I’m so happy to share a fantastic guest post by Giorgia Martinucci who is a freelance digital marketing consultant & strategist based in London. Giorgia is sharing her 5 tips to make your lifestyle brand stand out. Have a read over the post and check out the links at the bottom to connect with Giorgia.
With so many platforms nowadays that allow you to be online in no time, without knowing how to code, opportunities for creative entrepreneurs abound.
But as you have had an idea, so millions of others have, so it’s really really, really, REALLY hard to stand out. Competition has never been tougher.
In addition to that, if you consider that the average person accesses 26.7 apps per month, you can see how hard it is to be memorable in the consumer’s mind.
Is all hope lost? No.
Phew!
What you need is a tactical plan that will allow you to avoid the pitfalls of branding. From your logo to your website, including social media, tone of voice and photography, your brand needs to make an impact. Read on for these 5 tips to help you on this journey:
1 // Do your research
By now you should have really clear what type of brand you’re setting off to build, what your business model is and who your target consumers are. With this information at hand, start compiling a list of all the competitors you can think of and then some:
- Do some research and add to the list as many as you can.
- To each name associate their logo, their website and a screenshot of their website.
- Start dividing them into categories such as ‘what my brand should aim to be’; chances are, if you’re starting your jewellery brand, comparing yourself to Tiffany may be a bit of a stretch, but you can keep Tiffany as the type of brand you aspire to be. Include in your list the reasons why Tiffany is such an inspiration.
- Other categories include ‘what my brand should never be’, for brands who you don’t think are in line with yours (again, list your reasons)
- Finally you should have narrowed the list down to ‘direct competitors’, those who most likely have their products or services purchased by your target customer already.
Analyse the traits you’d want for your brand and those you wouldn’t and take a closer look to your direct competitors. Map out what their logo, website and collateral material looks like.
This is a very effective exercise to make sure you’re not going to do something too similar to your direct competitors, so that the direction you’re going to take working with a designer, it is fresh and original.
2 // Dare to colour!
Black and white is the classic elegant combo. It’s Chanel-quality perfection. It’s sophisticated and timeless.
It’s also everywhere.
Lifestyle brands LOOOVE black and white.
Before giving in to black and white, why not explore some colourful options?
If you’re in need of some inspiration….
- Tory Burch and Hermés both have orange as their signature colour.
- Tiffany & Co. have their own colour blue.
- Louboutin may forever be associated with his red soles, whilst Louis Vuitton for his leather brown.
- Burberry and its chequered design can’t be taken apart, whereas Tommy Hilfiger means a patriotic red, white and blue.
If you’re still keen on the black and white combo, may add a third pop of colour?
3 // Experiment with layouts
If you’re setting up an eCommerce website, it’ll be easy to choose a grid-like layout for your website. You’ll think it’s foolproof, that it’s conversion-optimised but it’s also rather common. A person with a good knowledge of UX principles should be able to advise on a layout that’s both original and easy to use for the consumers too. If you can’t commit to an redesign an entire template, use some strategic editorial pages.
4 // Time for some eye candy!
With the advent of responsive design, website layouts are dictated by technical requirements that allow easy resizing across devices. This resulted in a homogeneity of layouts across the website, which is why now more than ever impactful visuals are very important.
You can use bold graphics:
You can pair plain product shots with lifestyle photography:
You can use typography:
The options are endless! Whilst you want to rein in your creativity on product pages, you should go wild anywhere on the website.
5 // Offline is important too
Lifestyle brands more than other types should provide a 360 degrees experience for consumers. This is why sometimes it’s important to interact with your customers offline too. Whether it’s the packaging of your product, an event or your customer service, any touchpoint should reiterate your brand and your values.
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Photo by Isabel Sacher on Unsplash
