I'll start by saying focus on what you can do not what others are doing...by all means, monitor your competitors (once you establish them) and do some good old SWOT analysis...
Strengths - what does/will your company have that your competition won't be able to do, or how will you be different/better than them..focus on this element and make sure that when marketing yourself you make your key strength clear from the get go..
Weakness - how is your competitor than you? in what way? I think its fair to assume that initially the main advantage that all your competitors will have is brand recognition (to a certain degree at least depending on how successful they are). How can you improve on your weakness? before launching get the word out, work, hustle (Gary V style), post, comment, blog, social media yourself to the brink of death so that when launch day comes at least some people will know about it..reducing your weakness...the other key thing competitors will have will be trust from customers that the product/service is reliable so from day one ensure you have everything in place to ensure timely delivery of quality goods so that you can quickly earn customer trust...happy customers talk nicely about you and get you more customers - unhappy customers shout angrily about you and end your business..
Opportunity - what has your competitor overlooked? What area of your niche or market have they not successfully reached out to? how can you reach out to them? what is your USP (unique selling point) that will give you the opportunity that your competitor doesn't have..this may not be an actual tangible betterment of any good or service that your competitor provides but market it differently, bundle it nicely, present cleverly..
Threat - what is your achilles heal? where can it all go wrong? what other company or competitor can compete in your niche? thing of worst case scenarios and how you will be able to turn them into positives or bounce back..always have a reliable plan B..or C..that could be if trying to sell online and it just doesn't work out yet you have a load of stock do some research on potential retail outlets that may stock your tees (or whatever)..figure out how to approach them and start working on associated materials to give to them upon meeting them...and, if plan A (selling online) does happen to take off there is no harm in getting another revenue stream going too..
I've been setting up my brand for the last 3 months or so now and these are things I've thought about and worked on...I can't say it will guarantee anything (I don't even know myself as we are still to launch) but at least you'll give yourself the best opportunity to succeed and be satisfied that, even if it all does go wrong, that you did all you could and weren't half hearted and so will have no doubts or regrets...or thats my hope anyway...
P.S. I'm not a business head at all so my above SWOT could be complete garbage, willing to stand corrected and learn if that is the case...
