Building Brand Identity in Retail

The rebrand everyone should study. Stanley turned $70M into $750M. By 2019, Stanley was fading. The heritage thermos brand was being pulled from shelves and competitors like YETI held 16% market share. A 100-year-old company looked destined for decline.   Then came an insight. A lifestyle blog, "The Buy Guide", featured Stanley. Their audience, mostly women, bought out inventory every time. Stanley made a bold shift: Instead of clinging to the rugged, male audience, they repositioned around millennial and Gen Z women. The strategy: → Keep the heritage of durability and quality → Redesign for modern lifestyles (cupholder fit, straws, dishwasher-safe) → Launch in trendy colors and seasonal drops → Partner with influencers and retail collabs → Build a collector culture with limited editions The result: Revenue grew from $70M to $750M in four years. From being pulled from shelves… to customers camping out for launches. Lessons for every brand: 1. Do not assume your legacy audience is your only audience. 2. Customer insights, even small ones, can spark entire transformations. 3. Rebranding does not always mean abandoning heritage. It can mean reinterpreting it. 4. Speed matters. But if you move too fast without brand integrity, you lose trust. If this resonated, repost to your network ♻️ and follow me Holly Rae Felicetta for more.

I get it. Brand feels intangible, hard to prove, and frustrating to justify in executive meetings and boardrooms. It's been the story of my life for almost twenty years. So, last week, I shared a brand score framework to hopefully help. I'm sharing it again to provide a little more context to the deliverable. This guide breaks down the why, how, and what next of brand measurement. Why Is Measuring Brand So Hard? Most leaders know brand is important. “Oh yeah, brand is the rizz.” But the same people talking about rizz expect immediate results—revenue, efficiency, valuation. The challenge? (1) Brand impact is long-term, while execs focus on short-term revenue. (2) Brand influence on sales is indirect but still real. (3) Brand must align with financial KPIs or risk losing investment. Marketing needs a better way to prove brand value. How Brand Ties to Business Outcomes: Brand doesn’t just "exist"—it affects acquisition, retention, and pricing power. Here's how to connect it to financial impact: Increase Branded Search Traffic >>> Lower CAC Orangic Website Traffic Growth >>> Higher inbound pipeline Social Engagement Growth >>> More efficient sales cycles Customer Advocacy & Reviews >>> Higher deal velocity & expansion $$ Brand Awareness + PR >>> higher valuation multiples Share of Voice & Analyst >>> Increase inbound interest NPS >>> Higher retention Brand-building’s impact compounds over time. Use predictive modeling to show future value. Here are some ideas: Branded CAC vs. Non-Branded CAC – Show that branded inbound leads cost less over time by comparing CAC trends. Sales Cycle Compression Model – Measure the reduction in sales cycle duration for accounts exposed to brand content. Brand Awareness & Future Revenue Impact – Track branded search traffic increases and their correlation to pipeline growth. Okay... back to the brand score, we want to measure across six weighted categories: Brand Awareness, Brand Trust & Reputation, Brand Differentiation, Brand Engagement, Brand Consistency, and Brand Perceived Value. And it's super important to measure across all six pillars. Check out the image for more context on weighting and what to measure. How to Calculate Your Brand Score: (1) Score each category on a 1-10 scale using internal and external data. (2) Apply weights and calculate a final Brand Score out of 100. (3) Track progress over time and compare with competitors. Brand measurement isn’t a "nice to have". It’s the key to unlocking categories and growth. This is also new for me, so I would love feedback on whether anyone has implemented a version of this.

