Integrated Brand Management - Lucy and Yak #Sewdontthrow Campaign Proposal

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Lucy and Yak #Sewdontthrow Campaign Proposal MA Fashion Management with Marketing MADM5101 Digital Campaign Report Libby Maskery Word Count: 3292

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Contents 1. Introduction 2. Patagonia #Loveourplanet Campaign 3. Strengths and Weaknesses of the #Loveourplanet Campaign

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4. Lucy and Yak #Sewdontthrow Proposal 4.1 Structure of Campaign

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4.2 How Campaign Aligns with Values

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4.3 How Lucy and Yak Will Benefit From The Campaign 4.4 How Lessons Learned Will Be Applied Validation of Campaign: Testing With Target Consumer Conclusion Appendix Figure List Bibliography

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1. Introduction As the number of social media users increases, digital campaigns are becoming even more important. Hashtag campaigns have developed from their primary purpose of tracking content to now being a ‘multiple, open-ended and contingent phenomen[on]’ in society (Rambukkana, 2015).

In the retail sector, 91% of brands use two or more social media channels (Smith, 2019) and their use of hashtags is not only a natural way to communicate ideas to the user but also has the advantage of creating message archives (Ovadia, 2009). This report aims to assess the validity of a proposed digital campaign for clothing retailer Lucy and Yak by analysing and evaluating a previous digital campaign from a different brand in the sector.

The analysed campaign is from clothing and outdoor retailer Patagonia’s #Loveourplanet campaign from November 2016. This report aims to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign and how the proposed campaign for Lucy and Yak can benefit from these lessons learned so that it can be successful.

The report details the proposed campaign, what methods will be employed and the reasoning behind these marketing and branding choices. It will then look at the validity of the campaign by including feedback on the campaign from Lucy and Yak’s target consumer, highlighting any areas that could be improved or reassessed to suit the consumer’s needs.

2. Patagonia #Loveourplanet Campaign In 2016, Patagonia announced that they would donate 100% of global sales made online or instore on Black Friday to grassroots organisations working in local communities to help protect the planet (Marcario cited by Byars, 2016), using #Loveourplanet to headline the campaign. The brand is committed to donating 1% of daily global sales to these organisations but the campaign donating 100% was set up specifically for Black Friday, a day notoriously associated with consumer culture. The brand stated ‘We are here and we’ll keep fighting. #Loveourplanet’ (Marcario, 2016).

The campaign’s success lay in the direct targeting of their niche market. The campaign was not about maximising sales, its intentions lay in building brand loyalty and maintaining high moral values, which is central to their consumer shopping with them. The brand understood the psychographic they were targeting whilst also acknowledging that they could do little to stop consumerism on Black Friday. Instead, they encouraged a more mindful consumerism and used their platform to adjust buying trends to align with their sustainable values. By being commercially sensitive, they could acknowledge the inevitable consumerism but also ensure they faced no bad PR by promoting sales that are antithetical to their mission, ‘We’re in business to save our home planet’ (Patagonia n.d.).

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The campaign gained recognition over social media via the hashtag earning praise for ‘reshaping the narrative of #BlackFriday’ (@onlytodaytv, 2016). Figure 1 shows the Google Trend report for the term love our planet. In November 2016, the time of the campaign, the term did not trend any more than normal, suggesting the campaign did not have a particularly wide reach or did not connect with many people.

Figure 1: A graph showing the trend for the term Love Our Planet. The blue dot marking November 2016.

#Loveourplanet was an effective example of emotional branding as it engaged their customers through appealing to their needs and aspirations (Kim & Sullivan, 2019). The campaign led to record breaking sales, the brand announcing that they had reached $10 million dollars in sales on Black Friday, exceeding their expectations five times over (Marcario, 2016) with all money going to grassroots organisations, gaining consumer trust, loyalty and a reputable status, all of which would benefit them in the future. The campaign valued the long-term effects and advantages rather than the instant sales and, as a result, the campaign contributed to the longevity of the brand.

In keeping with the brand’s mission and vision, the campaign was an extension of their values, meaning the campaign was leading a movement for conscious consumerism, reiterating the brand’s positive impact on sustainability and ethics. The campaign was fitting with their circular business model and their Worn Wear initiative, that encourages consumers to trade in used clothes, which is arguably what led to the success, as proved by the sales figures. The brand has a strong understanding of what they stand for fundamentally; their honesty and transparency is what the consumer trusts.

