Creating a fashion brand storyis important because it gives your brand an imageand a purpose. It is an effective way to connect with your consumer as it in theory should promote the idea that you are ‘solving their problem’ with your creative brand.
The idea of fashion story-tellingitself may also connect with your audience on a relatable and emotional level, for example; Nikes ‘Equality’ campaignmakes a strong statement for positive social change. Nike invite their audience into a new movement and promote the idea that they are more than just a sneaker brand. All in all, they manage to inspire their customers and get them involved. The art of your brand story should draw your target audience into your world. If you build a successful story, you will turn the reader into a customer.
“The brand story should define the purpose of the company to both the staff and the customer,”–Taylor Bennett, CEO of branding and marketing agency at Mesh.
How to Build your Brand Story:
Answering the key following questions should help you build a successful fashion brand story that you, your company and your customer can connect with:
1. WHY? The first key step to building your brand story is ‘Why’?Ask yourself why does your brand exist? What does your brand contribute to the world? What’s your brands aim? What motivated you to start your brand?
Of-course a key reason to building your fashion brand is to ultimately make money; but try think on an emotional level as to why you want your brand to exist and what positive influence it can have. This is a great marketing toolbecause you are connecting with your audience and building a strong customer relationship.
2. HOW? What sets you apart? What is your unique selling point? How can you make a difference? What makes your fashion brand different from other brands? Where do your fashion designsfit into your brand story? Do your designs make you feel a certain way?
Being able to identify what sets your fashion brand apart from other brand competitors will be useful information for your fashion brand story. Promoting your brands USP in a positive way will influence more consumers to shop at your brand instead of your competitors.
3. WHAT? What is your actual product (i.e A swimwear line)? What does your fashion brand offer? How can your services help? What results will you achieve? What are your brands values? (i.e fashion, equality, positivity, beauty, diversity…)<
- Understand your Audience: It is important that as a fashion brand owner you know your audience. Understanding their passions, day to day life, what they dislike, what their disposable income is are all factors that will help you build a consumer profile.By doing so, you can determine who your brand is suitable for. Creating a demographic mind map is a good starting point. You can also consider answer questions such as; who is your ideal customer? What is at stake if your customer does not invest in you?
- Be Consistent: Getting your fashion brand story across as many platforms as you can is vital as you want to attract and engage with new customers. If you fail to do this, your brand story will become diluted and will have a smaller impact. Ensure you communicate your fashion brand storyon all channels. Depending on your brand, you may rely heavily on social media as well as offline, but we suggest using both online and offline tools.
- Social Proof: this is optional, however as part of your fashion brand story you could talk about a time where you helped somebody. This is dependent on your actual brand and the service it offers, but it is a great way of creating brand authenticity.
4. Document your Fashion Brand Story: Ensuring all your employees are aware of your brand story and its values is important, so that the same message is getting across. Create a document which gives information on you story, this should include;
- The beginning, middle and end
- Visual elements like the logo and typography
- Brands tone of voice/ ethos
- Slogan
- Overall vision
- Brands purpose
- Brands expectations
- Brands results
- Brands values
Additional Notes: Another short task you can undertake is writing out your fashion brands overall description. Start with 50 words and then dilute it down to 15 words and then eventually 5. Remember that peoples’ attention spans are very short so they will not want to read a long hefty paragraph!