This is YOUR Brand

If you are a fashion major, you’ve probably learned about how important company branding is, and in particular, how important a company’s brand image is. Brand image is how consumers perceive a brand, from the quality of the products to the aesthetic and essence they believe the brand gives off. When I first thought about my perception of different brands, I looked at the surface of the brand through the lens of product quality, effectiveness, fit, trend, and style. Even still, I couldn’t put my finger on the core factor that truly drives people to follow a brand and its evolution- the thing that keeps customers coming back and saying, “this is my brand.” That thing, that one magical aspect, is actually how a brand makes you feel. For me, I didn’t ever grasp this concept until I came across Lonely Ghost Co. Lonely Ghost Co. was suddenly the brand that made me actually feel something; something that any other brand has yet to accomplish for me.

Lonely Ghost Co.

Lonely Ghost is a small business brand started by an influencer of the name Indy Blue. Her products consist of a limited number of casual/comfort apparel featuring unique graphics, but it’s not just what she sells that makes Lonely Ghost Co.’s brand image resonate with me. It’s the way Indy and her brand make each customer feel empowered – that they are the main character in this thing we call life.

The ‘Feeling’ of Lonely Ghost

To give you an idea of how I perceive Lonely Ghost Co. and what my brand image of them looks like, think about a moment or place where you felt truly free. A place where there were a thousand words you could say about how perfect it was, where you never felt more grounded and more yourself than right where you were.

For me, that place is this laid back, beach bum little town on Alabama’s Gulf Coast that many of you know as Gulf Shores. My hometown is only about an hour away from there, so almost every weekend of my past four summers since I turned 16 was spent there with my friends. It gave us every bit of freedom that we could get our hands on. It began with the drive there with our windows down to how the music we played perfectly matched all of our emotions to a tune, the smell of our tanning lotion, the special beach spot where the cute boys always were, and finally the taste of a good meal after a long day in the sun to the race to get home because we stayed out a little too late trying to capture the sunset over the water. Those moments that gave us a taste of freedom, of being young; that is exactly the way Lonely Ghost Co. makes me feel.

Connecting with Customers

As I’m writing this article, I keep replaying those moments I had in Gulf Shores. I keep thinking about how every moment I’ve spent at the beach were all so similar, yet they could never get old, and I’d always keep going back for more. And then it clicked! This is what creates a brand’s following. When a brand captures a feeling, an essence that they consistently carry throughout their evolution, it allows the brand to form a bond with their customers. For example, after my first breakup with my high school boyfriend, I started following Lonely Ghost Co. I used to think high school and childhood boyfriends were sappy and silly, but Indy and Lonely Ghost showed me to appreciate every moment, every feeling and every aspect of life.

Wearing Indy’s products reminded me that life is the essence of every tiny moment in time – the essence of my high school heartbreak because it made me feel something and the essence of those weekend beach trips I religiously took with my friends because it made us feel free. Lonely Ghost Co. created that bond with me because Indy built her brand on more than just trendy apparel. The brand website also includes Indy’s blog and Spotify playlists, which creates this perfectly personal combination of meaningful words and music created specifically for fans. These added brand pieces are what has made Lonely Ghost Co. something I could connect with and something that keeps me coming back for more.

Image via https://www.instagram.com/p/CDe5TPAJ42F/

My Little Piece of Advice

In the grand scheme of things, whether you’re a fashion major reading this article or someone going on to become a doctor, engineer, or whatever it is that you want to be, my one piece of advice is to build your personal “brand” on the foundation of a feeling.

Think about more than just who you are on the surface but rather who you are when you’re the most content. Maybe that’s who you are when you’re back home with your family. Maybe it’s who you are when you have time to yourself. Maybe it’s who you are when you’re with your best friends. But whoever it is that is the most YOU, show that to your classmates, your professors, your co-workers, an employer, and even more so, the whole world!

YOUR personal “brand,” the essence of who you are, is what differentiates you from the person in the next room. So, always be YOU, keep connecting with people, and never stop living in those moments where you felt the most alive. This is YOUR brand. Embrace it, take pride in it, and love it entirely.