Community Q&A: Branding with Rebecca Maddock, &Worn Studio
As part of our mission to share knowledge and empower our community we are creating a series of industry expert Q&A’s on various topics essential to everyone in the jewellery industry. We asked the community for their branding related questions and put them to Rebecca Maddock, creative consultant and founder of &Worn Studio, specialising in jewellery small businesses.
Award-winning jewellery designer and maker turned consultant Rebecca Maddock, has been dedicated to the jewellery industry for over ten years. In that time, she has accumulated a vast knowledge of jewellery design and production, as well as photography, branding, marketing, e-commerce, organisation and business development. &Worn Studio, is a jewellery industry creative consultancy offering jewellers and small businesses holistic support and strategies to adapt and grow based on her diverse experience.
It is also incredibly important to Rebecca to share her extensive skills and insights with The Jewellery Collective as well as championing responsibility and transparency in the jewellery industry as part of my work with Fair Luxury.
“Why do I need to choose just one type of customer profile?”
You won’t necessarily only have one type of customer, but you should try to target a very specific audience profile. If you are trying to target too many different audiences you’ll end up confusing everyone and they won’t properly connect with you.
When you know exactly who you are talking to, content creation and marketing become a lot easier, you instantly know the language and aesthetic you need to use. Each ideal audience member enjoys engaging with your brand more and they feel satisfied from each interaction with your brand. This increases the likelihood they are going to invest in your pieces and tell their (likely like-minded) friends about you, thus growing your audience and customer base.
On the other hand, some of your sales might come from a different customer, it might be the boyfriend or granny of your target audience. This doesn’t mean you should be trying to speak to them in your marketing. There is a distinction there.
“I’m just starting out and I’m stuck on the name, how do I choose my brand name?”
This is so so tricky! It feels like such a big decision that no one wants to get wrong. But there is no wrong in this. Number one, you need to choose if you want to use your own name or do you want to work under a brand? Do you want to be the face of the business or be behind the scenes of an entity all of its own?
If you are choosing a unique name, make sure no matter what you choose, it doesn’t already exist. This can lead to a whole load of issues down the line so do your Google and Companies House research. If you make up a completely new word, try not to make it too hard to read or spell or your customers will never be able to remember what it is to go search for it.
You could make it completely tailored to you and the ethos of your brand. If all your inspiration comes from nature for example, you could use that as inspiration. But I would avoid using words that limit you in the future. Your brand will change and evolve, you don’t want to be restricted to words like “London”, you never know where you’ll end up!
“I don’t know how I can make my brand stand out?”
Ask yourself how is your brand unique? Sit down and brainstorm it if you can’t immediately articulate it. What is your story, what is your ethos, what is your promise to your customers? Yes there will be overlap with other brands but the combination of influences will be unique to you.
Consider your brand voice. How would you describe it if your brand was a person? If your brand had friends, how would they describe it? This perspective will be unique to your brand. This is where market research comes in, look at what your competitors don’t do or aren't offering, can you fill that space in the market? Look at what you think they do well and do it differently, do it in a way that speaks to your audience. Always be you, not them.
“I’m getting board of the brand colours I chose at the beginning, is it ok to change them?”
Of course! As you and your business grow it is natural to need to change and refresh. As long as it is done mindfully the transition will inspire rather than alienate your fans. However, there is a surprising amount of strategy to choosing colours. Make sure to do some research into the psychology of colour. Don’t just choose colours because you like them or you think your audience will like them. Keep your brand identity in mind, do the colours you want to choose line up with the brand ethos as well as your tastes? Colours can evoke different feelings in the viewer. Choose how you want your audience to feel when they engage with your brand and work back from there.
“How do I know if my branding choices are working? Is there a way to measure this?”
If you’re clear on your branding you will rarely be stuck on what content to create or where to find your ideal audience. You will naturally build a loyal base of fans who love, not only your products but you as well, they resonate with your story and actively want to engage with your brand and more importantly buy from you.
Also ask yourself what you want your brand to be known for? If you asked your audience would they describe you in the same way? If so, you’re nailing it, if not, you need to tighten up your branding.
“I struggle to make sales, can a change in branding help with this?”