In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is significant to note that it is arguable the consumer buys into the brands for the sake of their own ego; the brand fulfils their esteem needs. This campaign notices this so puts this message of doing good at the core of the hashtag.

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3. Strengths and Weaknesses of the #Loveourplanet Campaign From Patagonia’s #Loveourplanet campaign it can be seen how crucial it is to target the digital campaign at the specific target consumer and focus it on what they value about the brand rather than the brand trying to force itself upon the consumer. The #Loveourplanet campaign carefully aligns with the brands mission and values and crucially shows how, as a brand, Patagonia is self-aware enough to know when taking a step back is more valuable to the business. The campaign understands that long term effects of a campaign are more important that the short-term rewards.

It’s arguable that the campaign would’ve benefitted from being more distinctive. Figure 1 shows how the term love our planet is not uncommon and not specific enough for the brand. The campaign could have been strengthened by being specific to Patagonia or simply by being more memorable. The term is not recognisable enough to be solely linked to Patagonia, perhaps losing the campaign recognition.

It’s also arguable that as a campaign it does little to encourage further development of their community, it’s a campaign that would be valued by their existing community, however it perhaps could do more in terms of reaching out to build further connection. There was little in the way of emotional connection driven by this campaign, it relied on the emotional connection that the consumer already had with the brand, therefore meaning it only targeted already loyal customers. It didn’t reach out to build a bigger community and encourage more people to join the movement that Schlaikjer (2014) suggests transcendent brands do.

In addition to this, it is arguable that the campaign didn’t make enough impact via the hashtag alone. The campaign started on the 21st of November 2016 with daily photos of nature using #Loveourplanet until the 25th. The hashtag was not then used again until the 29th of November in a post stating they had raised $10 million in sales to donate on Black Friday. The campaign was arguably not particularly educational, it relied on the knowledge of existing customers being aware that the brand already donated 1% of daily sales to the planet and did little to show new customers how they would be benefitting the planet if they bought from their brand on Black Friday. It could have been pushed further in building awareness.

4. Lucy and Yak #Sewdontthrow proposal 4.1 Structure of Campaign The proposed campaign for Lucy and Yak is #Sewdontthrow which encourages the consumer to alter their perspective on how to dispose of clothes. The campaign will be made up of a series of IGTV clips that offer mini tutorials on how to upcycle, recycle and modify used Lucy and Yak garments and posts sharing information on the benefits of upcycling clothes, showing the positive impact doing so has on the environment. There would also be posts showing the negative impacts of throwing clothes away to show the difference the consumer is making via upcycling to help fulfil their esteem needs. The

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campaign would also be used to encourage the Lucy and Yak community to share their creations from home via the hashtag in the hope of adding narrative to the campaign so the hashtag serves as a storytelling device (Omena et al. 2020).

As well as being a digital campaign targeting the online community, the campaign may benefit from being stretched into physical meetings in Brighton where the Lucy and Yak store is currently based. This could be in the form of upcycling events being held, much like the tutorials being posted on Instagram, but with the social and personal advantage, breaking down barriers between the brand and the consumer as staff and customer learn and create together. This reinforces the proposed brand promise.

The classes would be documented online by both the brand’s account and, inevitably, by the attendees which naturally widens the campaigns reach at no additional cost in terms of digital marketing. The events could run in exchange for an attendance fee where 100% of the money raised goes to charities working towards a positive environmental impact which not only makes the brand reputable but also taps into the consumer’s esteem needs.

The campaign would, as a result of blending these components, aim to be educational, inspiring and informative all whilst nurturing the creative community. By taking this approach the brand is keeping up with social media migration by posting informative and entertaining branded content whilst maintaining connections with existing consumers and reaching out to new ones (Kim and Phua, 2020). In terms of digital marketing, the campaign benefits from taking on these several angles as it ultimately means captions for these posts can be more varied and more in depth. This, in turn, will increase the search engine optimisation via the explore page on Instagram and, as a result, widen the reach, discoverability and thus increase engagement.

Figure 2 shows example social media posts for the hashtag campaign.

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Figure 2: Proposed social media posts for the #Sewdontthrow campaign.

