5 Questions you should answer before considering a Brand Ambassador for your fashion Brand

The African fashion market is growing spontaneously and everyone is striving to gain consumer attention and retention. One of the many ways fashion business owners are working hard to create awareness and gain trust about their product is to get celebrities or brand ambassadors to wear or endorse their product.

Brand ambassadors play a very vital role in the positioning of a brands Image. They become the face of the brand and most times use their personalities to promote the brand. Partnerships between a product and brand ambassadors are meant to increase awareness and generate consumer appeal and trust. In other cases it could go terribly wrong and affect the product’s revenue. Whether you are opting for a celebrity brand ambassador or brand advocate, consider the following when deciding on choosing a brand ambassador for your product.

1.     Is the person credible?

When considering a brand ambassador for your product, it is imperative to do a thorough research on the personality and know who they are, what they do, what they represent and their values. Review their history and past affiliations with other brands. Be sure the person has a good track record that will make consumers trust him or her and which will certainly be translated onto your product. Consider someone who is trust worthy and can represent your brand at all times.

2.     Is the person media friendly?

Brand ambassadors must be media-friendly and relate to all persons across board. They must be able to answer questions about your product and speak confidently and directly about your brand to the media and also help you in achieving your entire communication goal. Again, they should be able to properly deliver your message to the right target market. Being in a new media era, I will also add that the person must be tech-savvy thus being able to interact with brand users on social media platforms.

3.     Can the person appeal to your target?

Different personalities appeal to different target markets. Your research should reveal to you the kind of personality that will appeal to your target consumers. Once consumers can identify themselves with a specific brand ambassador, they are most likely to go in for such products. Many a times, buying decisions are influenced by the desire to look or feel the exact way as the brand ambassador. The whole idea is to gain the confidence of prospective customers and also retain the loyalty of the existing ones.

4.     Is the person a reflection of your brand?

Evidently, brand ambassadors are supposed to represent your product on diverse platforms therefore they ought to share the same values as you do. They should be using the brand or likely to use it. Portraying a contrasting representation could affect the entire integrated communication process of your brand. You are your brand, so is your brand ambassador.

5.     Does the person have the tendency to drive sales?

The ultimate goal of every integrated marketing communications campaign is to drive sales. The celebrity or personality to be endorsed must have the tendency to drive people to make purchase. Their affiliation to your brand should get consumers engaged and create sales opportunities for your product.

Photocredit: heartifb.com

Faith Senam Ocloo

CEO

E’April Public Relations

Follow me on twitter @eaprilPR and @faithsenam

 

New Client Announcement: House of Paon

E'April Public Relations is pleased to announce that , a Ghanaian rising fashion brand has joined its client list. 

House of Paon is a luxury brand designed by Collins Obeng-Marnu. The Collection offers a range of high fashion meeting everyday wear and gowns which exemplifies timeless edge and modernity.

House of Paon first collection was showcased at the KNUST Fashion Week 2014.

 

Facebook:  House of Paon

Instagram:  House of Paon

Facebook:  E'April PR

Faith Senam Ocloo

CEO

E’April Public Relations

Follow me on twitter @eaprilPR and @faithsenam

WORKSHOP FOR FASHION STUDENTS

Some Speakers at the workshop

Over the weekend, a workshop was organized for the Fashion Students at Abbi Creation Fashion College, Nungua-Accra by I2I Concept. Various topics relating to the fashion industry were discussed.

“TAPPING KNOWLEDGE 101" aims to train those in the Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle, Arts Industry on Fashion Entrepreneurship, Personal Branding, Social Media Management and Branding, Micro insurance, Financial Management, Fashion PR &Communication.

Overall, it was an educative and insightful workshop. Make sure you don't miss the next opportunity to learn how to build and grow your fashion business.

Mrs. Abigail Kyere - Principal of Abbi Creation Fashion College

Bashiru Olu Wasiu-Ayinde- Blogger of Fashionmaniagh

Faith Senam Ocloo - CEO of E'April Public Relations

Zakiyu Iddris Tandunayir - CEO of ZIT Social Media

A cross section of participants

Building your Beauty Business Using PR

Whether you are a beauty expert, a makeup artist, own a skin care line, run a spa or salon, your job is to make people look and feel good. While at it, you need to put in place measures that will improve your services and build your business. Define what you do by exploring the importance of looking and feeling beautiful. Develop a Public Relations campaign that will drive your business strategy and move your brand to the next level. The following PR tips will be useful in attaining such feat.

