Imagine a brand is your BFF and designs products especially for you? – Welcome to BFF Marketing!
Imagine your favourite fashion brand is your best friend, thinks you’re so special and design products especially for you! Well, in a nutshell, this is the core narrative behind the rise of some of the most successful direct-to-consumer womenswear and beauty brands in the marketplace right now.
When you’re talking with your girlfriends about what you’re going to wear for a night out and you say ‘trousers and a nice top’ we usually get the memo right? When you receive a text or a message from one of your girls saying ‘its going to be lit’ you already know that you and the girls are in for a good night?
This is exactly what you get from your favourite brands in today’s millennial consumer market. To add content to the above, Missguided has now introduced a “Jeans and ice top” division on their website. Brands such as Nasty Gal and Boohoo directly contact their consumer via e-newsletters with BFF messaging such as “time for the weekend, it’s going to be lit” Engaging in slang lingo to their BFF customer.
Its informal, intimate and makes you feel like they get you and understand your lifestyle. What more compelling relationship could you ask for from a brand?
To give further insight, Business Of Fashion also gives a great example with Yael Aflalo, the co-founder of Reformation a direct to a consumer brand also shared that;“hyper-growth” was also kick-started with a pithy newsletter in March 2013, says the company’s founder. “We wrote about Coachella and the caption was: ‘It’s not that important but it kinda is.’ All my friends rung me to say how cute it was.” It wasn’t just cute; it was instantly profitable. Sales jumped from $18,000 in February (pre-newsletter) to $175,000 in March.
This emphasises the pulling power & inclusiveness that brands introduce on such a relatable level. It actually gives the customer the power by decreasing any forced sale messaging and introduces a conversation based on how the brand has researched, segmented and understood their consumer.
Another aspect of BFF Marketing is the girl club community that direct to consumer brands have started to build using hashtags.
Nasty Gal – #Nastgalsdoitbetter
Miss Guided – #BabesOfMissguided
Asos – #Asseenonme
Creating a club-like environment for your ‘girl’ and allowing them to influence your product is a vital part of BFF marketing. It’s not only for bloggers but for all girls who love the product and want to share how they wore it.
BFF marketing is not as easy as it sounds, you have to bear in mind that you still need to scale the brand financially. A ‘cutesy tone of voice and a good colour palette’ will introduce you to your customer on a personal level, however, a core strategy will need to be behind this tone of voice to sustain the relationship and nature their shopping habit, which will result in increased sales.
To conclude we love the concept and strategic route of BFF Marketing!
Olivia Gold x
