Photo via Behind The Curtain (Kate Spade’s Official Blog)
Mashable published an article the other day about the brand brilliance of Kate Spade and it’s about time I acknowledge it’s radness. So, Kate Spade team , you are a rainbow of rad. Done.
Jk.
This article of praise got me reminiscing about fashion brands in the digital spotlight. Think, think, think…you know Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Coach, DKNY, etc. and all their awarded digital stunts. But, Kate Spade was one of the first brands I followed on instagram. In fact I feel like for a long time they were the only brand I could find on there last year.
I remember thinkin – uh, yah this is what brands should do to show a “day in the life”. I really thought the content curation and creation was so vivid and it still is. By following the brand’s instagram, you get to know and kinda view the brand as a person and not so much as this giant company trying to shove purses down your throat. It’s like a visual stream of consciousness that personifies Kate Spade.
I think what made me more fascinated was that a year and a half ago when instagram was a “nothing” on the radar, Kate took a risk at investing time into it.Yah, they did a site rebrand, they do cool contests on Facebook and Twitter, but the big thumbs up goes to it’s “risky business”.
Coming from a couple of handful of years here – new channels, services, platforms pop up everyday – but the key is to pick the ones that best fit your brand communications, brand image, and can help continue to tell your story – and then commit to it. Sticking to your guns. It takes time and support to make it work. It also takes effort to make everyone else at the company believe its worth the time and resources.
Photo via Unknown Source
It’s not easy to start time investing in a new medium, figuring out, waiting around to see if it will work for you and Kate Spade took that leap and made it work with all of their other channels, efforts, and story. The main thing is – they stuck to their brand in everything they did. On her way to 68k followers strong on instagram, Kate is consistent in what she throws out there, from the words to describe tweets, photos on instagram, to the creative used on profiles for its channels, and skins on its blog. Heck, even taxi cab wraps in the city.
What can we all learn from her?
1) Know Thyself. Keep it real.
2) Know who your friends (er, customers) are
3) Know that its ok to take risks. It’s how you learn.
4) Know that anything great – takes time, hard work, and patience.
So, Mashable, the reason that Kate is on the road to digital-fashion-global-domination, is that she knows herself, she knows her friends, stuck to her intuition, and made it a consistent holistic effort digitally and in the real-life too.
Two thumbs up to the sky & iPhone keyboard.
xo,
Tams
i love what Kate Spade has done! Even though I don’t usually shop them (they are hard to locate in Sydney) I’m a huge fan of their instagram and it’s a great way to keep up with the brand. BCBG is quite interesting on Facebook as well as they often post stuff that is relevant to my interests like cool art finds that keep me going back, they seem to know their customers well – I totally agree more brands should take note of what these guys are doing..
Stephanie´s last [type] ..Ball point pen paintings by Shane McAdams
Stephanie – Agree! BCBG has a great content team that really makes an effort to go behind the scenes and report what’s going on at the brand, but Kate Spade goes the extra mile and is super consistent with their story-telling and branding across every medium, and so I just have to give them a high five!
xo
Stick To Your Guns http://t.co/eoCNZCxu
Kate Spade teaches us to stick to our guns http://t.co/SgC1LMkW
Loved this entry – so helpful to know, even as a consumer.
Thanks Jenny! xo
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