1. Create your unique story

Once you have carefully defined what you do, you need to create a story that presents all that in a simple, catchy and attractive way. A story that is compelling and interesting and that people can identify with. One that clearly states how different and unique your product or service is. It should be accompanied with good and captivating visuals. Using “Before” and “After” photos are the best tools use to demonstrate what you do and how well you do it.

2. Identify the right media channel

Mostly for startups or when launching a beauty related PR campaign, it is advisable to start with your local media. Firstly, identify which media outlets show contents targeted at your market. Begin to tell your story using various forms such as press releases, speaking engagements, interviews etc. Branch out to national media at a considerable pace that you can handle and then start to target print publications such as newspapers and magazines as you continue to expand and build your brand. It increases your visibility and strengthens your reputation as an expert.

3. Utilize your media coverage on Social Media

As you begin to land print coverage in newspapers and magazines and on online portals, utilize them on social media. Generate media and public interests on these coverage by developing a Social Media Strategy that will engage your fans and followers.  Maximize your efforts by creating consistent contents on your social media platforms and blogs.

 

4. Review and build your services

Many a times businesses tend to forget that as media coverage expand, calls for their product and services are most likely to shoot up. It is important to put in the requisite resources to make up for the demand. Review your support systems to make way for expansion which will cater for all the calls.

5. Capitalize results of media coverage

Ideally, launch a PR campaign that will offer steady growth so you are able to process all the calls that comes with using PR to build your beauty business. Understand that public relations effort is a gradual, on-going and cumulative process hence the need to make a commitment to stick with it in order to obtain maximum brand growth.

Hiring a Public Relations Agency to drive and manage your communication needs is the best for your beauty business. However, the above mentioned points could be helpful to launch your won PR campaign if you can’t afford one now.

Faith Senam Ocloo

CEO

E’April Public Relations

Follow me on twitter @eaprilPR and @faithsenam

Photo source: Ghana Hotels

A Fashion, Style & Beauty PR Tip Sheet

Effective PR is more important in the fields of fashion style and beauty as it is in the world of entertainment.  How impactful your public relations campaign is can spell the difference between failure and success.  When dealing in the worlds of fashion and style there are specific points you want to make sure to cover in order to insure your best chance for success.  Although the points below are specifically geared towards fashion, the basic tenants hold true whether you’re marketing a fashion line, a line of beauty products, or any product in the arena of style, fashion and beauty.

1.  Find your target audience.  Who exactly are you selling to?  This involves knowing your price point, your target market’s age and demographic, and your overall style philosophy, meaning knowing what you’re trying to trying to convey.  How should the wearer feel and want to convey while wearing the clothes/shoes/accessories?  Knowing your target audience, meaning who will bring in the most interest and revenue to the brand, allows you to work with your PR team to carefully target your audience through the publications, websites, blogs, fashion bloggers, and celebrities they look to and trust for the latest trends and style inspiration.

2. If you are a new brand, start small.  As an indie or small label designer (especially just starting out), you can’t expect to compete with Chanel right away.  In this case you want to do some research on fashion bloggers – those who post Outfit of the Day shots and do their own photo-shoots – and find the ones who have a solid social media following and comments feedback on their site.  Start by targeting bloggers and then drill down to the more mainstream traditional media outlets.

3.  Stay in tune with trends.  It’s difficult to sell, if you don’t stay on the pulse of the industry, know what others are selling and, more importantly what the public is buying.  One of the easiest fashion pitches is “Get the Look” – do you have a product that looks similar to what a celeb wore on the red carpet last night?  If so, send that as a media pitch.   Your pitch can be “get the look for less”.  This “Get the Look” approach can also help when introducing editors and website writers to your product, by relating it to their needs.  Remember, what they need is what’s happening now and tomorrow trend-wise.  If you keep this in mind, it won’t be long until editors are asking you for pieces for their stories!

4. Play to your strengths – For example, are your items unique?  Is it made of vintage materials, use new technology, or handcrafted? Does your line offer a lot of style for a great price?  Is your brand functional? Can you dress it up or down for work and dates? Is it stain or wrinkle resistant)?  What is it that sets you, your brand and your line apart from the rest?   Use what sets you apart in the marketplace, to set you apart in the eyes of bloggers and editors.

5. One final tip, position yourself as an expert who can comment on fashion style and beauty.  If editors get to know you as an expert in the field and like what you have to say, you can start to position yourself as a go to media resource.

Keep these point in mind when launching a PR campaign for you and your brand and you’ll be set on the road for success.

This post originally appeared here