8 Steps for a Strong and Sustainable Luxury Branding Strategy
8 Steps for a Strong and Sustainable Luxury Branding Strategy
Luxury branding is a complex process with many moving parts. It's important to understand your consumer base and what they expect from a brand.
In this guide, we'll walk through the process of how to build a sustainable luxury branding strategy using eight steps.
Step 01. Define your niche.
The first step in building a strong and sustainable luxury branding strategy is to define your niche. You should know who your target audience is and what they value most in a product or service.
Typically, a luxury buyer is looking for four things: quality, innovation, design and exclusivity.
When you dive into your unique selling proposition, you may partner with a team to pull market reports on consumers. There are many consumer demographics to consider, including but not limited to:
Age
Location
Gender
Occupation
Income Level
Education Level
Next, you construct your niche's psychological attributes, including, but not limited to:
Attitudes
Values
Interests
Lifestyle
Behavior
Once you have a niche built, you can continue on to reviewing how they perceive your brand.
Step 02. Understand your consumers' perceptions.
Understand your consumers' perceptions. Ask your customers these questions:
What emotions are evoked as a result of your brand?
Do they have a perception of luxury that is different from yours?
Ask yourself:
Do consumers' perspectives of our brand match our vision, mission, values, and unique selling point?
Do we need to change their perception?
Is it time for a rebrand project?
Analyze how your offerings match the needs and desires of the consumer and research how your strengths compare to other offerings in the space.
Step 03. Craft the brand story
A brand story is the most powerful tool in your arsenal, and it should be crafted with care.
A strong brand story is not just a tagline or positioning statement. It's a narrative that captures what makes you, your company and its product/service special. It tells why people should choose to buy from you instead of the competition.
A strong brand story can be built around many different things:
Vision
Mission
Values
Brand History
Unique Selling Point
Target Niche
Luxury branding is an art form in itself, as it requires marketers to understand their customers' needs, desires, shopping habits, and buyer profiles before developing strategies to reach them.
Luxury brands cater to experience-focused, high-income and/or status-conscious consumers. The consumer has an emotional connection with the brand and its products or services.
The key point here is that there are many ways to tell stories about yourself as a brand. In order for these stories to resonate with consumers they must be authentic and relevant.
Step 04. Enhance your product or service value through style and message
Enhance your product or service value through style and message. This can be developed through an an outstanding brand development project.
A strong brand development project outcome includes:
Clear vision
Clear mission
Clear values
Clear brand story
Brand personality, voice and tone
Tagline
Customer insights
Competitor analysis
Unique selling point
Target niche
Moodboard
Logo suite
Brand imagery
Illustrations
Typography
Color palette
Brand standards
While keeping in mind your luxury consumer, be creative in your approach to stand out from the crowd. Be authentic and genuine. Don't be afraid to take risks, make mistakes, try new things or think differently than everyone else in your industry - especially if it means doing something truly unique that resonates with consumers on an emotional level.
Remember that luxury buyers are seeking quality, innovation, design and exclusivity.
Step 05. Find ways to stand out by showing a unique approach or perspective.
If you want to stand out in the luxury branding space, it's important to find ways to show a unique approach or perspective.
In the luxury space, focus on the customer experience.
Whether it's through your product design or advertising strategy, there are many ways that you can express your personal brand as a luxury brand.
Taking into account trends in the luxury space, you might choose to create an ad campaign that focuses on sustainability practices within your company and perhaps even communicate this message through social media posts and blog articles. You could also try highlighting the story behind each item in your line of products. For example, if one piece has sentimental value because of its significance within someone's family history, like a jewelry design based on a grandmother's ring. By doing so, customers will connect with their purchase on an emotional level, which helps increase loyalty among repeat customers.
Step 06. Create exclusivity.
The luxury market has many brands competing for attention and dollars, which makes it critical to create a sense of exclusivity around products and services. The best way to do this? Create an air of exclusivity around what you offer through customer experience. Keep people abreast on your brand and its offerings.
Consider creating an exclusive club experience, like a private social media group, email newsletter, or in-person event.
Step 07. Deliver an experience that's better than what's expected.
The customer experience is the key to luxury. A luxury brand is more than just a product or service, it's an experience that makes people feel something they wouldn't have otherwise felt.
The experience of a luxury brand goes beyond just creating products and services. It involves creating an image, telling stories about those products and services, and fulfilling promises made during all stages of the transaction process.
Step 08. Continue to amplify your brand message.
The final step in a strong and sustainable luxury branding strategy is to continue amplifying your brand message.
Ensure that everyone who touches your brand has a consistent understanding of what it stands for, how it improves lives, and the experience to be expected as a result.
Don't be afraid to re-craft your message as your brand evolves and changes over time. Consumers change, and they understand and respect that you do, too... especially when it's for their benefit!
Conclusion
Remember that building a strong and sustainable luxury brand is not just about having the best products or services. It's even more so the customer experience. And while there are no shortcuts when it comes to building a strong brand identity, following these steps will help keep your strategy on track so that you don't lose sight of what makes your company special and why people should invest into your offering.
At Skapande Creative Co. we believe that people who shop luxury crave an elevated experience.
If you're ready to elevate your brand to the next level of luxury and find a detail-oriented brand management partner, submit an application form through our site at theskapande.com/apply.