Effective branding often involves telling a compelling story. People are naturally drawn to stories. They are a means of building emotional connections, evoking sympathy and expressing shared values.
In the fashion world, where customer loyalty is crucial, the right brand can be a critical factor in profitability. Let’s take a closer look at some of the key elements of a good fashion brand.
Creating an emotional connection
The right story, told in the right way, can help the audience to sympathise with a group or organisation and thereby build an emotional connection to it. The right emotion can depend on the brand. For example, adverts for perfume feature abstract visuals and models walking through larger-than-life landscapes, in order to create a sense of awe and seriousness.
In other cases, a brand may tell a story about the good it does in the world. Think of Patagonia, which tells its stories (in the form of simple journalistic articles) about how it protects the rights of workers throughout its supply chain, or about the experiences of fishermen on trawl boats.
Highlighting Brand Heritage and Values
In many cases, luxury brands attach great importance to emphasising their heritage. This can mean telling the story of the company’s beginnings – often with a courageous entrepreneur who prevailed against the odds by innovating and maintaining high standards. This applies to high-end chocolates, car manufacturers and fashion brands such as Chanel and Hermès. The emphasis on history helps to establish the brand as distinctive, special and reliable.
Differentiating in a Competitive Market
Storytelling can also be a means of differentiating your brand from the competition. If the story you tell is different from that of your competitors, then customers will realise that your offering is different too. It’s often about suggesting a difference where there really isn’t one. However, a more effective approach might be to find out what makes your business different and then tell that story accordingly. For example, you could source rare fabrics in a sustainable way to create your latest collection of high quality scarves.
Engaging with the Target Audience
In the modern age, branding is about establishing a dialogue between a company and its potential customers. This can mean using customer testimonials and user-generated content to add a level of authenticity to the brand, or using a curated selection of customer feedback to emphasise the convenience of things like same-day delivery.
Building a Cohesive Brand Identity
Effective marketing, especially in an industry as driven by impulse and visual impressions as the fashion world, often means building an identity. That can mean using the same colours for in-store displays, websites, print ads and marketing campaigns on social networks like TikTok. You could also use a logo to instantly evoke your brand and all the emotions associated with it. If you can associate a particular story with your branding, then you can reinforce those emotions.