Last month, Storylane drove over 700,000+ impressions through influencer marketing. And at the start of the year, I had no idea how to make this channel perform consistently. I had no playbook, no proven process, and no ideas. So, I experimented. A lot. And while we’re still figuring it out, here’s what I’ve learned so far: 1. Smaller creators are outperforming larger ones for us Smaller creators often produce better, more authentic content. They’re typically more affordable, work harder, and deliver results with a hyper-focused audience. Larger influencers charge a premium, and the content often feels average. Exceptions exist, but they’re rare. 2. Build a curated influencer portfolio. There are more great influencers out there than your budget can handle. Start small, experiment, and refine a curated portfolio of creators who align with your goals, budget, and audience. This takes trial and error, so don’t rush it. Your “go-to” influencers will emerge over time. 3. Three months is enough to evaluate an influencer. In three months, you’ll know if the partnership is worth continuing. It’s enough time to assess content quality, audience engagement, and impact. 4. Set up clear contracts with influencers Include everything in writing: - Who owns the content? - Can you run ads with it? - Will they engage with your posts? - How many posts will they deliver? Clarity now saves confusion later. 5. Influencer costs vary... a lot. Pricing is all over the place, but here's a starting point. For this platform, expect $500–$2,000 per post for influencers with fewer than 100K followers. Bigger names might quote $5K or more. The highest I’ve seen is $650k per post (no joke). Decide what’s worth it based on your goals and their audience quality. 6. Influencer onboarding matters. Hop on a 1:1 call to align. Share your knowledge, past successes, and internal data. Learn their creative process and set expectations. The better you collaborate upfront, the smoother the partnership. 7. Influencer program management is a full-time job. I tried juggling this alongside my other responsibilities, and it’s a lot. Between sourcing, contracts, payments, content review, and feedback, the workload multiplies with every creator. Bring in outside help if you can afford it or upskill someone internally. 8. Give creators creative freedom. Over-controlling a creator’s content kills authenticity. Work closely on the brief to give them all the context they need, but let their voice shine through. The results are far better when they feel trusted. 9. Ethics build trust (with influencers and your buyers) Always disclose influencer partnerships (FTC compliance isn’t optional). I see a lot of brands and creators not disclose these partnerships (on LinkedIn, in private communities, Slack groups etc.) and it's WRONG. Don't trick your buyers. Be honest. We’re still learning, but this channel is showing promise, and I plan to scale it further in 2025.

shifting how we viewed digital took chubbies from an 8-figure, negative-profit ecommerce store to a 9-figure, profitable omnichannel brand as a digital-first brand believing DTC was the future, this was a tectonic shift we wish we realized it sooner...would have saved many a sleepless night so you don’t make the same mistakes we did, here’s 1) the mistakes 2) 3 lessons 3) 3 actions you can take today let's do it *the mistakes* at chubbies we built our ecommerce business to 8 figures of revenue before we really understood the role of digital for consumer brands for the first few years, we were fully bought into the ecommerce revolution we thought the role of digital was to offer a convenient place to purchase items you love without the hassle of going to a retail store we thought online retailers were competitors we wanted to own the transaction for brand control and support our ability to measure LTV: CAC since DR, discounts, ROAS and revenue mattered most at the time then we almost went out of business *3 lessons* 1) digital is not for transactions, it's for connections as we deconstructed our business to find scalable profitable growth, we realized the internet’s true value to brands it was not just a vehicle for transactions the value of the internet to consumer brands was that the internet had become the house of brand the internet became where consumers connect with brands across social networks, mailing lists, websites, etc the internet was the place consumers share their thoughts and emotions towards brands freely and openly in a way that billions of people could consume the internet was where consumers learned about their favorite brands, diving into the story and purpose our realization was that this basket of digital behaviors towards our brand was our brand 2) the best way to see the impact of brand was by being omnichannel truth be told, we couldn't make brand work the way we needed it to when DTC only only later did we learn that the measurable impact of "brand marketing" was far higher when we started to be available more broadly in retail compared to being DTC only ...but we had to get into retail (and show up the way we wanted) to make this possible 3) leaning into number 1 ALSO generated the retail demand that made number 2 possible (something we didn't fully realize the value of at the time) *3 actions you can take today* 1) take a hard look at the assumptions driving your view of digital DTC are they still correct? do they need to be reassessed? given where you are as a brand, what's the right strategic view for YOU 2) if the connection vs transaction view resonates, vet your internal capabilities to see if they match what's needed to build those connections put simply, do you have an internal content machine? 3) broaden the definition of 'customer' add the retail buyer into your filter when thinking about how to maximize desire for your brand hope this helps 

