Building Brand Personality
What do Margiela, Aesop, Shinola, or Ace Hotel have in common? These brands are fairly new, compared to some of their competitors, they don't have a long history or a great heritage to sit on. They're also very different from other brands of the same age because, despite the fact that they are contemporary brands, they carry something other brands don't. They have a personality, which simply can't be copied.
Margiela's Tabi boots clearly aren't for everyone. And that's fine.
These brands' personalities are so strong, so different and so singular, that they don't even have to tell you they are. They don't market themselves, they don't advertise themselves, they just brand themselves.
These brands with singular personalities all have their own identity and create unique experiences. They don't try to scream louder than their counterparts. They don't even consider other brands as competitors, since their proposition is so unique. The fact is, these brands don't try to please everyone, they try to create a community of fans, of like-minded people, who will "get them" and who will be able to appreciate everything that they do.
Branding and marketing are complementary, yet especially in fashion and beauty, brands are often simple labels with no specific identities besides their products and their designer's character. These labels focus on marketing and communication... But marketing alone is like letting the market decide. Marketing alone is not a way to gain a personality, it is a way of losing specificity. Marketing stems from the market, it is a quest to please the market. Whereas branding starts with the brand itself, with its identity, the core of what makes it different and special.
Marketing is therefore always short-term because the market is changing and evolving. So to be relevant, marketing has to change and adapt all the time. It seems really difficult and energy-consuming to capitalize on marketing alone, yet a lot of brands, from Adidas to L'Oréal Paris, are doing just that.
Branding is the building of the personality, the relationship, it is the creation of the experience. It gives a long-term reward. No branding is like being a commodity, and it is dangerous because it is subject to market change.
Marketing is a "Push" strategy, push the market to like you, push your product in the front... Branding is a "Pull" strategy, it might take longer, but it attracts a loyal consumer because it creates a singular world, a unique universe that can't be copied or exchanged with another one, it makes brands incomparable.
