Brand Strategy

Just like the human body, a well thought out brand has multiple parts that function together to make the whole. So, what are those parts, and how do we apply it to our process?

When a Dubai based client approached us with her idea for the e-commerce fashion brand she wanted to launch, we went to work to dissect her brand into key elements that would serve as a clear differentiator in an overwhelmingly competitive market.
The idea was to humanise the brand with a clear and distinct personality that added value to the local market.

THE SOUL

We started with its SOUL. Why did this brand need to exist? What was its core purpose? Its vision? To get these answers Zeitgeist immersed the client into an in depth 2-day brand development workshop to spring some life into the business. It very quickly became evident that this e-commerce platform was to be the canvas that connected fashion enthusiasts to unique products from all over the world.

THE BRAIN

But what would this mean to the BRAIN of the brand? We needed to figure out a logical way that this brand would reach its market. We understood that Fashion Harbour’s largest market would be women and so right from its name, we needed to inspire, excite and welcome in our target market. To do this we needed to dig deep into all the areas these women interacted with that were connected to fashion and lifestyle. We wanted to build logical strategic alliances that could help deliver our message. And so, we began to build Fashion Harbour’s roadmap to reach its destination.

THE HEART

Now we needed to infuse HEART into Fashion Harbour. How could we manifest a feeling of warmth and togetherness to create a sense of loyalty? Heavily embedded in R&D, we understood that to communicate our brand we would need distinct social media strategies put in place. To begin a relationship that inspired loyalty meant that we needed to figure out what inspired these ladies. We understood that a large part of our market spent hours browsing Instagram looking for brands and products that could add value to their lives. And this is where Fashion Harbour needed to be. We spent countless hours on design strategy. How should each post look? How will it sound? What do each of these women want to hear? The idea was to allow the brand to invoke loyalty from its customers. We created online strategies that mitigated loneliness, created self-worth, offered education and induced community.

How did this all come together to form the DNA of the Brand? Very simply, the brand’s unique value proposition was to be ‘Inspired by Culture, United by Style’. This meant that everything the brand stood for and communicated would represent expressive fashion, global fashion & democratic fashion.
We developed the brand to represent a lifestyle, and not just a collection of products.

DRESSING IT ALL UP

What CLOTHES would the brand wear? What would be in its cupboard? The brand identity needed to be gentle and feminine but strong enough to advocate its presence online. We drew inspiration from the local pier to define the typeface and created a fluid watercolour as the background to emphasize femininity in the logo. Colours and gradients were used to depict varied forms of fashion and culture that all talked of the brand’s DNA – open minded and inspired. And ultimately, our logo was designed as the brand’s favourite hat – a distinguished, impactful image that was tailored to remind the user of a trendy brand that impacts their life.

Madhuri Rao
Founder & Chief,
Design Strategy