Nik Sharma might be the 🐐 of influencer marketing. Here are 18 of my favorite lessons from Nik on the power of influencer marketing + the right way to approach it as a brand: 1. By partnering with influencers, brands are able to integrate their products into a relevant community with a high conversion rate at a relatively low cost. 2. Fans expect influencers to promote products they care about. 3. Most influencers only want to work with brands that they believe in and promote products on their social channels that they would use. 4. More than 41% of consumers get more interested in a brand when they partner with a celebrity or influencer they love. 5. Traditional brands follow this template: Select the influencers. Give them free products + discount code. Pay them for a sponsored post. This approach is purely transactional and sets up the influencer marketing campaign for failure. 6. The goal of influencer marketing shouldn't be to pay them for sponsored content. Instead, you should develop a meaningful relationship that is beneficial for both parties. 7. Successful influencer partnerships are based on trust—not reach. 8. If brands are so focused on their return on investment, they can overlook the value social media influencers provide. 9. The best influencer marketing campaigns are multi-faceted. 10. Successful influencer marketing campaigns build brand loyalty, decrease customer acquisition costs, and enable marketers to track influencer-driven impact on a performance level. 11. By forging a relationship with the influencers you’re working with, they’re more likely to post about your brand without you even having to ask. This content is more native than the old-fashioned branded content with #ad front-in-center in the copy. 12. You need to find influencers with audiences that is closely aligned with your target market. 13. Find influencers who believe in your product. If they don’t, the content they create won’t resonate. 14. Offer to provide your product to the influencer to test before they have to commit. 15. When you work with an influencer that truly believes in your brand and appreciates your product, the content that they create is gold. 16. Don’t solely focus on the number of followers they have or their content, but rather, pick influencers that have a high engagement rate and have values, goals, and ethics that align with your brand. 17. Brands that treat influencers as partners as opposed to paid marketing channels will see the value in their campaigns. To take this approach, brands need to work collaboratively and focus on long-term gains rather than short-term revenue. 18. By selecting the right influencers, crafting your pitch, and maximizing your success, you’ll get more out of the partnership than a one-time increase in sales. You’ll get an entirely new audience to work with and an ambassador that’s sharing your product in effective, engaging ways. #influencermarketing #niksharma #marketing

There is so much thought and energy and expense put into building a brand that sometimes companies miss when it falls apart at the last mile. We look at famous endorsers, use the products, watch the ads and social media, and in the process brands make us feel a certain way. Apple can make us feel cool and creative, Nike can make us feel like anything is possible and Google can make us feel smart. But what about that last mile, when the person meets the brand. For the billions of dollars that go into telecom and airlines, the brand often lives or dies by the customer experience in the store or the waiting for the plane. Bad communication, a harried worker, "we can't solve your problem;" or more and all that brand expense goes out the door. (How many products have you bought in the last year that underperformed or failed and there's no phone number, refund, or support?) I've always been impressed by the utmost patience Apple Store employees have with older folks who come in confused about technology. It's incredible to see the brand activated all the way to the core. And working at Virgin, I'll always remember the Airlines' herculean effort to return a young girl's stuffed animal across thousands of miles. In those moments a brand is built. At Overtime we do many very unscalable things - like spontaneously give tours to our arena to people who knock on the door, show up at schools and even host a "dream tryout" where any player across the world has a chance to play at our league. But we still have to be exceptional from everything from picking up at the airport, to emails to making sure we have the right sized shoes and uniforms as it's all part of the brand. Many brands run events too, whether it's pop ups, giveaways, youth sports circuits and more, and the customer doesn't separate that experience from the brand. It's all one. Being a leader and custodian of a brand should be an act of creativity. But in some ways it also has to be an act of paranoia. Because every day people in your name have the chance to build or diminish your brand. And a brand is a powerful thing, but so are the emotions of the customer at the point of contact.

How does a store make you feel when you walk in? It’s a question that all retailers should be asking and answering. Stores that are uninspiring, uninteresting, and unclear have much less chance of converting customers at a time when people are cautious, constrained and careful about their spending. The problem for many legacy brands is that they have lost sight of this principle and of the importance of the selling environment. Last week I visited a new(ish) TravisMathew store in our local mall. It feels fresh, well organized, and invites the customer to explore. There are lots of nice visual touches to tingle the senses and lots of pointers to help shoppers understand the offer and products. This format is very clean, which befits the TravisMathew brand position and image. But not all stores have to be like this. Each store and retailer has its own DNA. TJMaxx is a crowded space and feels more basic: but that’s fine because the interest and fun are in the treasure hunt and snagging a bargain. Coach shops are plusher, which reflects the sumptuous nature of the brand. The point is that stores don’t have to be uniform. But they do have to think about what their customers want from the shopping experience and how they deliver that. The approach definitely isn't to just throw things on shelves and hope they sell! #retail #retailnews #stores #sports #merchandising #consumers #shopping

