Brainstorming S.1, How a brand can define itself. Let's talk about a personalized clothing brand.
Updated: Jan 12, 2020
Here's a story about that might just give you idea an for your own,
eShakti - We Design, You Customize and here I call it as a personal tailor turned enterprise.
The Dots: The observed facts and opinions about the brand (Current Image)
Introduction: An online customized fashion store established by B.G. Krishnan in 1999 (India) has marked some of it's decent online presence. The industry has been predicted to grow in the coming years, where the concept of eShakti holds its own unique place. Following observations can be made from the research:
Further, the observed eShakti initiatives are:
1) Voices: An Instagram initiative to spread the reviews about eShakti to their audiences/followers
2) Feedback Of The Day: The website posts one of the best feedbacks on their website which changes everyday
3) Something Happened: A prized contest where two winners are selected based on their purchase story. Customers email their experience in the format of shared post(s) on their social media mentioning eShakti
4) Real Fashion for Real People: A feedback page on their website having eShakti customers/influencers wearing their customized dresses.
The Lines: The interpretation from the available facts
eShakti's current reviews: lovely package, customized dress, includes a return label, overseas brand, fake advertisements, perfect fit, detailed embroidery, personal style, poor customer service, doesn't fit properly.
The brand represents itself as customized fashion "A personal stylist", however, the retail online fashion has a highly competitive market which creates a problem for eShakti to break through. Also, most of the brand initiatives can only be seen by the people visiting their website. Considering an important aspect: brand awareness; eShakti has a very low engagement rate even though they have a good number of followers which adds to the concern of being an overseas brand. This creates less reliability for a overseas shopping experience resulting in less trust when seen with the conflicting reviews.
The Problem Defined: Lower engagement rate
The Solution Defined: eShakti believes in marketing through word-of-mouth. This becomes harder when the platform is online and the brand is overseas. However, eShakti's unique positioning of "Personal Style" or "Customized Fashion" can be leveraged to create a niche market of: Customer->Influencers
The Image: The intended perceptions to the perceived perceptions
The simple concept of Customers -> Influencers can be used to develop different strategy according to different budgets:
A) High budget:
Idea A: Advertisement about un-following fashion trends
This can create the huge opportunity for their first advertisement. The theme can be used along the lines of "Don't follow(break) the stereotypes, follow you", "Trending: can't remember on how to use the return labels". These statements challenge the normal shopping fashion and creating eShakti's image as the perfect customized fit apparels.
Idea B: Create a customizing experience:
Idea B1: This starts from how and when the customer sees the ad. The social platform needs to create a leverage for it's overseas characteristics. The content needs to be more engaging than the current monotonous content on Instagram, the platform is currently receiving more engagement. Content can be a short or fast-forwarded video on how to accessorize the eShakti outfit, mix & match for your perfect occasions, person(s) performing one dress different style concepts, etc.
Idea B2: The content which further leads to a shopping website with an online customer chat to help the customer needs, When the checkout is completed, the customer receives a tracking code to see the status of their dress.
Idea B3: The eShakti package when received by the customer consisting the dress along with a flyer of recommended accessories/hairstyles and description about their designed dress will create a beautiful experience to complete their personal style on a special occasion. In order to further create more engagement the brand can include "Circle of Influence" concept card.
Idea B4: Circle of Influence: In the package ask your customer to tag their top 5 friends in their post (wearing eShakti dress) along with eShakti tag. The customer will get a chance to enter lucky draw and an additional X% (depending on the cost) on their next purchase if one of the tagged person purchases from eShakti. This will replace the "cash incentive program-Something happened" campaign.
These can be further leveraged into promotions of referral program where credit points are given to the referrers when their referrals are used and a discount is provided to the new customer.
Recommended changes:
1) Introduction to Strict Guidelines: The website and the product can include a short description about their top tailors. Additionally, introducing an incentive-based structure in the company along with strict guide lines can help overcome their logistic obstacles.
2) Add google reviews: People heavily rely on the google reviews as it verifies the authenticity of the brand.
3) Upgrading logo icon: the monotonous icon doesn't give the vibe of a personalized story. It needs to be more affiliated to any individual who loves to style themselves.
B) The Medium budget: Introduce above mentioned ideas, Idea- B, B3 and B4, along with recommended changes.
C) The Low Budget: Introduce above mentioned ideas, Idea- B, and B4, along with recommended changes.
These were some of the starters with some trending and out-of-box ideas. A full served dinner can be made after knowing the company inside out. Here, I surrender my case to the knowns of this volatile platform and see what lies further for this brand.
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