strategies that can solidify your position even further?

A major aspect of this is your branding.

Customers judge your brand from various angles. They’ll scrutinize your website, form opinions about your logo, your banners, and even how you interact with them.

Branding a clothing line is a broad and complex subject. And this article aims to help you navigate it. I’ll cover:

• How major brands approach their branding
• What to keep in mind when building your brand
• How to adapt your branding for different sales models
• How to use packaging, such as shipping mailers and custom mailer bags, as an essential part of your brand identity

Emotional Branding for a Clothing Line

In nearly every consumer behavior course, you’ll hear about the concept of “irrational consumer choice.” The idea here is that most of your customers make purchases based on impulses.

Let’s be real—we’ve all bought a chocolate bar sitting next to the cash register at some point. Did you need it? Probably not. But it was probably really good.

That purchase was driven by impulse.

These impulses are deeply connected to the emotions a person feels when they see a product or a specific brand.

Branding a clothing line—just like any other business—is about building emotions around it.

Numerous studies have shown that emotions are critical to driving sales and customer retention. People stay loyal to brands they feel emotionally connected to. According to Forrester’s 2017 research, both behavioral and emotional metrics play a crucial role in helping businesses grow, especially in terms of customer retention.

The most effective way to grasp the importance of emotion-driven branding is to learn from well-established companies that have already won their customers’ hearts.

Take Burberry, for example—a London-based brand that has mastered the art of “emotional branding.”

Burberry, a company with over 150 years of history, initially focused on creating garments exclusively for men. Its iconic product was the trench coat, which catered to London’s upper class.

However, as time passed, fashion trends evolved. Burberry had to adapt to these shifts in the market. Just as companies today may adapt by incorporating unique packaging, like bubble mailers or custom poly mailers, Burberry recognized that they needed to reframe their brand image.

One of the most natural moves for Burberry was to embrace the feminine side of fashion. The brand, once exclusively for men, became an elegant trendsetter for both men and women. Leveraging its well-established reputation, Burberry transitioned smoothly and used its British heritage to its advantage.

How did they do this?

To gain more social proof, Burberry collaborated with popular British model Kate Moss, much like modern brands might use custom shipping bags or padded envelopes with branded designs to connect with customers.

Burberry’s luxury brand was distinctly “local,” rooted deeply in British tradition. By harnessing decades of expertise in the clothing industry, Burberry created a unique branding strategy that couldn’t easily be replicated. Much like how some brands stand out with their own packaging choices—think bulk shipping supplies or shipping bags—Burberry's identity was tied to its authenticity.

The story of Burberry highlights the need for brands to anchor their branding in something distinctive. It could be the founder’s expertise, the brand’s country of origin, or another unconventional value. This differentiation, whether through branding or even how products are delivered in carefully designed custom mailer bags, is what sets a brand apart.