Influencer marketing is increasingly vital, but brands often misuse it, leading to short-term bursts rather than sustained success. In Pakistan’s crowded fashion market, brands must adopt strategic influencer collaborations and consistency to truly stand out.
By the time you read this, the terms demure, cutesy and very mindful should hopefully be consigned to the past, firmly and thoroughly. The sudden fame or virality garnered by Jools Lebron and the rush of brands to work with her, has been interesting but not at all surprising. Brands are run mostly by people in their 40’s who are at time caught talking about the 20-year-olds, as unwilling to work hard and yet at the drop of a hat, the same brands are seen trying to take the marketing shortcut and hitch their product to the latest influencer or trend. Hypocritical? Feels like it.
Closer to home in Pakistan, we have seen how in the recent decade, brands from high-end luxury goods to FMCG and even cars, brands have looked to influencers to create saliency, create hype and resonate with a target audience. Even so, in general, to go viral phenomenon is the latest, vital yet sadly a deep-rooted fetish of brand managers and CMOs. I, myself being well over 40, can remember when brands used other means rather than influencers and Facebook ads. Bear with me as I go back in time.
I remember back in 2008, a new brand Outfitters, using SMS as a means to get people in store. With the advent of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram the importance of being digitally present became crucial for a brand especially a fashion brand. The motto out of sight, out of mind is very applicable. The rise of social media influencing in Pakistan began probably in 2013, and restaurants were the first to jump the gun.
In fashion, there are now the old, weathered in-store brands, the online stores as well as the sites that are selling export-quality products at an affordable price. This makes for a veritable fish market where the modus operandi seems to be a refined form of ‘shouting’ to attract attention. Are influencers helping brands to break through the clutter or are they just creating white noise? In my expert opinion based off of my 20-years in the marketing field, the answer is that the strategy to use influencers or even celebrities aren’t wrong but the execution seems to be the issue.
Let’s look at how typical Pakistani brands or even restaurants operate, they enlist influencers of different levels – micro, mini and macro – depending on the budget and availability, they then begin the bombardment on social media and even on-ground with their campaigning. This results in a burst or boost in awareness and eyeballs for quite a short period; at most a month. After that? It’s either silence or sporadic posts and efforts. Compare this to a launch of a rocket into space, the rocket has powerful engines to take off and launch but whether it would be able to make it into space is uncertain, because the sudden power and thrust only last shortly. Its effectiveness is doubtful, although sustained thrust is necessary for the most effective mission.
Just how the words demure and cutesy have suddenly become a part of our vocabulary, out of nowhere, likewise, I woke up one day and discovered that Dyson hair appliances are all the rage in Pakistan too, among the wealthy and middle-class girls. I’m pretty sure that the reason for this instantaneous demand is because of TikTok, which turns out to be the breeding ground for the trendy-things in our lives.
The way Dyson has sporadically become a hit with social media influencers. It may surprise some local marketers that this brand has been using influencer-marketing since – as early as 2016. Neil Waller, the found of Whalar Group USA, (the company calls itself a creator ecosystem) wrote in his LinkedIn article in 2017 about how he executed an influencer-campaign for Dyson in 2016. He mentions the brand identifying why they wanted to work with influencers. The brand knew who their reach was, 25- to 35-year-olds working women and young mothers, with a certain level of disposable income, across certain markets. Dyson also knew the type of content they desired – high quality social content, displaying an imagery focussed on premium lifestyle and showing the products being used in an aspirational context. The objective as per Waller was to drive awareness and sales of a new product by leveraging relevant beauty influencers who could provide advocacy and credibility. The brand chose 15 influencers who each created 5 pieces of content. Dyson had full ability to accept or reject and ask for a re-shoot if they did not feel the content was as per their standards.
Another extremely functional method, in my view, for a fashion brand to work with influencers is to create content, a certain type of content, that can be recreated by ‘regular people’. The recent “GRWM” reels on Instagram and other platforms come to mind, we have all seen the #OOTD hashtag. To stand out something different needs to be said and it has to be repeated again and again, consistency is a very under-appreciated pillar of building a brand. Another problem related to brands is that a brand who talks to everybody ends up talking to no one. Having the clarity as to who is your target consumer or end consumer can be priceless in helping a brand to pick and choose an influencer or brand ambassador.
User Generated Content is nothing new in the world of marketing, it’s sought passionately by brands as it helps in giving a sense of direction and increases engagement. And funnily regular humans are by default more creative than most agencies and brand teams. Brands in fashion, lifestyle can go a step further than just working with influencers and either utilise the influencers followers or ordinary users of the brand to create content or interact directly with customers to get them to create content – photos, videos or reels for the brand.
Another crucial pointer for fashion brands or lifestyle brands is to be where your consumer is, presence on media platforms they use is critical to success. To ascertain where they are, brand managers need to conduct research and invest time and money. Marketing is a process of trial and error and the beautiful exercise in experimentation. Marketing is like a delicate dance, a balance of trying new things and sticking to what works, brands who find that perfect balance can put their best foot forward, be brave and the first-movers for all and everything.