4 brands who are redefining content marketing

Jon Hulme is Managing Director of Contentive, the publisher of .rising. At the heart of Contentive’s strategy is the belief that “content marketing” is a discipline that can not only deliver genuine marketing ROI, but also create high quality content that readers find valuable, share and engage with.

In his latest .rising leaders piece, Jon surveys the consumer content marketing space, focusing on the innovative and creative ways that four different fashion brands have leveraged content to great effect – and the lessons that marketers from all spheres can learn from them.

 

4 brands who are redefining content marketing

At Contentive we spend our days living and breathing business-to-business content marketing, but we still like to pay close attention to the consumer space.

This past year we’ve been particularly impressed with how the retail space is using content – both in print and online – to drive e-commerce sales. We believe that e-commerce is the future of retail as much as digital is the future of publishing, so to see how fast the space is evolving is truly exciting.

Fashion and publishing have always been entwined. They draw inspiration from one another, and so it’s only natural that fashion retailers are at the cutting edge of content marketing. In many cases fashion e-commerce retailers have transformed their brand from online fashion retailers to fully-fledged publishing operations.

While the content itself is as varied as the brands creating it, we’ve noticed four particularly strong examples of e-commerce retailers using content to build brand awareness and customer loyalty.

Net-a-Porter’s Porter Magazine

Launched in February of 2014, luxury e-retailer Net-a-Porter’s in-house magazine, Porter, is taking on e-commerce blogs and traditional fashion glossies alike.

While the editor of Vogue UK (allegedly) referred to Porter as “a grand Sainsbury’s magazine”, this corporate project sits on the newsstand right beside Conde Nast and Hearst titles. And it fits right in – because this magazine isn’t ring-fenced, meaning brands and products are featured regardless of whether they’re sold on Net-a-Porter, Porter has just as much editorial credibility as more traditional titles.

Porter magazine is a perfect example of how retail brands can transform themselves into multi-media publishers. Many e-tailers would never consider print, but it’s a perfect fit with Net-a-Porter’s luxury consumers and, by spearheading the technology to keep the content ‘instantly shoppable’ even on the page, this project stays close to the parent corporation’s digital roots.

ASOS’s Personal Stylists

E-retailer extraordinaire ASOS jumped on the content marketing bandwagon early – they’ve had a magazine since 2007 – but in 2014 they upped the ante online by introducing a personal stylist section.

Nine ASOS stylists create all kinds of content for this section daily. They post video content, put together product edits and regularly update a range of social media profiles across every conceivable platform, all of which are linked to the ASOS website. In addition, customers can live chat with stylists six days a week.

The genius of this content is how well it communicates the ASOS brand identity – young, trendy, helpful, fun – while also making the customer increasingly reliant on all things ASOS. With a series of well-defined personas, these stylists also give ASOS’s customer base a comforting opportunity to pick a persona around which they can shape their wardrobe and instant access to the products they need to make their new look a reality.

Whistles’ ‘Inspiration’ Page

Whistles has undergone an incredible brand turnaround in recent years, transforming itself from a brand most associated with 1980s ‘yummy mummies’ to a sophisticated retailer on the cutting edge. Its ‘Inspiration’ page encapsulates this new aesthetic perfectly.

This e-commerce blog drives sales by exploring the lives of people Whistles customers want to be. It focuses on more than what ‘cool’ people wear: It takes successful, genuinely admirable people and explores how they work and think, what they’ve learned, what inspires them and how they spend their time.

For younger readers this blog functions as an instruction manual on how to become a Whistles man or woman, from succeeding at work to dressing the part. For more established readers it provides plain and simple lifestyle inspiration, featuring beautiful pictures of perfectly curated homes, quiet cafes and colour co-ordinated closets.

By using real people to communicate their brand values, rather than faceless models, Whistles has been able to put a very real face on a brand which once struggled with its identity.

Anthropologie’s recipe and cocktail blog

Retailer Anthropologie’s blog is just a fledgling on the European site, but its US counterpart is a fully realised lifestyle blog.

Of particular interest are the recipes that Anthropologie offers. Covering both food and cocktails, and including fun titbits about etiquette and entertaining, these recipes are content that consumers can come back to again and again. They also establish the blog as a lifestyle advice portal to be checked every couple of weeks or months – or however often you throw dinner parties – regardless of whether you’re in the market for a new dining set.

Anthropologie is primarily a clothing retailer, although their homeware offering is significant, which is why this approach works. The blog is genuinely helpful and consumers know that they can follow these recipes without filling a virtual shopping cart full of Anthropologie products. But, if someone does find themselves inspired to buy a latte bowl, it’s there for them at the bottom of the page.

The success of this blog is proof positive of how a light touch can build brand loyalty, from which there’s profit to be made down the line.