Lifestyle brand
A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values, aspirations, interests, attitudes, or opinions of a group or a culture for marketing purposes.[1] Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of making their products contribute to the definition of the consumer's way of life. As such, they are closely associated with the advertising and other promotions used to gain mind share in their target market.[2] They often operate from an ideology, hoping to attract a relatively high number of people and ultimately become a recognised social phenomenon.[3]
A lifestyle brand is an ideology created by a brand.[4] An organisation achieves a lifestyle brand by evoking an emotional connection with its customers,[5] creating a consumer desire to be affiliated with a particular group or brand.[6] The consumer will believe that their identity will be reinforced if they publicly associate themselves with a particular lifestyle brand,[5] for example by using a brand on social media.[7]
As individuals have different experiences, choices, and backgrounds (including social class, ethnicity, and culture), an organisation must understand to whom it directs its brand.[7] By constructing a lifestyle brand ideology, an organisation's goal is to become a recognised social phenomenon.[6]
Lifestyle brand marketing uses market research to segment target markets based on psychographics rather than demographics.
Examples[edit]
While some lifestyle brands purposely reference existing groups or cultures, others create a disruption within the status quo and propose an innovative viewpoint on the world. The driving force may be the product, the shopping experience, the service, the communication or a combination of these elements. These are often result from visionary goals of the CEO or founder. Early on, Apple's founder Steve Jobs sought to integrate the company's innovations into the industries of music, entertainment, and telecommunications.[28] In 2002, he gifted each 7th- and 8th-grader in the state of Maine with a laptop, in an effort to show that it wasn't "about the technology, it's about what people can do with it."[28] Lee Clow—the chairman of Omnicom Group's TBWA Worldwide and Apple marketing partner—said that Jobs had "a very rigorous view of Apple's tone of voice and the way it talks with people," calling it "very human, very accessible."[28] Burton has built its lifestyle brand by drawing on the snowboarding subculture and Quiksilver has done the same with the surfing community.
Some lifestyle brands align themselves with an ideology. Patagonia proposes an environmentally friendly way of life. Volcom, with the promise "Youth Against Establishment", gives a label and a sense of belonging to those who are "against" the world of adults.
One popular source for lifestyle brands is also national identity. Victoria's Secret purposely evoked the English upper class in its initial branding efforts, while Burberry is recalling the hip London culture.
Social or personal image is also a reference point for some lifestyle brands. In the 1990s, Abercrombie & Fitch successfully resuscitated a 1950s ideal —the white, masculine "beefcake"— during a time of political correctness and rejection of 1950s orthodoxy, creating a lifestyle brand based on a preppy, young, Ivy-League lifestyle. Their retail outlets reflect this lifestyle through their luxurious store environment, attractive store associates (models), and their black and white photographs featuring young people "living the Abercrombie & Fitch lifestyle". In doing so, Abercrombie & Fitch has created an outlet for those who lead, or wish to lead or wish to dream about leading this lifestyle.[29]
Companies like home furnishing associate themselves with the term "lifestyle branding" when they are developing their brand portfolio.[30] A furniture company is likely to align new product lines with lifestyle collections that are associated with fashion icons, celebrities and well-known interior designers. For consumers this is reassuring and entices them to purchase home furnishings to be like these iconic influencers. Furniture companies have said that it helps them connect with those consumers who associate other categories with these celebrities. It is their way of tapping into new markets that have not yet been reached.[31] Companies that have celebrity names associated with them provides a certain degree of guarantee to the brand.[32]
A company called Doman Home Furnishings launched a campaign about food and kitchen products to enhance its brand as a lifestyle choice.[33] The campaign used models which had a caption along the lines of 'a slice of life'. This allowed consumers to gain a good understanding of the brand and the lifestyle that it could offer. Home furnishing companies use lifestyle merchandising to promote brand extension. Furthermore, the brand is communicated to consumers through using a designer who is associated with also creating fashion-apparel products. Therefore, this creates a connection between the fashion and homeware brands for these consumers are already associating with or are familiar with the fashion-apparel products.
Expansion[edit]
One key indication that a brand has become a lifestyle is when it successfully expands beyond its original product. For example, Nike used to be a product-based company, focusing on making running shoes. But over time, the company and its logo has become associated with the athletic subculture. That has allowed Nike to expand into related athletic categories, such as sports equipment and apparel.
Gaiam started out as a yoga company but has had great success in developing a lifestyle brand, which has allowed it to move into other markets as varied as solar power and green building supplies. Nautica started out as a collection of 6 outerwear pieces but built itself into a global lifestyle brand by having collections for men, women, kids, home and accessories.
A company's status as a lifestyle brand isn't achieved by providing a wide range of products but by the benefit and symbolic value that the customer associates with the brand.[3]