Branding in Iranian Apparel Industry; Obstacles and Solutions (Case Study: Yazd City)

As creating and developing brands is very important in the promotion of any industry, supporting existing brands and facilitating the creation of new ones in the apparel industry, will pave the way to boost exports and flourish the industry. The aim of this descriptive study was to identify and investigate the branding challenges in the Iranian apparel industry and to find strategies to overcome the challenges based on the opinions and suggestions of consumers and textile experts.  For this purpose, questionnaires were designed for two target populations, i.e., consumers and industry experts. 385 consumers filled either the web-based (160) or the paper-based (225) questionnaires. 34 textile experts also responded and 29 of them filled the paper-based questionnaires. Statistical analysis with the confidence level of 0.05 was performed to investigate the responses. The results showed that “being influenced by people around” had the most significant effect on “the purchasing branded garments”, and “the consumer spending power” had a meaningful correlation with “the brand familiarity”. Based on the consumers’ and experts’ responses, the most common branding challenges and opportunities in the textile industry were listed and the solutions to the challenges facing the garment industry were proposed.