“Fashion branding is the context that surrounds the garment as well as the image that designers, retailers, manufacturers, and promotional consultants create in order to encourage consumers to buy new items.” (Brand Story; Hancock, Joseph; 5) An extremely important part of this image is the name that is chosen to represent the brand. After much debate, word play, and diliberation the name of the company is A.B.Citified. The name is a play on words as well as my own name that plays with the knowledgable consumer in a cheeky way. “Fashion branding can make fashion seem fun, exciting, innovative, and unique; fashion brands need a solid identity to be understood by consumers.” (Brand Story; Hancock, Joseph; 5)
The idea of A.B.Citified is simple. The A.B stands simply for my initials, the owner of the company, Andrew Baker. After people come into the store and meet me, they will quickly understand this reference. The clothing that I create is clothing that I would wear every day of my life, it is not so much a fashion brand as a collection of clothing for how I feel a young, urban man should dress. By putting my name, and therefore my image in the brand name, it will build an element of trust with the consumer. “In the process, (he) creates a brand that is distinctly (his)” (Brand Story; Hancock, Joseph; 143) Citified may be a stretch for the average consumer but a young professional should be able to surmise (or quickly be able to look up) that citified means simply a characteristic of or adjusted to an urban environment. It’s a cheeky way to say that our clients reside mostly in cities and not rural areas. There is also a meaning the simple A.B.C letter choice. Dressing should be as easy in the morning as saying one’s ABCs, A.B.Citified creates clothing that will allow this to happen for the young gentleman. He can go into his closet and grab almost any variation of items out of it and with certainty leave his apartment looking his best.
As stated before this logo will not be splashed all over our clothing. Our brand is more about the clothing than the brand itself. We will still be branding ourselves but in a different manner than many of our competitors. “(the clients) may need a visual break, or moment to breathe. There will be a company that stands up and says ‘we are the anti-branding’ company. Think about it…an all white background with a pin dot in the center…you would remember this just the same as a font, bold color, or a jingle.” (Brand Story; Hancock, Joseph; 133)
