How can I find a quality printer in NYC to publish a book of my company's past work?

Your brand must conjure associations beyond the clothing itself. Fabric is only fabric. Attractive design matters, but market competition is enough to drive down prices. If you intend to ask a premium, then your product line must SUGGEST more than it literally is. Eventually, certain brands reach maturity and can point to an established reputation or high-profile adoption by the rich and famous. But you can start out by honing a brand "story" that captivates attention. Parts of that story are visual; others are verbal. Naming -- which is a large part of what I do -- is crucial when it comes to instantaneous unconscious communication. The right name tells your story for you on first contact with investors or consumers. Thereafter, it echoes in the mind, resonating with associations people bring to your product from their own experiences. Those associations add value. This is true whether you're a luxury brand or a maker of upscale outdoor gear like Patagonia, which takes its name from rugged South American highlands. In addition to your brand name, I would recommend paying close attention to all of your written copy. Make it unified and stylish ... in whatever way best fits your product line and intended audience.

printful.com howwedrink.com

I think you should do neither. You need to crystallize your intention and brand message on several levels, and make sure that your product and business model are revolutionary enough to make a splash in the fashion pond. From there, you can launch and then immediately alternate between courting press and aligning with "women in business" (not sure who you're referring to exactly). But of the two, press and drumming up sales are the most important. Once you have some footing, you can work on aligning yourself with the right brands for strategic partnerships. Ok but back to your product. it's unclear who you are and what your product is. In your about section, resist the temptation to make it just a string of attempted taglines. You are saying a lot of words that don't, in the end, "say" anything to me. You want at most, two really, really strong taglines that explain the essence of what you do and how it's different from what others do. I am going to just dissect company's about section "Rciprocity is The Heart of Luxury." Ok, this doesn't say anything to me because there are thousands of companies with the same tagline. Kill this. "We create extraordinary handbags, so women can create an extraordinary life." This is very vague. "The first luxury brand and platform with a social mission – RCI – Recognition, Contribution, Inspiration." This statement is not true, there have been plenty of attempts in the luxury sphere with social consciousness as the peg toward purchases. Do research on Donna Karan's initiatives or the 7th on Sale Fashion Fund. Look at http://www.shopethica.com/ and others and figure out how you can do what they do, but better. "Traditional handbags do a poor job of telling the world who you are." Is this the problem that you think most women have? I would argue that most women can articulate who they are but they can't find well made bags at reasonable costs which makes me wonder where your bags are made. "Rciprocity is breaking all the the rules to bring you handbags and clutches that are socially conscious just like you." Cut this and get to the point, how are they socially conscious? Each bag helps women in need to be self-sufficient by funding education projects and small business aspirations. Ok great,. What are these education projects, are you doing them. Are they in conjunction with another business or non profit?Small business aspirations? I'm wondering how the money is put to use in something that is merely an aspiration. Maybe cut "aspirations" "Unlike other designer brands, these bags can’t be imitated. Why? Because the intrinsic value of each bag lies in what each one sold means for the global community." This makes little sense, try not to make vague, brushstroke statements like this. The bags can be replicated. "Each Rciprocity bag sold gives 10 per cent of the retail price toward our Clutch Fund. The Clutch Fund is then allocated to women in need." Ok great, this should be your opening paragraph after any tagline you put up. you need to go into what the clutch fund actually is. in concrete details (backed with numbers) what value does it bring to women? Also who are these women? Are they impoverished?Are they in the US? How old are they? How did you find one. How does one apply for funding? This is all info that you need to outline the last few paragraphs. Not to burst your bubble but 10% doesn't seem to be a lot. Ok I'll stop but the rest of your about us section doesn't say who you are, how you came to this idea, how (in concrete terms) it helps women. Where are these bags made? Who is making them? Who is designing them? You should list yourself as the Founder of Rciprocity, not as an aspiring makeup artist, this dilutes and distracts from the purpose of your project. Your bags are not bad but they do look like bags from Tory Burch, Michael Kors, etc I am only letting you know that because of this, you need to try much harder to distinguish the background of your project to get people and press to pay attention. Once you've figured out all of this, I could see it being placed in People, US Weekly, Lucky and InStyle easily. I hope all of this helps, best of luck!

One of your big opportunities is positioning yourself in the B2B rather than B2C space. I've consulted for a bow tie e-commerce retailer and one thing I know from that is just how competitive the B2C space is for men's accessories when looking at SEO/SEM etc. as a promotional method. One major opportunity for you as a manufacturer though is in the positioning yourself as a distributor and even dropshipper if you have the capacity. Suppliers and manufacturers are notoriously poor at promotion and hence a lot of e-commerce startups looking for quality suppliers will have difficulty finding them. This presents you with a great opportunity to acquire customers that are going to give you far higher lifetime value of customers than pure retail transactions and without the immense competition of the B2C space. As I've had a lot of experience in both the e-commerce side and in working with distributors and manufacturers, I'd be more than happy to discuss further with you a strong go-to-market strategy. Cheers, Mike

Facebook ads are not effective and actually far too costly for independent businesses. Unless you have a huge advertising budget, I don't advise it. To break into the hipster market You need 3 things. Great (concise) story, Great branding, and social engagement. Luckily, you have "provenance"----the place of origin or earliest known history of something. Provenance is an important quality to convey in your brand's story especially when targeting the hipster demographic who are preoccupied by the origin of all things----they're generally well educated and like to know where everything that they consume comes from. Great branding: Branding is a combination of visual consistency that positions you as different from competitors. I would consider coming up with a different name. Warmth of Russia, to me, seems long and vague. Maybe going back to the idea of provenance, is there a Russian word that's easy to pronounce and unique? Maybe the particular city where the scarves are made of. Maybe some Russian lore that can be woven into your product's story. I would make a list of 50 different names and then narrow it down to something that you think clicks. I would redesign your site and visuals as well with consideration to photographic styles, font type, colors etc to something a little edgier and different. To me, the colors, font type seem a bit retiring, snoozy. Happy to discuss more because this is a bit more nuanced. As for your site, Squarespace is a great option for making a great, professional looking e-commerce site, and they make it hard to design anything bad. Related to this, excellent SEO practice will bring more traffic to your site. I'm sure there are plenty here on Clarity who can advise you on best practices there. Next, Social Engagement. You need to demonstrate people using your scarves, the making of the scarves, where the scarves come from, the yarn used for the scarves, etc. You can take pictures of all of these things and tell the story visually all on instagram. If you haven't already made an Instagram account, I would do so immediately. It will take time, but you can build a loyal following of people who believe in your brand story if you do a good job of visually telling it, and engaging with followers. Obviously there's more to it than just this but happy to discuss more specifically once you've thought more about what this brand is. Hope all of this helps, best of luck!~