4.2 How Campaign Aligns with Values The brand has just launched their Imperfect Yaks initiative where they are introducing lines of garments that all have the same manufacturing fault to be sold via their website, whereas previously these garments have been sold as unique one-off items on Depop. The brand is aiming to become a circular business, taking inspiration from Patagonia (Greenwood and Renwick, 2019) and whilst this campaign does not encourage a fully circular model where the garments are reused by the brand, it does encourage a more sustainable lifestyle that Lucy and Yak have stated (in personal correspondence) they believe everyone should be working towards, making the campaign relevant.

In the proposed brand guidelines, it was identified that the brand should lay emphasis on building their creative community, inspiring them to reach their self-actualisation needs. This campaign inspires the community to express creativity and aims to be educational as the consumer is being informed of alternatives to disposing clothes. It also taps into the idea of the consumer making more conscious choices something that was tried to be conveyed during the logo development process.

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The campaign is also in keeping with the proposed brand promise, which was made to eliminate social barriers between brand and consumer, as well as the proposed brand vision which was to be a leading brand raising the standards and expectations of the fashion industry. The campaign encourages the brand to become a lifestyle retailer as it is promoting more than just its products. It is promoting awareness, creativity, expression, conscious decision making. It is promoting much more than just consumerism, which is what its demographic and psychographic value.

4. 3 How Lucy and Yak Will Benefit From The Campaign Olins (2012) states that the key to success for a brand is emotion, realising that the cleverest brands reach out to society and form relationships. By bringing like minded individuals together via the hashtag campaign, Lucy and Yak builds their reputation as a friend to the consumer, this will ultimately help build brand loyalty. Building a reputation has implications of trust and value (Olins, 2014) whereas building a brand is associated with being phoney (Olins, 2014). This campaign will build the reputation and therefore trust.

Similarly, Gad, (2016) describes branding as ‘company soul’ and the #Sewdontthrow campaign makes the brand more fun and personable, building an emotional connection with the community that the campaign aims to nurture. This concept shows an authentic side to the brand that is crucial to adding a human element to the brand experience (Deibert, 2017).

The campaign also aims to lead a movement whilst also putting the consumer at the centre of the campaign, something transcendent brands do successfully (Schlaikjer, 2012). Its purpose is to reiterate the notion that sustainability is something everyone can be working towards, something that was emphasised through the brand promise of making a big change through every small choice. The campaign hopes to show the consumer that a positive impact can be achieved by forming small habits therefore proving how the campaign has the potential to become a movement.

Like Patagonia’s campaign, the focus is not on promoting products and encouraging consumerism. The aim is to be anti-consumerist which may appear to be counterproductive to a fashion brand, but ultimately, this is what Lucy and Yak’s consumer values more. The consumer will therefore buy into the brand in the future as they understand that the brand’s values and their own personal values align.

4.4 How Lessons Learned Will Be Applied Where this campaign and Patagonia’s #Loveourplanet campaign differ is the emphasis on building the community. Whilst Patagonia’s campaign was very successful in terms of building brand loyalty and reinforcing its values, the #Sewdontthrow campaign for Lucy and Yak aims to do this too but also reach further out and be more welcoming and inclusive. There is a definite emphasis how the brand can help the community reach their goals, rather than the consumer helping the brand reach theirs, which is arguably what Patagonia’s campaign does more.

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Also, having a longer running campaign would be beneficial, the #Loveourplanet campaign was seasonal due to it being for Black Friday, however there was little build up and therefore less awareness. The #Sewdontthrow campaign would benefit from being longer with more frequent posts.

The #Loveourplanet campaign also shows that the hashtag needs to be niche and memorable. If the Lucy and Yak campaign aims to start a movement as Schlaikjer suggests, the hashtag needs to be focussed around action, therefore the use of the imperative sentence Sew Don’t Throw is a better option; the brand therefore naturally becomes the leader of said movement but does so in an encouraging way in keeping with their values.

This movement will then aim to start a narrative, a phenomenon that Dawson (2020) states was created by the technical affordances of social media called ‘emergent storytelling’, due to its similarities to emergent behaviour, where the movement relies on the community as a whole, not the individual components.

