All You Need is Love.
And a Love Brand.
Here's why.
“The first thing to consider is your ‘why.’ You can’t create the emotion without the purpose. The second is a belief set of scarcity, and for this I’ll refer to the collaboration between street icons Supreme and luxury fashion house Louise Vuitton.”
Here at THE JOURNAL, we’re always listening. To you, the hairdresser, Instagram, popular culture, the fashion experts, extinction activists, everyone and anyone who means anything, and importantly, our valued clientele.
Word on the street is, no matter who you are or what you stand for, love brand status is the place to be, now and in the future. From an Instagram icon to zeitgeist shifting global messenger, local salon business and the corporate world of hair, it’s the love we all want to receive, grow, share and share again.
But what exactly is a love brand? Mark Da Silva of Concept Marketing shares his thoughts.
“Apple is a great example of a love brand. A brand that can make mistakes with an audience and quickly be forgiven. They’re automatically loved, so much so, people are even happy to pay more for their product.”
“Perhaps the best example of a love brand is Patagonia. True and authentic, they’re a brand all about living in a better planet, inviting customers to bring in worn items of which they then re-sell or recycle. To applaud their efforts the customer then receives a nice discount on their following purchase,” explains Mark.
It is simple, multipronged efforts like this that grant Patagonia the gift of accelerated popularity. The main driver? Good old fashion word of mouth (across both traditional and new school platforms, hello social media) … “People talk about the brand, and they’re proud to talk about it.”
So why is the term love brand buzzing atop a modern marketers list ‘to do’ now more than ever? According to Mark (and generally speaking) the digital age has vastly separated the customer from the retailer, buying online more and in-store less. Of course this equates to minimal face-to-face interaction and a severely reduced opportunity to manifest that love worth sharing.
Infact, Australian’s are spending more than $16 billion dollars on shopping via social media each year. They’re some big carts. Further to this, research recently released from ING revealed over a third of Australian’s (34%) admit to unplanned purchases through social media. 20% of Australian’s have also confessed that they consider buying online every time they scroll.*
Of course salons are some of the lucky ones, securing a total of approximately 24 hours of one-on-one time with clients annually. That’s some retail-rare and super valuable time to be building the love factor. And for those looking to ramp up the romance, Mark shares a few thought starters.
“The first thing to consider is your ‘why.’ You can’t create the emotion without the purpose. The second is a belief set of scarcity, and for this I’ll refer to the collaboration between street icons Supreme and luxury fashion house Louise Vuitton.”
You know the super limited collab that popped up in Bondi Beach among other iconic locations worldwide, lined with fans and sold out in matter of minutes. Hoodies are now reselling for up to $25,000, if you’re in the market.
In stark contrast, KMART sits high in the love brand ranking, owning the concept of consumer interaction.
“KMART is another perfect example of a love brand. So much so people have created their own ‘KMART hack sites’ all about interior styling. People are quite happy to promote themselves with product/endorse the brand, and that’s when you’ve established the love. How do you get your audience to interact with your brand? That’s when love starts multiplying and the story is accelerated,” advises Mark.
Moving onto other must-know market trends for 2020 and beyond, Mark speaks about the concept of ‘everything old is new again.’ “Bring back direct mail but in an exciting (and sustainable!) way,” he suggests.
“A personalised approach is really where it’s at now … tailored products and experiences that not only speak to a customer’s tangible wants and needs, but their mood and feelings, too. Timeout and mindfulness.”
The conclusion? Whatever you do, do it with authenticity and purpose, and let the people interact. These days, we all have a voice – it’s called social media – so if your product or brand doesn’t do as it says, there will be no love, just bad reviews.
*Statistics via Inside Retail (insideretail.com.au).