Over the last week I've spent a great deal of time thinking at large about NYX and it's product line. The two companies that I've started to research and study as of late are Lululemon and Under Armour. Both of these companies essentially have built their product line around a niche market for which both expanded upon within their first six months of existence. For example, Lululemon started with basic yoga stretchy pants that did wonders for the female figure (in most cases) and later on expanded their product line to hoodies, yoga mats, shorts, tops, and eventually a mens line. Under Armour took a similar path except instead of stretchy pants they introduced a wellbranded shirt for athletes that was breathable, well designed, and trendyAlthough some of the issues I mention below are six months to a year in the future, I think it's important for us to think about the following three issues that pertain to our brand as a whole:
1) Product Line: Is their room for expansion?
Given the nature of our offering, the one issue I foresee in the future is product expansion. We've already talked about introducing a variety of different shirts with varying degrees of resistance; however, beyond that do how do we expand?
We discussed this a little bit during our team meeting today and came up with a number of interesting ideas. First of all, we thought about designing specific shirts for certain sports (football, hockey, swimming, etc). Each of these sports use specific muscles and for this reason introducing a line of shirts with varying resistance could be one way NYX could expand it's product line in the future.
2) Brand Identity
After analyzing successful clothing companies like Lululemon and Under Armour, it is obvious that brand identity has played a large role in shaping and attracting a niche market. For NYX, I feel that we need to determine where our source of brand identity resides. I think one of our biggest challenges ahead is going to be discovering who we are and how we leverage our brand identity in a way that entices early adopters.
3) Lifestyle Vs. Athletic/Performance - Perhaps Both?
Another important decision that further builds on brand identity, is whether or not we decide to follow in the footstep of many successful apparel companies and focus on developing a lifestyle brand. Essentially lifestyle brands aim to sell their product by convincing potential customers that this identity (the brands identity) will be reinforced or supplemented if they publicly associate themselves with the brand. Companies like Louis Vuitton, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Lululemon have all taken this approach and have had great success. However, attempting to integrate a lifestyle into a shirt that is primarily designed for performance could be difficult. For this reason, I believe it may be in our best interest to somehow marry the two and see what it looks like.
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When you're talking about designing shirts for specific sports (football, hockey, swimming), do people wear NYX while playing these sports? Or do they wear them for both sports and under everyday clothing? I'm just wondering how you would design something for swimming...that might be a little more difficult to get into adding in the factor of water. Talking about how you're going to expand, would you think about expanding and doing other articles of clothing such as shorts or pants?
Originally we had the idea to put it under everyday wear , but we have evolved the idea. Athletes would just wear the shirt under their equipment during practices and training ot increase their strength. We eventually do want to move to shorts, pants and possibly full body suits.
We hadn't even thought about swimming, we will have to look into it! Thanks!