Aesthetics aren't enough: Expressing your clear product market fit
“Brands can no longer just focus on launching with an appealing aesthetic, but must ensure that they have a clear product market fit in order to be successful.” This quote comes from a Retail Dive article published earlier this year and continues to ring true as we are close to crossing into the second half of 2023.
You might read this and say “Duh, of course!”, but we'd put good money down to bet that you and your team lose sleep over staying relevant, contributing to a better world, and speaking with clarity to your target demographic in a dense digital landscape. And even when you do have a clear product market fit and are doing all the ‘right’ things, you may still live with trepidation due to the unpredictability of cancel culture, online scrutiny (look at the ongoing Tarte drama), and just the sheer fact that the internet constantly demands more.
Have we raised your cortisol yet? Okay, let’s breathe and talk solutions.
We will die on the ‘aesthetics matter’ hill, but of course, it’s only a piece of the pie to successful marketing and brand building. When you take a compelling aesthetic point of view and combine it with a direct line to your clear product market fit, though, you’ve struck marketing gold.
How do you, a consumer brand, take your strong aesthetic and establish a clear product market fit?
1. You enforce consistency across every brand touch point
Your website, paid media, social pages, even your email signatures, it all matters. While your consumer may not be scrutinizing every detail consciously, inconsistencies amount to subconscious distrust and therefore a lack of consumption.
2. You utilize your target demographic
You want your target demographic to purchase your product, to be passionate about your brand, and to share your company with everyone they know? Then you make them feel seen. Visual media is your brand’s opportunity to make a really great or an unfortunately poor first impression, and with consumers being sharper than ever, how you portray your brand visually through the details (not just your aesthetic vibe) matters. What do we mean? The props you buy, the models you cast, your shooting locations, wardrobe choices - everything you capture is an opportunity to say something.
Pro tip
When producing your content shoots, do casting calls for models through your social channels! This is an excellent way to involve your community and ensure you are representing your actual customer demographic.
3. You take a macro approach to performance marketing
This LinkedIn post shares an allegory about a man named John, your ideal customer, who saw your ad on Facebook, then looked you up on Google, and then went to purchase, but got distracted and wasn’t able to complete the order. A few days later, John saw another one of your ads, but this time on TikTok, was reminded to purchase, and was able to complete his order distraction free. Your analytics will show that John came from TikTok, but you won’t see that he started from Facebook and took a right on Google; you’ll only see that he arrived at his destination via TikTok.
Using your macro lens (pun intended) to establish your clear product market fit is no longer optional. If you are not deploying your resources across all verticals, then you are missing chances to establish trust and captivate attention.
What if seeing all this through efficiently and successfully is also a pain point?
Well, that’s an easy one! You work with an amazing agency(ish) like Marika Creative! We bridge the partnership and strategic thinking elements of a consultancy with the delivery and technical capabilities of a creative agency. It’s up to you, though, to take advantage of the wisdom and the resources! We always say that the better we know you, the better the deliverables will be and the stronger results you will see. This way of working is supportive, and provides the space and skills to develop compelling creative, which builds relationships and customer loyalty, driving higher life-time value.
By starting with partnership and strategic thinking, we understand your place in the market, how you hope to grow, and what needs to happen to make your product market fit irrevocable. In then moving to the technical capabilities and delivery, we make informed decisions to maximize your budget and establish your authority. We do this by creative directing your projects and producing your projects.
In the creative direction stage, we develop concepts and establish a clear through line for how deliverables play out on the macro, multi-channel scale. In the production stage, we source and buy props, find and cast the models who will represent your customers, search for and book locations, style wardrobe - literally all the things!
Now, this genuinely isn’t a sales pitch. You do not have to work with us (although we’d love to work with you), but you do need to do all of the above, whether with an external partner or in-house. And there are many benefits to working with partners to create these solutions, such as agility, cost, unbiased perspectives, etc.
How you choose to arrive at your solutions is less critical in our opinion than actually forming and seeing through the actionable plan that suits your company best. The ultimate follow through here is what matters most, regardless of who you select to follow through with.
If you would like to pursue a deeper conversation with us please reach out to our team! Even if it’s just to brainstorm, we are more than willing to share ideas or point you in the right direction.
