- Front Foot Marketing

I was recently asked to assist in evolving a strategic positioning, and to help the client build a foundation for its marketing approach.

It’s work-in-progress, so I can’t mention their name just yet. However, stay tuned once we have finalised it and the client is comfortable to release the new approach.

Focussed luxury marketing

It’s an owner operated business, of luxury premium products. And has been built out of a clearly defined mission, vision, and purpose.

After immersing myself in their brand world, and experiencing the products and service, we workshopped the underlying values, agreed two defining brand archetypes that best express their brand personality, and then laddered the core consumer benefits up to a focused and single-minded consumer value proposition.

All in the context of understanding WHY they launched the company, WHO they’re competing against, and identifying WHAT human values and behaviours they are aiming to overcome by being different and unique.

We also looked at other brands such as QT Hotels, Dulong Fine Jewellery, Veuve Clicquot, Visit Victoria, and Byredo’s Rose of No Man’s Land as examples where brands have become distinct, memorable and talked about based on colour, naming, design, and personality in their content – tone of voice and use of imagery.

It’s a fascinating strategic positioning project.

But what struck me most was the true authenticity of the owners

When you unearth the essence of WHY people want to be unique, and that they’re truly creating a differentiated product and service, then the marketing alignment is relatively straight forward.

However, it’s always a matter of ensuring that the positioning is articulated in a powerful way, to allow a unique look and feel to be created, and to provide a framework for consistent messaging and communication – whether for internal staff and partners, or external media, trade and end consumers.

And when you’re in your business it’s easy to get lost in articulating this, and to get caught up jumping straight to executions and ideas.

The client now has a framework to launch from which provides a consistent guide for all new product development and event activity, as well as partnership discussions and channel marketing opportunities.

And most importantly, it aims to build value and curiosity at every touchpoint and experience to spark human action.

An important take away

Whether you’re starting out in business, or looking to evolve your existing strategy, it’s an invaluable process to align your marketing strategy to true underlying human values.

Because at the end of the day, your business is built on people (well sometimes now a few robots). And if you’re not exhibiting authentic and ethical behaviour, then how can you expect to last long in today’s social media world.

And if your products and services aren’t built out of a true purpose then you may get sidelined in activity that doesn’t really link to your business objectives.