How to transition your niche company into a lifestyle brand

Forum 4 years ago

How to transition your niche company into a lifestyle brand

The health and pharmaceutical industry are pretty much the only industry that still adopts a strict product advertising strategy. Even at that, you will find a sizeable portion of this industry pushing a culture and lifestyle marketing narrative that evokes a more holistic outlook to staying on top of your health and making this a lifestyle habit rather than just a day-to-day activity.

Think about the Whiskey, Sports, Make-Up, and Fashion industries and how they have all left behind the traditional method of predominantly product facing consumer marketing. Instead, proving more effective is a strategy that embraces telling a story, building a community and advertising a lifestyle.

To convince you that lifestyle marketing transition is a good idea, take a look at how big names like Kaizer Chiefs are making their transition through Jet Specials. They want their fans to identify with the soccer team in their everyday life. Wearing clothes with the Kaizer Chiefs brand will remind the fans of the soccer team’s values and aspirations, their journey, and what they are aspiring towards. Moreover, fans who identify with the team’s story will become great brand ambassadors as they share with others how their story blends with Kaizer Chief’s story.  

Read through the following tips to help you get the ball rolling on your company or brand’s transition as well.

1. Change your Marketing Strategy

You will have to get a lot more interactive with your advertising. Your rebranding does not have to stray from your products, but it has to produce a story that transcends your products or service offerings.

You will need to think about the broader context of daily lived and aspirational experiences that your consumers can identify with. A good example is what Nike does with its clothing offerings. Nike has been able to position itself as being more than just a sports apparel brand; it appeals to people who want to consider themselves athletes. Whether they have ever competed professionally is secondary; what really matters is that with Nike, you belong.

2. Build and Maintain a Community

Your consumers are no longer just consumers, and your investment in your story and your brand also has to extend beyond just consumers who patronise your offerings. The current marketing-meet-tech space requires that companies and brands constantly have sustained conversation with the public. From blog posts to short YouTube clips and daily Instagram uploads, your brand’s identity and narrative need to be out there consistently.

With the lifestyle strategy, you do not need to create a new culture or invent a lifestyle. Your consumers already have a connection with your company or brand. They buy your products and/ or services because of what they think they can accomplish using them. You now need to tap into that thinking and project your products as part of their lifestyle, a necessity. Don’t feel pressured to reinvent the wheel, just tap into it and cultivate your own unique voice.

3. Experience over Products

It might seem counterintuitive because, in the first year of your Marketing degree or your online course, marketing 101 tells you that all consumers have to know is the products or services you are offering. But the thing about life is that the world is dynamic; generations of people start to cultivate their own preferences – what baby boomers relate to is quite different from what generation Z finds appealing.

This is especially important to implement when your consumer base cuts across different age groups and includes a large young customer base. Promote and amplify trends and lifestyle habits that require the use of your products and service offerings, th. Thisy, you can establish a trusted and authoritative voice in that space and increase your profit margins.

Transitioning from your niche company into a lifestyle brand can be complex. However, having an already established brand identity and product offering allows you to make this transition a lot easier than companies that might have to start from scratch.