Briony Kent – the former marketing lead at Platypus Shoes, Michael Kors, and PVH Corp and Route B Marketing Solutions founder – shares three tactics fashion brands can use to break through the noise.
As the cost of living crisis in Australia continues and brands are still facing the dreaded promotional cycle, it’s time for marketers to rethink their communication strategies to align with changing consumer priorities, which are now centred around value, transparency and emotional wellbeing.
Brands must work to deliver true value to consumers throughout the entire marketing funnel, not just through discounted product and sale messaging but with content, campaign and activation strategies that prioritise current consumer needs.
With that, here are three tactics that I will be implementing for brands this 2025 and beyond.
It’s all about loyalty
Now more than ever, consumers are looking at every cent that leaves their wallets and considering if the purchase was “worth it.” Outside of a cost-of-living crisis, we are also facing a loneliness epidemic, with almost 1 in 3 Australians reporting feeling lonely.
For brands, we are seeing a constant increase in required ad spend to cut through the noise, and while we are having to heavily promote discounted product price points, achieving that positive margin jaw-dropping ROAS is getting harder and harder.
This is where a good loyalty program comes in.
Consumers are craving connection and to feel valued, and brands need owned media outlets to ensure cost efficiency.
A 2024 Live Nation “Driving Loyalty” study found that over 3 in 4 live music goers agree that loyalty programs make them feel valued by a brand. They seek out loyalty programs for both the financial (practical) and emotional (feel good) benefits.
Providing consumers with ‘rewards’ that are outside of product discounting is a great way to do this; it allows the consumer to feel a part of your brand, create a memory with your brand and also free up spending.
During my time as head of marketing at Platypus Shoes, we played heavily in this area. We noticed that our consumers were prioritising spending their money on social and cultural activities instead of retail. To combat that, we give them the social in return for their loyalty or purchases. Free Tattoos in store with Mela Tatts for any purchase over $300, our ATV increased dramatically, and so did purchases of one of our higher price point brands, Dr Martens. Free festival tickets and gig tickets were also a large unlock here.
When a brand loyalty program offers live music perks, 76 per cent of consumers agree the brand feels more innovative & cool, 72 per cent agree the brand feels more relevant, and 67 per cent agree the brand shows me they care about what I care about.
When you have an engaged database of loyal consumers, pushing product and sale messaging becomes a lot easier because people buy “believe” what you are selling.
Socials, it’s time to invest (and maybe step back)
With 43 per cent of global consumers saying they use social media to search for products and services, it’s time to invest in the inspiration – to – purchase funnel.
To do this correctly and not cringe, you need to step outside of your brand, the sales numbers and the products you are trying to push. You need to step into your consumer’s world. What are they doing? Where are they spending their time? What is important to them? What are they struggling with?
They all seem like pretty easy questions, right? But it is so easy to get caught in what you think is important and not what is actually going to cut through and resonate with your consumer.
Your social strategy should be based around answering these questions and engaging in educational, emotionerring and storytelling content that resonates with the masses answering their questions so they understand why your brand and product are going to add benefit to their current lifestyle.
Being a strict brand guardian is important, but there also is a time and place to loosen the reins. We see too many brands trying to jump on TikTok trends or “relate” online, where the content is too polished or the original meaning has been lost. Hire a team that you trust, who relate to your consumer and their questions and “try” take a step back.
Embrace lo-fi strategies, lean into user-generated content and employee-generated content, and capture the IRL moments of your brand. During my career at every brand, our best performing social content was always of our activations, events or IRL moments. Gen Z want to co-create content alongside brands and if people can’t physically be there, they still want to feel in the know.
Finally, do sale but do it differently
Of course, value is still everything; consumers love sales, and brands do require it. There are, however, ways to make it interesting and feel a part of your brand identity. Embed trust in your offer, and bring creators into the process of communicating product attributes to build trust with your consumer. Sales messaging rooted in compassion and understanding, there is a huge opportunity for brands to step into a supportive big sibling role for consumers, offering reassurance, understanding and even some fun.
We used to run a lead gen campaign leading into Cyber weekend called “Grab your Kicks.” Consumers could win one minute in one of our stores the morning of Black Friday to grab as many shoes as they could. The message promoted the sale and cut through the traditional % off sale messaging; it created a huge spike in sign-ups and also engaging IRL content for the entire Cyber weekend.
If you are willing to take a risk, step outside of the traditional marketing practices and truly listen to your consumer, there are still big prizes to be won.