Being a Luxury Lifestyle Brand A Look at the Lure, Power, and Keys to Success words by: Anna Bimba
f you think you should be a “lifestyle brand”, you’re absolutely right! The concept of engaging your customer’s lifestyle as a means to sell your products and services is more important than ever in today’s heavily saturated and rapidly changing market.
Let’s narrow this definition a bit and focus on a luxury lifestyle brand. These high-end, exclusive brands set themselves apart through their uniqueness, specialty appeal, innovation, quality craftsmanship, and authenticity. They engage their customers by portraying their brands through content and experiences as purveyors and curators of the luxury lifestyle their clients live, or aspire to live.
But what exactly does this mean, and how can you capitalize on the lifestyle potential of your brand without diluting it and confusing your customers? I am no brand expert by any means, but I am a research nut and have spent endless hours engaged with brands of all walks; I currently work for what I see as a flourishing lifestyle brand; and I am completely confident when I say I can speak knowledgeably on the topic to say the very least. So here you have it!
Breaking Down the Elements of a Lifestyle Brand:
A Lifestyle Brand Defined:
Apparel brands are most known for expanding their offerings into new categories, followed by home and interior brands. Having a designer’s name attached to a variety of services and products helps clients be even more loyal — they see the designer as a fashion and design resource, a trusted voice. When it comes to interior design businesses, the lifestyle potential is ripe for the picking if executed correctly. The lifecycle of design projects and the level of personal involvement with clients call for brand extensions. Clients rely
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According to Stefania Saviolo and Antonio Marazza, authors of Lifestyle Brands: A Guide to Aspirational Marketing, “a lifestyle brand is a company that markets its products or services to embody the interests, attitudes, and opinions of a group or a culture. Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of their products contributing to the definition of the consumer’s way of life.” 34
There are two types of lifestyle brands. There are those that use creative marketing tactics to enhance their consumers’ way of life and gain brand loyalty. And there are those that use the same marketing tactics, but further embed themselves in their target audience’s worlds by expanding their offerings with additional products and experiences.