This is the third post in a series of blogs to give people tips and advice for starting their own t-shirt lines. This idea was conceived from the numerous phone calls and daily inquires people make regarding this topic and it’s our hope that the readers will find this series helpful and informative. Be sure to check out the other two posts [links?] and stay tuned for more!

Today we want to discuss the importance of doing your homework when it comes to knowing your audience. What we mean is, it’s very important to ask yourself “who am I trying to sell my t-shirts to?”. This will influence all aspects of your business! For example you come up with completely different designs if you’re marketing to baby boomers as opposed to Gen X-ers. You’ll also have vastly different designs if you’re focusing on say the tech/sci-fi crowd versus the music crowd. These are just two VERY basic examples and there’s a huge ‘niche’ potential. Of course you may want to focus on ‘mass appeal’, but even there it’s STILL important to know exactly which ‘masses’ you want to appeal to.

Once you have your target audience in mind, you’ll want to consider various aspects about them. For example, what is their culture like? What types of references and common history do they share? This too will heavily impact the designs you come up with. You’ll also want to bear in mind what they are likely to spend their money on in the first place. It’s a good idea to get a feel for where they often like to shop. Online and/or offline? Who are your competitors? What types of products do the stores that are popular with this group carry? What are prices and purchase volumes like?

Another useful thing to find out is what sites and other areas of the internet do they inhabit? This will be important to discover not only so that you can gain more information on their interests and ‘personalities’, but also so that you can consider marketing to them. Would you want to buy ad space on one of the popular sites for this group of people? Would you be able to tailor it to appeal to them?

Remember, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. If something has been working well with your demographic and you’re able to establish yourself as a strong, viable option to them then there’s no reason to think similar strategies won’t prove useful to you as well!