Ten years ago, talking about marketing would have been limited to companies employing people to walk round the whole city to get customers, or maybe billboards and other traditional methods.
Today we find that many businesses are setting up online stores and getting customers on the internet. Digital marketing is now a major way of pushing products out for consumers to see and purchase.
From our rich exclusive chat with a brand consultant, Oluwamayowa Oshidero, we can surmise that marketing your fashion brand online is more than just gathering likes and posting pictures.
The conversation started with our guest giving some insight into what he does but definitely led into learning so much more on digital marketing.
Let’s start the chat with your full name and what you do
My name is Oluwamayowa Oshidero. I’m the Founder of a digital marketing company called TinklingD. I am also the Founder of a software development company called BoldExponent as well as a social enterprise company called Equilibrium Zone. I only hold a Managing Partner role in those companies as they all have managers who run their day to day operations.
Daily, I consult for companies and brands in areas of Brand Strategy, Business Development, Branding, Digital Marketing, Business Efficiency and Digital Transformation.
I deliver trainings in these areas for corporate brands which include major brands like Facebook, Google, Social Media Week (Lagos Social Media Week).
What inspired you to start TinklingD? What problems did you notice in the corporate world?
With TinklingD, I wanted to bring the power of the evolving online marketing landscape to every business out there, through innovative strategies and flawless implementation. We noticed African businesses are not leveraging the full potential of digital marketing for brand growth.
However, we (TinklingD) have evolved over the years and have pivoted into a company connecting competent digital marketing talent to companies and SMEs who have fully understood that digital communication and online marketing is now a necessity and not a luxury.
So we train young graduates through our Academy and when they graduate, we employ them to work with us remotely to manage brands and customers we have signed on
How many graduates do you train in, say a year, and how many businesses have you worked with, on an average?
We have trained between 30 – 40 graduates yearly over the last 3 years that we have been running the academy. However, we are looking to scale this up to at least 200 graduates this year.
Oluwamayowa delivering a masterclass
We have managed well over 20 brands and have been privileged to run digital brand strategies for companies like BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) UK, and also managed campaigns for companies like Emirates Holidays Nigeria. Our works have been featured by Google Africa.
Have you worked with any fashion brands ?
Yes, TinklingD has managed accounts for fashion brands and I have personally offered consulting service for some fashion brands as well.
In your opinion, which fashion brands, asides the ones you’ve worked with, have the best digital marketing strategy in Nigeria ?
This is a very tricky question, but I’ll say Hingees does it for me. It is a youthful millennial-focused fashion brand that is indigenous to Nigeria.
Some key things every fashion brand should know include;
- Understand who you are choosing as a target audience.
- Communicate with them till you can get their emotional commitment to your brand.
- Understand the mico moments of your customers. These are the boxes this brand (Hingees) ticked for me.
Hingees product on a model
Do you think that digital marketing relies on good brand image for the best results?
First, digital marketing is usually always taken as a dichotomy to other marketing activities. What each company should have (particularly fashion brands) is a brand strategy.
A brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in order to achieve specific goals. A well-defined and executed brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive environments.
It is in a brand strategy that a marketing plan is designed, and in a marketing plan is a digital marketing plan.
At TinklingD, we have had to force some brands to do a brand strategy before we could offer a digital marketing service to them.
Why is this important? Marketing (and in extension digital marketing) is a vehicle to what the company is in themselves. For example, if a digital marketing post tells you we are a customer-oriented company, and 5 people quoted your tweet that you have the most awful customer service, then what seems to be your digital marketing strategy (that’s the customer-oriented culture) you are hinging on is already failed.
Some of the best brands we have patronized and loved gave us an amazing experience right from our social media engagement with them till the point where we got their product in our hands.
According to Oluwamayowa, Digital Marketing relies on a good brand strategy and a good brand strategy that is followed well gives a good brand image. The brand image makes the digital marketing produce more result because it won’t just be about what you are saying, but will also be about what the fans and customers are saying as well.
It is also important to note that, no matter what stage a business is, whether good or bad, big or small, even if the brand has been negatively affected due to the things they didn’t do right before; the first step is to get a brand strategy consultant to critically look into the brand and then craft a plan to grow the brand.
In curating a brand strategy, consultants look into the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats as well as innovative ways to get back the fans’ and customers’ heart. It is during this process that it will be known if the fashion brand director needs to rebrand the business or make adjustments. The adjustments can be as simple as crafting a customer’s service policy, or giving guidelines on how complaints should be addressed, and a whole lot more.
Great brands do not happen by chance, it first starts with a great brand strategy, and an intentional effort of following that through.
Which fashion brand has done a rebranding, that you can share with us?
A good fashion brand I can cite is Zappos. They simply reoriented their brand strategy to be customer-first, and they increased their goods return time, customer care team, and instructed the team to solve customers personal issues first before talking about the issues they have with their puchase.
News has it that, some Zappos customer care representative has helped customers order pizza because that was what the customer needed first, before then talking about the shoe that didn’t fit well.
When it comes to digital marketing, the way brands use social media, email marketing, and ads, should carry the DNA and signature of what they represent (should carry all the element and signature of what they had planned to be while putting together their brand strategy).
Another brand is Lively Bras , a lingerie brand who is sure of who their brand is for and have put together a brand strategy that is customer-oriented and community-driven.
It is important to know that these are the underlying things that power those great digital marketing strategy and content for the best of brands.
Finally, what are the top 3 strategies or tips you can share with fashion brand owners reading this that can significantly increase brand growth in terms of productivity, and sales ?
My top three tips are;
1. First, be sure of what stands your brand out. It all starts from there. In other words, find your USP. There are many fashion business out there what, why should we choose you?
a simple way to do this is to ask your most active client why they prefer you, of course, you do that in a calm chat.
2. Be sure of your customer segment i.e Which set of people need your service the exact way you offer it. A simple way to do that is to look at the majority of your customer base and look for what is largely common to them all. This could be that they do a certain work, have a certain lifestyle, or are influenced by a certain type of trend.
3. Do some little findings of which marketing strategies work for top brands with similar USP and market segment as yours, then creatively adopt those marketing and growth strategies to your business.
Ultimately, be a smart business owner, do not reinvent the wheel, but creatively and innovatively apply proven and winning strategies to your business.
Getting a boost in sales and building a brand is no small work. Digital marketing is beyond publicity, it is about publicity with the right message and proper strategy.
Every brand needs it.
