A lifestyle brand thrives by creating powerful emotional bonds with its customers, offering more than just products – it represents a way of living. In the rapidly changing fashion world, the focus is shifting. BRANDING is now key. The 2024 Business of Fashion (BoF) – McKinsey survey revealed a major trend: a staggering 71% of fashion leaders ramped up their brand marketing investments, outpacing performance marketing. This marked a decisive move towards building lasting, impactful brand connections.
A lifestyle brand almost always focuses on a particular niche, such as outdoor enthusiasts, fashionistas, or health-conscious individuals. By doing so, they establish themselves as experts in their field and build a loyal following. They create a lifestyle around their products that encourages their customers to adopt a certain mindset and way of life.
One of the key elements of lifestyle branding is STORYTELLING. These brands use storytelling to create a narrative around their products and services, which makes them more relatable to their customers. They showcase their values and beliefs through their marketing campaigns, social media, and other content, which helps to build a deeper emotional connection with their audience.
As stated in The BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2024 report:
“A convergence of factors, including pressures on discretionary spend, is sharpening consumer appetite for entertaining brand storytelling that captures their aspirations and interests, well beyond the products on offer.”
Another important aspect of lifestyle branding is AUTHENTICITY. These brands strive to be genuine and transparent, which means they are honest about their values, practices, and products. They are not afraid to show their flaws and weaknesses and are open to feedback from their customers. This creates a sense of trust and credibility, which is essential for building a long-term relationship with their audience.
For instance, L’Oréal Paris has successfully built a community around its beauty products by championing diversity and inclusivity in its marketing campaigns. By featuring a wide range of influencers and models from various backgrounds, the brand has cultivated a following that resonates with its ethos of “Because You’re Worth It.” This approach has enabled L’Oréal Paris to connect deeply with its customers, reinforcing the brand’s position as a leader in the beauty industry.
In a similar vein, The Body Shop has created a strong community ethos around its products by emphasizing its commitment to ethical sourcing and natural ingredients. The brand’s focus on environmental sustainability and social activism has attracted customers who share these values, making The Body Shop more than just a retailer of beauty products, but a lifestyle brand with a conscience.
In conclusion, a lifestyle brand is more than just a company that sells products or services. It’s a brand that creates a culture and a way of life around its offerings. It connects with its customers on an emotional level by understanding their needs and desires, and by creating an experience that resonates with their values. It tells a story that captures the imagination and creates a sense of belonging. And it strives to be authentic and transparent, which creates a sense of trust and credibility. Understanding these elements is essential for creating a successful lifestyle brand that resonates with its target audience.
Cultivate Your Lifestyle Brand
Build authentic bonds
Identifying opportunity windows in the market
Identifying opportunity windows in the market is critical for any brand owner who wishes to create a successful and sustainable lifestyle brand. To stand out in a crowded marketplace, it’s important to recognize the gaps and niches that are unfulfilled and have the potential for growth. This requires a keen understanding of consumer behavior, market trends, and cultural shifts.
For example, Coach‘s comeback was powered by embracing its classic New York heritage and adding a modern twist. The brand revitalized its image by aligning with the vibrant spirit of New York City, blending timeless designs with contemporary fashion elements. This approach not only renewed interest among long-time fans but also attracted a new generation of consumers who are eager for brands that’s older tradition with trendy appeal.
Likewise, Jacquemus stands out by mixing personal tales with a vivid Mediterranean feel, hitting a sweet spot for those looking for a unique, culture-filled fashion adventure. These stories highlight the power of exploring new areas or refreshing old ideas with a fresh look to attract and keep a loyal audience.
By studying consumer trends, analyzing competitor strategies, and keeping an eye on emerging technologies and cultural shifts, brand owners can identify areas where they can make a difference and offer something unique.
As the golden rule states: create a BLUE POOL in the red ocean. Brands must differentiate themselves from their competitors by offering a unique value proposition that sets them apart. This can be achieved by creating a distinctive brand identity, a compelling brand story, and a clear understanding of the target audience as discussed before. It’s essential to have an extensive understanding of the market and what motivates consumers to make purchases. By offering a unique selling proposition that resonates with their target audience, brands can attract and retain customers, build brand loyalty, and ultimately succeed in the market.
Identifying the target audience
One of the most important aspects of lifestyle branding is identifying your target audience. Your core audience is the group of people who will be most interested in your products or services and who are most likely to engage with your brand. These individuals share common interests, values, and lifestyle preferences that align with your brand’s identity. By understanding your target audience, you can tailor your marketing efforts to capture their attention and build a loyal following.
