Why Choose BMDG for Building Your Lifestyle Brand?

Not to brag or anything, but you should choose us to help build your brand because, well … we’re really good at it. We’ve made building lifestyle brands into something of a lifestyle itself. In fact, most of us got into this business because of the passion we feel for the brands we consider to be a crucial part of our own personal lifestyles. 

In my first interview with Britton, I was asked about my favorite brand—and had a pretty hard time choosing just one. Turns out, the entire team here feels the same way about our past and present clients. If pressed to choose a favorite, any one of us would struggle to land on a single brand.

Because that’s what our work is all about, really. We’re interested in giving brands life and personality so that they’re both unmistakable and unmissable. We showcase what they’re good at, give their visual identity a quick polish, and broadcast their awesomeness out into the world in such an irresistible way that consumers can’t wait to get to know them better. We’ve learned that if you tell your brand story with certainty and a certain elegance, your audience will be more inclined to feel as though they’re involved in a truly engaging conversation. And of all the great conversations you’ve had, can you honestly pick a favorite?

So, besides the fact that we get, like, really into it, here are seven reasons why you should consider Britton Marketing & Design Group for building your lifestyle brand.

1. We Love Brands Before Anyone Else Does

It’s a question of potential. We like to look at brands that have a lot to offer and work out a way to get them to where they deserve to be. And though you’ll have to forgive the braggadocio, we’re excellent judges of character.

We’ve worked with national brands that have great stories to tell, but that, for whatever reason, weren’t managing to tell those stories in a way that ensured they could be heard. And that’s where we’ve brought our strategy and killer storytelling power into play. We do our research, keep an ear to the ground, and think analytically (and opportunistically) about what we find. If business is like a chess game, we’re here to help you plan your first move, and we’ve played the game enough to know which move is going to get you closer to your goal.

2. We’re Really Good at Identifying (the Exact) Audiences (for You)

It’s vital to find (and nail) your voice and vibe in the lifestyle-brand arena. But before you do that, it’s important to know who you’re talking to. You wouldn’t conduct yourself the same way at an opera as you might at a house party, and your branding efforts should require at least as much consideration for how others will perceive who you are and what you’re about. We can help you with that.

We let the opportunity define target audiences, not the other way around. There’s always whitespace around what’s already being done, a need that should be filled, a place for your brand to expand that hasn’t been explored yet. And once that space is identified, that’s when we sort out which subgroups of the population are looking for exactly what your brand can offer to them.

Odds are, your brand doesn’t need a complete overhaul. It may benefit your business to just explore some new opportunities that fit within the identity you’ve already established. The success of a lifestyle brand hinges upon capitalizing on that feeling of being inducted into an exclusive club. When consumers interact with your brand, their engagement and purchases fall in line with a perceived ideal or way of living, and we don’t want to mess with the ideal your brand already symbolizes. But we can help you show the right people what their lives might look like with your brand in the mix.

3. We Can Handle 11th-Hour Drama

The beauty of a boutique agency is in its inherent dexterity. With us, there’s no “B-team.” It’s all A-team, all the time. And we know ourselves well; we know which people on our team are best suited to handle your projects. So, when something unexpected comes up, we’re ready to jump in and help.

Whether we’re being asked to respond to a crisis, a sudden change of plans, or tasked with incorporating a brilliant last-minute idea, we’re equipped to handle it calmly and efficiently. (Well, maybe not always calmly, but we’ll never let on.) When luxury furniture brand Arhaus tasked us with concepting, planning, and directing a photo shoot scheduled just four short weeks from our first meeting, we were able to act fast and produce one of our most exciting shoots ever. Put simply, we work hard at making it look easy, so that you can more easily go about your day and focus on other matters.

4. We Understand the Experience Element

Not only do we have “experience” in the sense of how many years we’ve been working with lifestyle brands (12 and counting), but this background has taught us the ins and outs of one of lifestyle branding’s chief components: creating an experience. Spreading a singular, solid brand image across both physical and digital platforms is our bread and butter. We believe in conveying a message with just a glance; in leaving an impression after just one interaction; in giving consumers a pleasant reason to stop and look a little closer at the brand in front of them. This comes through in our stunning imagery and clever copy, and it comes together with the help of our expert creative direction.

As Deborah Weinswig asserts in her contribution to Forbes, “The most successful brands are telling a story that consumers are eager to hear and be a part of, which usually goes far beyond whatever the brand is actually selling and delves more into experience.” At Britton, we work with brands to keep that plot moving forward, and to develop it further so that more and more people find themselves on the edges of their seats, wondering what will happen next. Because the happier consumers are with the message you’re presenting and the way it’s being presented, the more likely they will be to treat themselves with purchases from your brand, and your brand only.

5. We’re Better Together

In a creative field like ours, there is very little that can be achieved when a single agency or company acts alone. So we seek out like-minded partners—in the form of clients, vendors, consultants, and influencers—that bring energy and a unified creative drive to our projects. Through collaboration, we can pull together toward a common goal, while taking advantage of the many creative minds and inspiring ideas this kind of teamwork provides.

With a small agency like ours, you can be certain that we’re just as invested in the results of our efforts as you are. Our attention span, and our openness to our clients’ ideas and propositions, is greater than bigger, more corporate agencies, because we’re predisposed to be intensely focused on the projects we’re working on.

6. We Make Connections

For a relationship to work, open and honest communication is key. And in personal and professional relationships, this communication is both easier—and more effective—if we can learn to speak each other’s languages. We’ve built our entire agency on this principle, and we love to share what we’ve learned about creating emotional connections with the clients with whom we have had the pleasure of working.

Our philosophy for speaking to consumers is twofold: We focus just as much on the core message as we do on the way that message is represented and supported. This is the cornerstone of our legacy—creative excellence that communicates a deeper meaning and inspires brands and consumers to build each other up. Creating these strong emotional connections is our guiding purpose and the singular truth that has led us time and again to our most gratifying projects and partnerships.

7 … And We Nurture Them

Part of being ambassadors for the emotional side of marketing is putting a lot of care into every facet of the work. We never apply the slow-cooker method to anything we do; it’s not in our nature to ”set it and forget it.“ Once a project is ostensibly “finished,” we’ll keep thinking of ways to build the momentum, to feed the fire, to help it grow and gain strength. A key benefit of working with an agency that genuinely cares about fostering and facilitating connections is that we’ll never tire of working for your brand. And with any luck, you’ll never tire of our enthusiasm.

A good story makes for great conversation. Telling a good story is our passion. And when you’re passionate about something, you tend to do it pretty well. Danielle Snyder of breakout lifestyle jewelry brand Dannijo puts it this way: “To generate excitement as a brand, it’s about getting your conversation organically injected into your audience’s own conversation because the content is good enough to be talked about.” (There’s that irresistibility we mentioned earlier.)

This also means that you can’t allow a lull to bring the conversation to a screeching halt. That’s where our tirelessness and never-ending pursuit of inspiration comes in. We’ll hold tightly to the personality traits that make your brand distinct while constantly searching for new ways to express that personality. We’ll establish lasting bonds between your brand and its target audience and keep those bonds going strong. And we’ll do it with panache, because this wouldn’t be a very good humble-brag blog if we didn’t say so.

Photos: BMDG