Everything is communication.

Hi, it's Luke here.

In our content obsessed world it can be challenging to express all the nuances inherent within a brand, especially if you are in the retail sector. With new products dominating the messaging, how do you maintain and inspire with all the other tools in the box? From customer service to internal culture, branding, packaging, customer experience and everything in between; all this adds up and can be the difference between long term and short term success.

Just before Covid hit us I was visiting a friend’s office where he was showing me how they were collaborating with GANNI and Levis on a collection. Exciting stuff, but my friend’s venture is essentially a tech business so I was intrigued to know where they fitted in with this collaboration? Ahead of the curve as always, Nirvana CPH (Sharp End) were embedding NFC technology into the label of the jeans - a repurposed and upcycled denim line available only to rent - enabling all sorts of content to be transmitted to your phone. In this case product care information, story - based production information and interactive campaign elements such as the chance to upload a love letter to the community. All serving to underpin a collection designed to be ‘worn by many, owned by none.’

It was innovative, engaging and embodied GANNI’s sustainable business model proposition and remains a fantastic example of what I am obsessed with in my own work - adding value in ALL aspects of the brand experience. Often past the point of purchase (in this case rental) to deliver the magic that helps us choose one brand over the next. To be able to infuse carefully considered touchpoints that are genuinely meaningful to a brand’s community, while simultaneously reinforcing the culture of the business and activating new ways of doing things. Inside and out.

As a customer we shift between various need states of actively looking for things we need or want, to benignly ‘checking out’ for long stretches of time, and brands need to recognise and respond to this. Do we really need to send four inbox clogging emails per week then or will one or two really good emails be better? Does the brand have the same tone in broadcast media than it does on the website? When and why are we useful, informative or entertaining?

As a strategic creative working with fashion and lifestyle brands this is where I become particularly excited by the details. The incremental details which support brand storytelling, where we can improve the ecosystem of the tools we have bit by bit. The constant small steps and percentage points that add up to a greater whole and a deeper connection. Are all the emails we send really relevant? Does the return form give a proper opportunity for insight? Is your ‘Wishlist’ shareable? Are you driving real loyalty?

There are often so many channels that it can seem overwhelming to the teams involved in creating these communications, and with so many calendar work streams it's easy to churn out content that isn't really good enough or differentiating. But if we look at our customers and actively listen to them, I believe the answers begin to reveal themselves and the task becomes clearer. Once again Ganni is excellent at this, engaging their community in feedback to tweak and develop existing popular pieces, Boden does the same with huge success.

So, what can we do to put a brand in the best position for its potential customers’ consideration? Obviously budgets and objectives will differ and there is no formula that can guarantee this, but in the very first instance there needs to be an agreement that the C Suite buys into the ambition and time (perhaps more importantly than budget) to be invested to achieve this, innovation needs to time to ferment and find its voice.

So, let’s cut to the chase, how do you prove to your boss that you are to be trusted with the task? As with all of life, you need to bring people along with you, SHOW them what you mean, actually do something, prove it! Then you gain allies, you start a trend which eventually becomes the benchmark of how to operate. Trying things - testing things out - has to be a part of the work. Listen and learn from responses and build on them, but above all we must commit to some experimentation if we want to grow and lead the way. Ask yourself how ‘it’ can be better, and go for it.

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Luke Williamson

Community Member at BeenThere/DoneThat Partner(First published on the 24th November 2023)

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