For “non-essential” brands, the context within which they operate has vastly shifted, so it’s time for a rethink.

By Ash Stapleton, Senior Strategist

In recent years, with more of us embracing sustainability and minimalism, excessive consumption has increasingly been seen as indulgent, even shameful. Our hard-earned cash has been reallocated from spending on fancy, shiny toys to Barefoot Investor-inspired “buckets”.

Enter COVID-19.

Our lives are on hold.

Our ingrained habits disrupted.

Our view of what’s essential radically altered.

We’ve found ourselves on a strict lifestyle and consumption detox, embracing the simple things and slowing our spending.

While Australia has come a long way from hoarding toilet paper and spaghetti, there’s still quite a distance to go. Lockdown may be easing, but the economic hit won’t be subsiding any time soon. Our collective belts will continue to tighten.

For brands who aren’t, in the traditional sense, “essential”, this poses a great challenge.

How can such brands stay relevant at worst or desirable at best when resources are scarce and consumers are living and spending differently?

Take a lesson from candles

Candle sales are going gangbusters.

In March alone, Net-a-Porter reported a 130% year-on-year increase.

As noted in Brand Thinking, given the effectiveness and affordability of lightbulbs, it’s impressive the candle industry is valued at over $3 billion in the US alone.

Some candle brands are prohibitively luxe but most manage to justify their price and place by hitting a sweet spot of utility and significance: light and ambience, plus the ability to comfort and even transport us somewhere else through the sense of smell.

As both buyer behaviour and Maslow’s hierarchy continue to shift within society, non-essential brands need to ask themselves:

How can we be of use to our audiences? What practical value can we bring? And what can we back this value up with? Can we tap into an emotional benefit? Escapism? Nostalgia? How significant is our product to a homebound and edgy consumer?

At present, people are more budget-conscious, but they’re also willing to invest in their sense of wellbeing. If you’re in this space and looking to charge a premium, you need to deliver on a functional and emotional level.

Watch your wastage

Just as consumers are watching their spending, brands should be keeping an eye on their resource use. If you weren’t already, take this time as an opportunity to be the brand that isn’t wasteful.

When it comes to production, look for ways to trim, enhance, and if possible, innovate. Think: circular, reusable, repurposable. Getting it right means you’ll save money in the long-run and you’ll have a positive story to tell your customers: “Your cash is being well-spent, not wasted.”

Before the collective “too expensive, too hard” protestations start, consider this: Space X can reuse a rocket, IKEA is going circular, and even Prada is moving to regenerative nylon. Yes, it’s ambitious. But it’s possible, it matters to your customers, and it’s good for the planet.

Set the standards high

Luxury brands have an opportunity to lead the way when it comes to hygiene and sanitation.

It’s time to consider what areas of your product, service, or experience you can hero from a health perspective. Be proactive and creative in what you can offer. Combine safety with desirability. Embrace (no pun intended) contactless experiences. Now is the time to innovate.

Personal hygiene and protective equipment are essential. We’re currently seeing countless product design firms around the world sharing proactive ideas: from ultraviolet lights to disinfect objects to safer air travel to more fashionable versions of protective gear. If we can learn anything from this, it’s that health matters most now — and it can be the launchpad for new, exciting, useful products.

Build to last

As anxiety surrounding spending hits peak levels, our culture of disposability proves unsustainable, and the fear of what’s around the corner persists, it’s vital you make your brand worth the spend.

Demonstrate your long-term value. This could be through engineering your product to be of higher quality materials, offering more flexible returns, or promoting a second-life culture. Actively helping with repairs, à la the classic example of Patagonia (they average 40,000 repairs a year), or collaborating with partners that can do some of the heavy lifting for you, like ThredUp and Abercrombie & Fitch’s resale initiative, are just a couple of prominent successes.

This has future benefits for both your business — greater sustainability– and the consumer, as people become increasingly mindful of looking after what they have, post-COVID.

Don’t forget to sell the dream

As we’ve seen with the plethora of COVID-related comms, the monotonous piano, and “these trying times” voiceovers, it’s easy to slip into the reactive and tactical.

Remember: desperation and homogeneity aren’t sexy. So if you’re having a sale, which many brands are lately, be smart about how you position discount messaging. It needs to be less about noise and more about desirability.

A great example from the luxury world is Alexander Wang, which recently opened a 72-hour online pop-up. With discounts of up to 80 per cent off and with 20 per cent of the profits donated to the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund, it’s hardly surprising everything sold out in under 24 hours. The heavily reduced prices were the clear draw, but the additional layer of charity meant customers could purchase in the knowledge they were having a positive impact.

Now is the time to make people feel good, so consider the role of your brand in your audiences’ lives. Think back to the candle example: utility first, then the dream.