What Patagonia’s campaign did successfully is be fully aware of what their niche consumer valued and targeted the campaign to suit their needs. From this, the campaign proposed for Lucy and Yak needs to do the same, hence the decision was made to push the campaign into events for the brand to reach further out. Like Patagonia, this may not necessarily be directly benefitting the business from a financial perspective, as it will obviously take time and money to do this, but as Patagonia’s campaign proved, the consumer valued this and as a result it built loyalty and trust. It makes the consumer feel valued and heard by the brand as their needs are being catered for and this will ultimately increase future sales. Patagonia’s campaign proved that a campaign has greater benefit if it helps in the long-term rather than boosting the brand at the time of the campaign.

5. Validation of Campaign: Testing With Target Consumer When testing this proposed digital campaign, 65 people aged 20-26 were addressed, as this is Lucy and Yak’s target demographic. Previous primary research (see appendix 1) revealed that it was important to 82% of people that the brands they bought from were ethical and sustainable (Maskery, 2021). During this questionnaire however, only half of the 65 people said that having the guarantee of a low environmental impact when disposing of clothes was something they prioritised; the other half saying they prioritise convenience (see appendix 2).

From this, questions do arise as to whether the campaign would be successful however it is arguable that, similar to Patagonia, Lucy and Yak have a very niche consumer, the campaign is likely to appeal more to this specific psychographic than it is to the age category in general. This is due to the consumer’s values aligning with the brands; they are more conscious consumers.

From this, the brand could need to add something extra to the experience to make the inconvenience of upcycling clothes more worthwhile for the consumer but it is arguable that the social events and online community would be enough for the right consumer. It’s important to note that during their campaign, Patagonia didn’t try to appeal to every consumer, they catered to the needs of the consumers who they knew valued the brand,

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and this is something that Lucy and Yak could adopt. Whilst it needs to fulfil the needs of a specific consumer, the campaign still needs to be welcoming and encouraging to fit with the brand guidelines. The right consumer will value community and creativity and these people are the people who will be brand loyal to Lucy and Yak and who Lucy and Yak need to value, rather than aiming to appeal to the needs of every consumer.

If more still needs to be done to distract from the inconvenience, 88% of the group said a reward system of earning credit to spend on new clothes would be a big enough incentive for them to contribute to a more circular business model (Maskery, 2021). The #Sewdontthrow campaign could adopt this approach through attendees of the social events earning reward points to spend in store and online at Lucy and Yak as offering a reward scheme to the online community for participating would be hard to monitor. This way Lucy and Yak are providing further incentive for the community to be built which will ultimately lead to an increase in brand loyalty from the consumer and build upon the brand’s personality and presence in a saturated sector. It will build their USP and ESP and make them stand out in the industry.

All of this will coincide with their ultimate aim of becoming a circular business which 67% of people surveyed said would encourage them to buy form a particular clothing brand if they had this model implemented (Maskery 2021). The campaign offers both immediate benefits and also helps the brand in achieving their ultimate goal, something which their target consumer has said they value.

6. Conclusion In conclusion, the proposed digital campaign for Lucy and Yak can adopt approaches from Patagonia’s #Loveourplanet campaign but it is arguable it could do even more through the #Sewdontthrow campaign. Essentially, the campaign builds brand loyalty and trust whilst ensuring their consumer feels valued by providing them with a creative community to express their values which so clearly line up with the brand’s own, something Patagonia did not provide their consumer through their campaign.

It can also be argued that this campaign aligns with the brand’s long-term goals, it is in keeping with its values, mission and vision. It does this in a fun, vibrant and creative way all in keeping with the brand’s identity, image and narrative. To maximise the campaign’s effect and impact on the target consumer, the brand should develop the campaign to provide maybe more than just the community aspects, as this is what primary research revealed would be a bigger incentive for the consumer and therefore ensure even greater success for the campaign. This would only serve to strengthen the campaign and result in even greater brand loyalty.

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7. Appendix Appendix 1

Primary Research carried out to inform the proposed brand guidelines revealed that 82% of people said it was important to them that the brands they bought from were ethical/ sustainable.

Appendix 2

Primary Research carried out to test the validation of the campaign revealed that 50% of people prioritise convenience over the guarantee of low environmental impact when disposing of clothes.

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8. Figure List Figure 1 Google Trends (2021) Google Trends Love Our Planet. Trends.google.com [online].

Available from: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=love%20our%20planet [Accessed 17th May 2021].