If you’re not making sales it could be one of 3 main topics -
Your offering - The product you put out into the world. For the audience you want to target to you could have the wrong type of product or be selling it at the wrong price.
Your audience - You might love your product and pricing but if you’re showing it to the wrong audience they won’t necessarily see value in it and won’t fall in love enough to buy.
Your messaging - You aren't nailing your tone, content and/or marketing.
Solidifying your branding will help with all three of these issues.
“How can I create a high-value brand that still feels accessible and authentic to my target audience?”
If you have done a really thorough job on your audience and customer research then this comes naturally. You often have people who follow you and love your work but they aren’t in the financial position to buy, yet! Currently these people are not the right audience for you. A truly aligned customer will see the price of an item and resonate enough with the brand to buy.
“For my target audience, what specific brand elements contribute most to perceived value in the fine jewellery market?”
There is no one answer here unfortunately. The ‘value’ of your brand does not always come from the cost and quality of the materials in the piece. Often the elements that add value to your brand are your story, ethos and unique eye for design. Unless your customers are mega rich, fine jewellery, when bought by someone for themselves, is bought out of emotion. You need to know who you are talking to to be able to build that valuable emotional connection.
If you are a high end fine jeweller, your exquisite craftsmanship might be what excites your audience to buy. If you claim to be sustainable and your audience resonates with that, centre and continually strive to improve your ethical credentials. If your inspiration comes from your heritage, embrace that and you will build an emotional connection with people who come from a similar background.
“Beyond product features, how can I craft my brand messaging and storytelling to truly connect with and resonate with my target audience on an emotional level?”
I’m not sure you can separate your product from your storytelling. Your jewellery should tell its own stories too. Making sure your audience knows the extent of experience, feeling and the inspiration that has gone into each piece matters. If they are the right customer for you, they will resonate with this emotion and want it for themselves. You can’t separate product features entirely. Options like engraving or picking a unique gemstone are always going to build a bigger connection with a prospective customer. There has to be that emotional thread between the product and your storytelling.
“What are the most effective and budget-friendly strategies for increasing brand awareness?”
Most brands will reach directly for paid advertising to build brand awareness but this is rarely budget-friendly and if not really well considered, it can often have a very low ROI. In fact it’s featured in my mistakes to avoid making blog.
Working with influencers is great for exposure but unless there is a relationship there that’s incredibly expensive too. Engaging with influencers regularly in an authentic way over a long period of time can put you on their radar and soften them up to you for future collaborations when you do eventually have the budget to approach them. But please beware, you need to be completely sure their following are engaged and will love your brand too. It doesn't matter how many hundred thousand followers they have, if they aren't aligned, their following won’t benefit you.
Brand collaborations would be my suggestion for low-cost exposure but they might not be low effort. No doubt you can think of several brands which align with your brand values and ethos. If you think your audience profiles and price points overlap too, get in touch and see if they are open to collaborating. This could be on a shoot, using samples of their clothing or visa versa. A giveaway on instagram. A blog feature that they promote to their followers, and most importantly mailing list. There are so many opportunities here.
“What are some innovative ways to add value to my brand beyond the jewellery itself?”
This depends completely on your ethos and what chimes with your audience. If you are an eco-conscious and ethically minded brand and you know your audience demands this, you could sign up to a carbon offsetting scheme or donate a part of your sales to charity. If you’re an online brand consider having a pop-up where your audience can come and try on before they buy, better yet, team up with likeminded brands (not jewellery of course!) and have a ‘one stop shop’ for your target audience to come to that speaks directly to everything they like and want.
An excellent example of an innovative way to create valuable experiences for your customers is Susannah King’s in-store collaboration with Aetla in Edinburgh. Giving customers the opportunity to not only order a bespoke one-of-a-kind piece but also see it being made in person will likely be an unrivalled experience for them.
Think outside the box and understand what your audience wants but can’t currently get from you.
Our thanks to Rebecca for taking the time to answer out communities questions and offering up her insights and expertise. If you need support in your business you can contact her and have a free discovery call if you’re not quite sure what you need. We look forward to our next community Q&A, watch this space.