What is Lifestyle Marketing?

The globalization of commerce has resulted in an over-saturated market that finds companies struggling to differentiate themselves and gain a solid foothold in their respective industries. The center of this struggle lies in figuring out how to connect with modern consumers. This quest has led to the emergence of lifestyle marketing and lifestyle brands.

Lifestyle marketing relies on the core principle that branding goes far beyond a simple logo and basic marketing appeals. Lifestyle brands offer products that appeal to the ideals, interests, opinions, backgrounds, attitudes, and aesthetics of their audience.

By doing this, intangible value is added to the product(s). There are several great examples of companies that perform this function phenomenally.

Whole Foods

As a brand, Whole Foods has a reputation for promoting organic, low waste food and embracing the ideals of conservation and greener living. Their website has an entire section devoted to recipes for individuals who embrace different dietary plans, such as vegetarian, paleo, vegan, and gluten-free. It also promotes locally sourced food products.

The outcome of these activities has led to Whole Foods becoming one of the largest grocers in the nation with a devoted customer base that is often willing to pay higher prices than they might at other grocery stores.

Apple

Apple is perhaps one of the most successful companies to build a lifestyle; it relies on people’s perceptions of Apple and what it says about them rather than functionality. People often claim to be “Apple people” or “Android people,” but the latter phrase only came about after the emergence of Apple’s devoted followers who were all too happy to proclaim their loyalty to the brand.

Their recent commercials have also been underscored with the message buy into Apple’s lifestyle or become obsolete. Their success is best shown by their annual revenue growth.

Apple’s Global Revenue, 2004-2018

Why is Lifestyle Marketing So Effective?

Lifestyle branding is considered to be effective because it feeds into the idea of what a person can become (rather than who they are) and offers up just a bit of that lifestyle now (if you buy the product, that is). But in order to do this effectively, it relies heavily on accurate audience data – something that is becoming easier to access on an individual level.

This data can ensure that your brand will stay “on-brand” since the lifestyle you are pitching may be very different depending upon the various demographical and ideological characteristics of your core customer base.

But most importantly, lifestyle marketing is effective because it creates experiences for its customer; these experiences are tied to the product or service they are selling, but it’s truly about selling the experience.

Once you can do this, the product sells itself. Lifestyle marketing can be transformational for a company when it is done correctly because it has the ability to create lifetime customers. One thing is certain – it will be a very powerful tool for marketers operating in today’s hypercompetitive markets.