If more of your store sales start on TikTok lately, you might wanna read this. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦. The checkout happens in-store. But the sale happens everywhere else. Here's the reality: This year 60%+, and in 2027, 70% of retail sales will be digitally influenced. I can't emphasize this enough; here's what most brands miss—digital influence isn't just about online sales. It's about shaping every moment before the customer even walks into your store. L'Oréal cracked this code: 100M+ AR try-on sessions driving real conversions. 31 brands orchestrating seamless experiences across 72 countries. No.1 in beauty influencer marketing (29% market share), 20-80% higher conversion rates through enhanced digital experiences. The new customer journey isn't linear—it's layered: - They discover you on social - Research you through reviews and UGC - Try your product virtually through AR - Get retargeted with personalized content - Finally purchase in-store (feeling confident they're making the right choice) Every touchpoint matters, and every interaction influences the final decision. The brands winning today aren't just selling products—they're orchestrating experiences across owned, paid, and earned media that guide customers from curiosity to checkout. Digital discovery is increasingly pay-to-play and shoppers are paying attention. ++ Tactical Recommendations for CPG / FMCG Brands ++ 1. Beyond just having perfect, high SOV product pages, create discovery ecosystems. - Optimize for "zero-moment-of-truth" searches. - Activate shoppable content at scale. - Leverage user-generated content as social proof. Brands that do these see a 35% higher conversion rate from digital touchpoints to in-store purchases. 2. Connect digital engagement directly to retail execution. - Geo-target digital campaigns to drive foot traffic - Create "store-specific" digital content CPG brands using geo-targeted social ads see a 23% higher in-store sales lift in targeted markets. 3. Most important one; stop flying blind—measure digital influence on offline sales. - Implement unique promo codes for each digital touchpoint to track conversion paths. - Use customer surveys at point of purchase. - Partner with retailers on shared data insights Brands with proper attribution see 15-25% improvement in marketing ROI within 12 months. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟰,𝟲𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁® : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. #CPG #FMCG #AI #ecommerce Procter & Gamble PepsiCo Unilever The Coca-Cola Company Nestlé Mondelēz International Kraft Heinz Ferrero Mars Colgate-Palmolive Henkel Bayer Haleon Kenvue The HEINEKEN Company Carlsberg Group Philips Samsung Electronics Panasonic North America

Remember when I told you I'd been working with premium non-alc wine brand, For The Love Of, to help with their content strategy? In my opinion when a company is considering how to position themselves it truly comes down to one thing.... Vibe. To position your brand in the market there are 3 things that I think hold the rank as most important. - who is your customer? Creating customer archetypes is so helpful. In this case it's older Gen Z kids who are leading the sober curious charge and millennials who still want to party and enjoy a drink but can no longer handle the hangovers. - what are your brand signals? What can you include in your imagery that will make any image your brand puts into the world obviously your brand, even if your product isn't in the image. Charlie XCX did this flawlessly by using neon green, AKA brat green. That color will be associated with her for the next 5 years. For FTLO we chose pops of bright red, nodding to both the wine and the logo. - and last but certainly not least, what is your message? Are you the beverage brand that promotes luxury and relaxation? The linen brand that is easy to wash and moms will love? FTLO's voice is very clear; you can still have fun and be the life of the party even when you're sober. From there it's deciding on the trends and seasons that you'll follow, which will change over time. For example in all of FTLO's current marketing we are using 70's inspired clothing and color tones, but with a modern twist. But those 3 core brand values, those will never budge. These images have been performing really well on socials (@drinkfortheloveof on Insta and TikTok), and the product isn't available to consumers yet. By building brand awareness and following now, by the time FTLO goes to market I have no doubt it will be a hit. What do you think?

See, trends are fun. They’re catchy. In fact, they’re almost impossible to miss. But I see brands chasing trends so hard, they end up stuck in a sea of sameness.    It’s like this: The other day, my teenager taught me some new slang. I was feeling pretty cool… until I actually used it. The look on their face said it all—complete and utter shame. Apparently, by the time parents catch on, that slang is already so last year. And that’s exactly what happens when brands latch onto the latest trend—it’s old news before it even hits the market.    Now, don’t get me wrong—trends can work. They’re a great way to grab attention and show you’re in tune with what’s happening now. But there’s a fine line between leveraging a trend and losing your brand’s identity in the process.    Here’s where you need to draw the line:    1. Trends Should Enhance, Not Define Your Brand: Use trends to complement your core message, not replace it. Your brand’s foundation should be solid and rooted in what makes you unique, not just what’s popular today.    2. Stay True to Your Brand’s Voice: Just because something is trending doesn’t mean it aligns with your brand’s voice or values. If a trend doesn’t fit naturally with who you are, it’s better to skip it.    3. Think Long-Term: Ask yourself, “Will this trend still resonate six months from now?” If the answer is no, maybe it’s not worth betting your brand’s reputation on it.    At the end of the day, trends can be powerful tools, but only if you know how to wield them. The key is to balance being current with being consistent. The brands that truly stand out aren’t the ones that jump on every passing trend—they’re the ones that know when to ride the wave and when to chart their own course.    What’s a trend you’ve seen lately that’s actually worked for a brand?    #Trends #BrandVoice #BrandPositioning #BrandBuilding #BrandTransformation #ThePathRedefined