Lifestyle Marketing

For years marketing has been the most premium aspect in generating brand value for a product or service. Though Marketing is tough and needs lot of effort, it is most discussed and loved word/subject in the world. It is the primary component of business management and commerce. From the toothpaste you use in the morning to the vehicle you drive to office, to the  phone you use to the bed you prefer to sleep at night, you are looking at the brand value of the product or service you use. So, what exactly helps you decide on a particular product or service. Is it the "look and feel" or is it that the "product or service is matching your lifestyle ideals." As per few sources there are approximately 10 types of marketing, as per few there are 41 types, and as per few there are approximately 163 types of marketing......

NO...NO, we are not going to discuss various types of marketing and especially not all the 163 but, we are going to focus on an interesting topic that is aligned with our lifestyle. We are going to explore Lifestyle Marketing.

When you close your eyes and think of your favourite product or service what is the first thing that comes to your mind. I mean what brands come into you mind. It can be a sports company that inspired you when you were a kid, It can be a restaurant chain like McD or KFC, or it can be a product you've purchased religiously. 

For example, when I was a kid I wanted to own a MRF bat. I was least bothered whether it was an English Willow or a Kashmir Willow, all I wanted  was a MRF bat, because it was used by Sachin Tendulkar. I used to take my bat to ground and showoff......years later one fine day when I was watching Television, I came across MRF advertisements, the ad showed a gypsy off-road vehicle and some athletes and said "Muscle in action". After looking at the ad I wondered "Why bat company is showing tyres..." but later I realised, MRF - Madras Rubber factory was a bat sponsor that sponsored matches, players, and (or) complete events. It sponsored the greats like Sachin, Brian Lara, Steve Waugh, Gautham Gambhir, Virat Kohli, and AB de Villiers. 

Even after knowing that MRF used Sachin to promote its products, whenever I close my eyes and think of cricket, I see MRF bat and Sachin Tendulkar. That was the kind of connect(impact) it created in our minds.

You might be wondering what this has to do with Lifestyle marketing. Well, Lifestyle marketing is a process of establishing relationships between products offered in the market and targeted lifestyle groups. It is a marketing technique that positions the product or service to possess ideals, aspirations, and aesthetics that the target audience identifies with. In layman’s terms, it means that brands marketed in this way are a way of life for their audience. They are immersive, encapsulate their customers’ ideas or values, and fit seamlessly into the consumer’s life. 

Lifestyle marketing goes beyond selling of product or service. It is selling an idea, an emotion. For example: In India, Cricket is not a sport, it is a religion. It is part of our lives. Like me there are many individuals who might have forced their parents for an MRF bat. What makes them a lifestyle brand is their empowerment of the athlete inside everyone. MRF Bat, BAS bat, Reebok bat are a way of life for its fans……They eat, live, breathe, and sweat the brand’s ideals. 

Keep in mind, Lifestyle is an integrated system of a person's attitudes, values, interests, opinions and his over behaviour and lifestyle marketing involves segmenting the market based on lifestyle dimensions, positioning the product in a way that appeals to the activities, interests and opinions of the targeted market and undertaking specific promotional campaigns which exploit lifestyle appeals to enhance the market value of the offered product.

Lifestyle brands can also fall within a category of Inspiration for example smartphones, they inspire people to explore and create. They generate lifestyle ads out of both inspiration and aspiration to belong to the community of individuals that also adhere to their specific product lifestyle. 

How to create a lifestyle brand?

Having a brand name, a logo and some basic marketing personas doesn’t make your product stand out anymore. The market today requires the brand that operates off a much more ‘human-driven’ methodology. One of the characteristics that separate lifestyle brands from non-lifestyle brands is that lifestyle brands succeed in activating and uniting communities. They market the product as a lifestyle or a part of the lifestyle.

    - Define your target market with demographics and psychographics

    - Identify where your target market receives information from

    - Identify how your brand will be positioned

    - Define the marketing channel

    - Moderate the information Flow and monitor public responses

Why lifestyle marketing?

Now that you know what exactly is lifestyle marketing, you must be thinking what could be its importance and why should you focus on lifestyle marketing strategies for your future products. The answer is: BRAND ASSOCIATION. it can be shoes, cars, bike, phones, anything that you can associate.