Jungian Archetype model
Brand identity is the set of characteristics that define a brand and differentiate it from its competitors. It includes visual elements such as logos, colors, and typography, as well as messaging, tone of voice, and values. A strong brand identity is essential for building brand recognition and loyalty among consumers. The JUNGIAN ARCHETYPE MODEL can be used to help define a brand persona by identifying the brand’s dominant personality traits, values, and motivations. This can help create a cohesive brand identity that resonates with its target audience.
Discover Your Brand’s True Voice
Define your identity and connect with your audience
Brand Magic Index
Alongside the Jungian model, a new index has been developed that reveals the overlap between a brand’s self-perceived positioning and its actual perception by customers. This BRAND MAGIC INDEX, created by BoF Insights and Quilt.ai, was introduced in 2023. Business of Fashion, currently the leading lifestyle magazine, published the index in September 2023. They analyzed over 70.000 data points across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Weibo. This included customer posts from around the world and encompassed customers of all ages and genders.
Why is it useful?
Fashion brands are increasing their investment in digital marketing; however, the tools they use often fall short in evaluating the effectiveness of this marketing and the quality of the resulting social engagement with customers.
Brand Magic evaluates the ideals and values conveyed in the brands marketing approach, as exemplified across Carl Jung’s 12 archetypes. It then analyzes whether and how customers resonate with those ideals and values, based on their social media posts about the brand.
Additionally, the higher the alignment, the better the match between the brand’s desired archetype and the image reflected in the posts of customers.
Explanation of the Spider Chart
Over the long-term, Brand Magic will most likely become a key predictor of financial performance. Brands that are consistently aligned with their buyers will outperform brands that are frequently misaligned.
Chloé’s spider chart
Chloé has secured a high Brand Magic index, largely attributed to the clear vision of its Creative Director, Gabriela Hearst. Under her leadership, the brand has skillfully blended modern trends with its classic aesthetic, resonating deeply with its audience. Hearst’s commitment to sustainability and her unique design approach are reflected in the customers’ social media presence, where they frequently showcase themselves in Chloé’s clothing and accessories. This successful alignment of brand values with consumer trends and the emphasis on eco-conscious fashion are key factors in Chloé’s continued success and high customer engagement.
Diesel’s spider chart
Contrarily, Diesel is the furthest from its customers. As evident in the chart, the brand aims to embody the hero and caregiver archetypes, yet its audience predominantly aligns with the lover and ruler archetypes.
Target Persona
To identify your target audience, it’s essential to create a set of target personas. At Evolut, we typically start by establishing 3-6 personas depending on how many separate segments can be defined from the entire target audience. These are fictional representations of your ideal customers, based on market research and customer data. You can create target personas by analyzing (1) demographic information, such as age, gender, income, and (2) education level, as well as (3) psychographic information, such as interests, hobbies, values, and attitudes. By creating target personas, you can better understand your audience’s needs, desires, and pain points, which will help you create products and services that resonate with them.
Target persona example from an Evolut client pitch
- Has sufficient financial resources or can generate them.
- Is meticulous and values dressing well and self-expression.
- Doesn’t buy exclusively for status; values quality for its own sake.
- Primarily active on Instagram and Facebook.
- Seeks high-quality, unique experiences that set them apart from the average person’s life.
- Strives for excellence in everything and it’s crucially important that this is immediately visible in their appearance.
Is purposeful, ambitious, and assertive, traits that are reflected in their appearance and dressing habits: prefers services and products that distinguish and elevate them from the mundane everyday. Convinced of their independent decision-making, they believe they are not swayed by trends, so it’s a distinct advantage for them to choose options that are unknown or inaccessible to the masses.
It is crucial to find the right balance when creating target personas. While two personas might be insufficient for some brands, four might be excessive for others. The objective is not to invent random personalities but to identify and describe those groups that are most likely to be represented in significant numbers within the larger target audience. The trick is to determine which attributes are most relevant for differentiating.
For instance, in the case of a unisex product, theoretically it can be beneficial to think in terms of campaigns optimized for men and women separately. Just think of the clothing from Zona20, a new Italian unisex fashion label. However, for products like tampons, where a male-optimized campaign has minimal sales potential, focusing solely on women may not sufficiently differentiate the product from competitors. Therefore, demographic factors alone do not justify the segmentation of the target audience in lifestyle branding.
Shape Your Marketing with Precision
Craft your ideal customer persona
Once you’ve identified your target audience and created target personas, you can begin to develop a marketing strategy that captures their attention. Lifestyle branding often uses a mix of marketing channels to reach its audience, including social media, email marketing, influencer partnerships, brand collaborations, events, and experiential marketing. The key is to create content and experiences that align with your audience’s interests and values, and that create a sense of community around you when starting a lifestyle brand.
