theOMB.com

To market and sell our new brand a web site is obviously critical. Our market research and interviews with industry executives all stressed the importance of this site. Although everyone agreed that eventually the site needed to be ultra cool, slick and entertaining; a decision had to be made about how much time and money would be spent on the initial site. We decided that we couldn't afford to develop a fully interactive site until the the brand became established and we better understood our customers. Therefore the existing site was designed for a few basic purposes: 1. introduce and promote the brand, 2. sell the initial clothing, and 3. encourage feedback and discussion about the brand. For a relatively limited budget our hope is to test the brand and get a better understanding of the interest in OMB. The goal is to continue to develop the site over time by adding flash designs and downloads for OMB fans. The process of building the web site has been long and a lot of development and redevelopment has occured. I'll provide more details about all our mistakes in later posts.

Developing The Brand

You can research business ideas forever but eventually you have dive into the shallow end of the pool and hope you don't crack your head. So to get things started we had to focus on the face of the brand, which meant creating the logos. Initially we worked with a "friend-of-a-friend" with expertise in corporate logos and marketing. Though she tried very hard and had some great ideas, developing a brand with attitude targeting kids was just not her forte. So we began the search for help. Through a posting on a job board at a local university we found a guy named Lance. Lance is a web designer with a friend who is a graphic artist, specializing in graffiti art. As it turned out this friend, Tony, knew just what we were looking for. Tony produced multiple variations of text based graphics utilizing OMB and Unleash Your Monkey. But our favorite designs were character based. Building on my vague ideas for a design Tony produced multiple variations of what is now The Monkey of OMB. A couple of these designs can be seen on our initial run of products (www.theOMB.com) but there are many more to come. So the next important step was to trademark and copyright our name, logos and newly developed tag line (Unleash Your Monkey). These relatively un-interesting but critical steps are important for anyone else considering a similar business. In reality, without protection for our logos we have nothing. So special thanks to the attorneys at JaffeRaitt (www.jaffelaw.com) who helped us navigate through that excruciating process. Now with that done we are free to focus on more of the fun stuff.

How To Start A T-Shirt Company

Maybe this is what I should really be researching. There are plenty of examples of companies that have made it big selling creative designs or witty phrases on t-shirts. Just look at David & Goliath (www.davidandgoliathtees.com). Who ever thought you could make $100 million in revenues from Boys Are Mean t-shirts. I guess its all about marketing, finding your niche and getting a bit lucky. But people aren't going to keep buying your stuff if it isn't quality merchandise. So whether OMB sticks with clothing or begins selling products such as skate decks, one of the most important decisions is where/who we buy the gear from. Finding good wholesalers or manufacturers that sell the products we want (youthful, alternative clothing) has not been easy. Right now we are stuck buying through wholesalers due to the relatively small volumes ordered. The limitations with that approach is that we are paying more and our options for custom labeling are restricted. Therefore my first actions after printing the first batch of clothing was to begin researching better options. The cheapest options are obviously overseas producers but I have no idea how a small guy like me safely arranges that transaction. So, like the previous topics, we keep on researching. In the meantime I need to get off my butt and do a better job marketing the OMB brand. Think David & Goliath could find a way to market Unleash Your Monkey to girls? Probably. Maybe they would be willing to mentor our little company.

Benchmarking Other Brands

So there isn't a guidebook to follow when creating a new "boarding" brand but there are a lot quality companies that are worth benchmarking. Volcom (www.volcom.com), Hurley International (www.hurley.com), Billabong (www.billabong.com) and of course Vans (www.vans.com) are some of the big names we researched. In addition we looked into a few lesser names but solid brands such as Dirtbag Clothing (www.dirtbagclothing.com). All of these started small, by putting their brand on select products, and grew through quality products and guerilla marketing. The difference is that many of the brands we researched began by producing products as opposed to clothing. Generally they produced skate or surfboards and developed their brand off the products they produced. Today they still produce products but make their real money off the clothing. So we've tried to bypass the first step and go right to clothing. Many of the local shop owners we've talked to have said this is the wrong way to go about it because kids buy clothing labled with the brand of the products they ride. That may be true so we are also researching pure clothing/t-shirt start-ups. That list of companies is pretty large and we are still trying to determine the best ones to benchmark. Got a suggestion, let me know. Until then, we continue to research the best path to follow. And so the learning continues.

In the beginning . . .

As I said in my first post, I am attempting to create a new brand targeted towards people interested in board sports (skateboard, snowboard, surfing) and other "alternative" activities (bmx, music, gaming, etc.). The brand is OMB and stands for Original Monkey Bastard. This is a name given to me by some friends a few years ago. On our website (www.theOMB.com) I attempt to explain exactly what an OMB is, it mostly has to do with your attitude.

For years we discussed how OMB would be a great "alternative" brand name. The monkey reference makes it fun and the use of bastard makes it irreverent. In today's world of "anti-brands" we thought it may fit right in. But getting started wasn't easy. I don't have a merchandising, marketing or retail background so this was totally new. I'm a snowboarder and occasionally surf so at least I have some connection to the lifestyle.

There is a huge difference between talking about starting your own brand and actually doing it. The commitment of time and money is the differentiator. To get started I did a lot of research on how to start a retail business, creating a new brand, merchandising, purchasing patterns of different demographics and of course, investigated the competition. Unfortunately a guide book doesn't exist for brand start-ups (there's a little more on clothing start-ups) which is one reason why I decided to start this blog. Maybe someone else can benefit from what I've learned. Just don't use it to compete against me!

A.K.A. Original Monkey Blogger

Let's Get It Started!

So many topics to talk about, so few people that care. Oh well.

I set this blog up to document the trial and tribulations of starting a new "alternative" brand targeted towards the followers of Board sports. We just got the web site done: www.theOMB.com and now the marketing begins. But first I'll back track and let you know how I got to this point. Check back soon for updates. Got advice or have questions? I'm always interested in feedback, just drop me an email.

Talk at you later.

The OMB