Figure 2 Adapted from Lucy and Yak. 2021. Lucy and Yak’s profile. [Instagram]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/COkffuml5c0/ [Accessed 17th May 2021].

The Stitch Festival (n.d.) The Stitch Festival Home Page. Thestitchfestival.co.uk [online].

Available from: https://www.thestitchfestival.co.uk/ [Accessed 17th May 2021].

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9. Bibliography BYARS, T. (2016) 100 Percent Today, 1 Percent Every Day. Patagoniaworks.com [online].

Available from: https://www.patagoniaworks.com/press/2016/11/18/100-percent-today-1percent-every-day [Accessed 17th May 2021].

DAWSON, P. (2020) Hashtag narrative: Emergent storytelling and affective publics in the digital age. International Journal of Cultural Studies. [Online] 23 (6). Available from: https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.dmu.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1177/1367877920921417 [Accessed 17th May 2021].

DEIBERT, A. (2017) Why Authenticity in Marketing Matters now more Than Ever.

Forbes.com [online]. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/05/26/why-authenticity-inmarketing-matters-now-more-than-ever/?sh=6609d1017982#540987617982 [Accessed 17th May 2021].

GAD, T. (2016) Customer Experience Branding: Driving Engagement Through Surprise and Innovation. London: Kogan Page Ltd. GREENWOOD, L. & RENWICK, C. (2019) Lucy and Yak Turned 2 in July!. Lucyandyak.com [online]. Available from: https://lucyandyak.com/blogs/news/lucy-and-yak-turns-2 [Accessed 17th May 2021].

KIM, T & PHUA, J. (2020) Effects of Brand Name Versus Empowerment Advertising Campaign Hashtags In Branded Instagram Posts of Luxury Versus Mass- Market Brands.

Journal of Interactive Advertising. [Online]. 20 (2). Available from: https://www-tandfonlinecom.proxy.library.dmu.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1080/15252019.2020.1734120 [Accessed 17th May 2021].

KIM, Y. & SULLIVAN, P. (2019) Emotional Branding Speaks to Consumer’s Heart: The Case of Fashion Brands. Fashion and Textiles. [Online]. 6 (2). Available from: https://fashionandtextiles.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40691-018-0164-y [Accessed 17th May 2021].

MARCARIO, R. (2016) Record- Breaking Black Friday Sales to Benefit The Planet.

Patagonia.com [online]. Available from: https://eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/stories/recordbreaking-black-friday-sales-to-benefit-the-planet/story-31140.html [Accessed 17th May 2021].

OLINS, W. (2014) Brand New: The Shape of Brands to Come. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. OLINS, W. (2012) On Brand. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. OMENA, J. J. et al., (2020) Digital Methods for hashtag Engagement Research. Social Media + Society [Online]. 6 (3). Available from: https://www-proquestcom.proxy.library.dmu.ac.uk/docview/2447804412?OpenUrlRefId=info:xri/sid:summon&acco untid=10472 [Accessed 17th May 2021].

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ONLY TODAY TV (2016) We love that companies like @REI and @patagonia are reshaping the narrative of #BlackFriday to #OptOutside and #LoveOurPlanet. [Twitter] 25th November.

Available from: https://twitter.com/onlytodaytv/status/802241784034328580 [Accessed 17th May 2021].

OVADIA, S. (2009). Exploring the Potential of Twitter as a Research Tool. Behaviroual and Social Sciences Librarian. [Online] 28 (4). Available from: https://www-tandfonlinecom.proxy.library.dmu.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1080/01639260903280888?journalCode=wbss20 [Accessed 17th May 2021].

PATAGONIA (n.d.) Patagonia’s Mission Statement. Patagonia.com [online]. Available from: https://www.patagonia.com.au/pages/our-mission [Accessed 17th May 2021].

RAMBUKKANA, N. (2015) Hashtag Publics: The Power and Politics of Discursive Networks. New York: Peter Lang Publishing SCHLAIKJER, E. (2012) Three Case Studies of Transcendent Branding. TriplePundit [online].

Available from: https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2012/three-case-studies-transcendentbranding/61071 [Accessed 20th March 2021].

SMITH, K. (2019) 126 Amazing Social Media Statistics and Facts. Brandwatch.com [online].

Available from: https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/amazing-social-media-statistics-and-facts/ [Accessed 17th May 2021].