After working with hundreds of brands, we’ve got an inside look at how they are run. Here’s a list of things some brands do and unfortunately undermine their success.

1. Do no continuous market research. Have no interest in what’s going on in your market – what your competitors are doing ad or what new players are popping up.

2. Make everyone your customer. The thinking goes: the wider the audience, the better.

3. Don’t understand the need of being “your own consumer”. Think there is no advantage to using your own products and fully understanding how your customers see and experience your products. 

4. There’s a conviction that doing things as you’ve always done them – 10 years ago – work fine today as well.

5. Don’t get the need of writing a business plan, you will decide things along the way.

6. Don’t stick to and plan according to a solid schedule. You miss deadlines constantly – irritating the crap out of your team, buyers, retailer, and end consumers.

7. You know what’s best for your brand, there is no need to listen to “experts”. You’ll find a solution soon….

8. You think there is no need to spend time on nailing your product costings – the prices are probably, roughly, potentially ok

9. You launch too many new products without doing a thorough collection structure, checking gaps, and bad/good sellers 

10. You don’t plan for collection consistency in colors and materials.

11. You have no collection price strategy with a clear matrix.

12. You have wrongly priced products, because you haven’t done your market research

13. You use cheap materials and cheap workmanship, because no one will notice and you focus only on your margins

14. You treat and pay suppliers and manufacturers like shit, because they “work for you”.

15. You think that it’s enough to make the products and then people will come to buy it.

16. You look at what your competitors are doing and you believe that it’s “safer” to copy their stuff and strategy, than to go your own way.

17. You don’t focus on building a true team spirit and culture so departments work in silos. 

18. You talk, discuss, and throw out ideas, but never take action. You don’t have strategies and frameworks for ideation and product innovation.

19. You think the projects will run quickly and hustle-free, so you don’t build in contingency buffers.

20. You believe you can transition to a more “sustainable business” without investing in a competent team or consultants to educate existing employees. 

21. You don’t have a true purpose, except for making money.

22. You don’t test your products enough: usage, washing, function, and quality.

23. You don’t know the brand’s WHY and what you’re trying to achieve.

24. You never determine, understand, and communicate your core values for the business.

25. You forget that it is all about the customer and don’t focus on truly understanding who your customer really is.

26. You underestimate the importance of design in all aspects of your business.

27. You focus on dumb shit. E.g. you spend a lot of time and money on a fancy photoshoot, where you only use 4 sec of a video in your marketing materials. 

28. You ignore building TRUE relationships with your suppliers, manufacturers, retail partners, agents, and end consumers. 

29. You don’t dare to push the brand, to be bold, be unique. 

30. You overwork and underpay your team, because they “should feel privileged working for you”.