In March, French resale platform Vestiaire Collective debuted its new marketing initiative: a banner called #LongLiveFashion. The main campaign involved the debut of five puppets, each personifying a different customer with a different take on the value of resale.
Vanessa Masliah, Vestaire Collective’s vp of marketing and branding, was integral to this relaunch, as well as to the company’s other major marketing efforts of the last year. For example, she led the communication strategy around Vestiaire Collective achieving B Corp status in 2021. Her strategy capitalized on the fact that, despite that resellers love to talk about sustainability, Vestiaire Collective was the first major reseller to become a B Corp.
For Masliah, key to her marketing strategy has always been to focus on cultivating a loyal, repeat audience.
“Our community is central to our brand and what makes us unique,” Masliah said. “It’s made up of a collective of people who love, share and find joy in sustainable fashion. The best way to position ourselves with a competitive edge is by truly understanding our collective.”
The most important skill that any marketer should have is empathy, Masliah said. To successfully market something, you need to know who the customer is and how they think. The puppets that debuted in the #LongLiveFashion campaign, for example, each personify a different type of customer. One puppet, Hunter, represents the customer who comes to resale with the goal of digging through the racks until they find the perfect deal. Drops, a different puppet, represents those who are looking for hyped or limited-release products.
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Masliah said this understanding of the different facets of Vestiaire Collective’s audience is important for her overall marketing strategy, particularly as new generations age into Vestiaire Collective’s audience and bring new shopping habits with them.
“A successful marketer should be able to put themselves in consumers’ shoes and know what’s missing, what’s needed,” she said. “This is especially critical in our industry. In the last [few] years, there’s been a new luxury consumer that has emerged — one that demands a sense of purpose and trust. We’ve had to make changes and adapt to that new customer base, composed of Gen Z and millennials who are no longer shopping for luxury as a means of wealth and success, but rather a sense of purpose.”
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