It could be that your bespoke Greenville business has grown up, and now it’s time to graduate with bigger branding. If you’ve struggled with what to do beyond the DIY bootstrapping version of getting your message across, you’ll want to keep reading.

You already know that in growing your brand, It’s about more than just what you make or sell; it’s about creating an unforgettable customer experience. A well-rounded marketing approach should cover several key elements that work in harmony to elevate your brand’s prestige.

What are the elements of this approach? Let’s go over them below.

Logo. Your logo is your brand’s visual signature. Everything about it should say sophistication, elegance, and exclusivity. It should be recognizable and consistently used across all your marketing mediums from digital, print and social. It needs to reinforce your brand’s presence and its luxurious appeal.

Brand Voice. Are you familiar, folksy, or old-money sophisticated? Your brand voice should reflect the essence of your luxury offering, resonating with your customer’s aspirations and lifestyle. Your brand’s tone, language, and messaging is crucial to establishing a strong and cohesive brand identity.

Visual Branding. Visuals are paramount in creating a luxurious brand experience. From the color palette to typography, imagery, and overall aesthetic, every aspect of your visual branding should immerse your customer in your brand’s special qualities. Expert photography, videography, and illustrations convey the luxury appeal of your brand. 

Social Media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are popular choices for luxury brands to build brand awareness, engage with potential customers, and foster a sense of exclusivity and aspiration. With the right strategy, you can showcase your brand’s lifestyle, craftsmanship, and attention to detail.

SEO. Is your brand searchable? Optimizing your website and online content for relevant keywords can help potential customers discover your brand more easily. However, it’s essential to strike a balance between effective and current SEO practices and maintaining the exclusivity and premium positioning of your luxury brand.

Does this all sound overwhelming? Well, it could be if you tried to do this all yourself or gave this mountain of marketing tasks to your administrative support to tackle.

To scale smartly, engage with an expert in branding and marketing like Anvil, with all the wizardry needed to elevate your business to the next level. Anvil can develop a strategy as bespoke as your brand, and the consultation is free. Book your appointment today.

Even if you’re experienced in the world of marketing and its lingo, as a Greenville luxury business owner, you probably haven’t spent too much time obsessing about style guides.

You’re busy enough meeting with clients, fulfilling orders and worrying about the day to day operations. You don’t have hours to focus on your brand’s aesthetics, even if you realize the importance of it.

However, there are many exciting parallels between your luxury business and a marketing/advertising style guide, so let’s get into it.

Basically, a style guide is a cornerstone for all your marketing, a container for all the preferred ways your business is presented to the world — with its brand voice, colors, fonts, and graphics.

It eliminates the guesswork for both seasoned and new employees on what to say and how to say it, as well as the signature “look” you have created and standardized for all the world to see.

Let’s go through all the components of a winning style guide, so you’ll have more than just a basic understanding of what goes into one, and why.

Logo

Creation of or rebranding of an existing logo. Specifications for proper logo placement, size, and variations, such as primary and secondary colors, or black and white. Codes are used by professional designers for print or digital applications. 

Fonts

These are the different typography your business uses for all print and digital assets, including font families and related styles. Different fonts apply for headings, body text and other placements.

Photography

This is where your guidelines for image selection, composition, and treatment will reside. Rules for filters, cropping and editing will be outlined as a reference point.

Iconography

Meant to live alongside or as part of your overall logo, your brand’s icon will be part of your brand’s signature look. Guidelines within the style guide will show approved icons and their appropriate usage.

Illustration

This section outlines the selection, placement and usage of graphic elements and any illustrations used for your brand’s advertising.

Copywriting

Brand voice guidelines depicting the right tone and personality in all written presentations such as website, social, and printed materials.

Social Media

Best practices for posting on various social media platforms, including content types, tone, and engagement strategies.

Email Marketing

Establishment of standards for email design, subject lines, and content structure, along with email cadence and segmentation.

Now, this might all sound like a complicated mountain of rules to follow to a busy luxury business owner like you. The good news is that with the right expert help, you don’t have to worry about the how, you just get to enjoy the results — which is attracting and keeping more loyal customers.

Anvil Marketing Co. creates, refines and seamlessly integrates luxury brand style guides all day, every day. To get an idea of how they would approach yours, schedule a free consultation today.

It’s no secret that we are living in challenging economic times. 

Inflation is rampant, layoffs are increasing, and people are not spending what they normally do on goods and services. However, the good news is that if you own a luxury business, the trends still favor a strong (yet maybe tapered) demand for upscale offerings despite an overall economic downturn.

Across the board, though, it’s proven through real world examples that investing in your business in lean times can give you unprecedented advantages.

The proof, you might say, is in the cereal.

According to an interesting piece via Frontify, breakfast giant Kellogg took its main rival Post to task during the Great Depression, and came out on top. 

In the 1920s, before soup kitchens and long unemployment lines, Post dominated the breakfast cereal market while Kellogg’s was a far second. After the horrendous stock market crash through the country into financial ruin overnight, Post decided to trim its advertising significantly, while Kellogg’s did the opposite. They actually doubled their ad spend, and “snap crackle and popped” their way to a 30% profit increase!

Now, Post is still around, and a successful family of brands. But Kellogg’s has dominated the breakfast cereal market for almost 100 years, due to a bold move made during one of the worst times in American history.

Getting back to talking about luxury buyers themselves, we should remember that leaner financial times do not always mean lower luxury spending among loyal consumers.

This is partly due to the need to connect with items that represent something special… that increase serotonin levels and bring happiness to the buyer in a way that substitutes never could.

This is well-stated in a LinkedIn article by author Abdulaziz M.:

“Finally, emotions play a big role in consumer behavior. Purchases made out of fear, hope, or excitement are particularly powerful during difficult times. People often turn to luxury goods as a way to escape their worries and find comfort; conversely, buying something luxurious can also be seen as a way of treating oneself or rewarding one’s own success.”

So where should you invest in your business in uncertain times like these?

Focus on your key areas such as employees, operations, and vendors.

In addition, you’ll want to remember Kellogg’s example and robustly invest in your marketing as well. Not by hiring more marketing people or by DIY-ing it (because who has time for that?).

Your best bet is to outsource your marketing to a company that understands branding, online campaigns, email marketing, social media and more. With a team who understands the artistic sensibilities you want, balanced with strategy for maximum engagement and ROI.

At Anvil, we get that the best place for our clients to be is at the helm of their business, not trying to write website copy or blogs, managing social media, or capturing drone video footage. That’s why we love to meet with, strategize, and ultimately own successful marketing campaigns that can move the needle like nothing else.

To see how this can work for you, schedule a call today.