What are the Benefits of Lifestyle Marketing?

With lifestyle marketing, you can completely transform how consumers view your brand. It’s possible to go from being just another brand to being a “must-have” in the lives of your target audience with the right lifestyle marketing strategy.

Lifestyle marketing is a strategy, especially potent for B2C brands, that positions your business as a cornerstone of someone’s ideal way of life. When your brand represents a lifestyle that people crave, you become magnetic. People want your brand to successfully bring them to the other side of the lifestyle of their dreams. Many of the most influential brands in the world use lifestyle marketing because it’s simply one of the most commanding tactics for drawing in ideal target audiences.

What Is Lifestyle Marketing?

Lifestyle marketing focuses on a niche target market's ideals, everyday interests, and values that align with the lifestyle they want to lead. Rather than selling a product, lifestyle brands advertise a way of life instead. For instance, Apple focuses its advertising on images emphasizing status, trendiness, tech-savviness, and even luxury. It’s not so much the iPhone that keeps loyal Apple consumers coming back, but rather the lifestyle that this brand puts forth.

This focus aligns your business with core concepts your audience values, so they associate your brand with their unique vision of success. Done properly, lifestyle marketing leads to strong brand loyalty and lifetime customers. It can also lead to more purchases per customer, as your audience will see that new or additional products are part of the lifestyle your brand represents.

You’ll begin to notice that consumers are exceptionally loyal to lifestyle brands because they see themselves living the lifestyle the company conveys. Starbucks has a very loyal consumer base, who rarely strays from their favorite higher-social-standard, aesthetic, premium coffee brand. Think about it: millions of coffee shops sell similar beverages, but the company also sells a lifestyle that consumers feel they are a part of with a Starbucks cup in their hand.

Ads and marketing materials for lifestyle marketing campaigns are immersive and highly visual. Consumers will see people they relate to enjoying the lifestyle they want to emulate. When your products are a core part of that imagery, viewers see them as a core part of achieving their ideal lifestyle. It also associates your brand with positive emotions, which creates a far more long-lasting impression than discussing specific attributes or use cases of a product.

What Kind of Brands Benefit From Lifestyle Marketing?

Almost any brand (especially B2C) can benefit from lifestyle marketing. Some attributes that can make successful lifestyle marketing easier for your brand include:

• Medium-to-High-End Products: While lifestyle marketing is possible with budget items, it's commonly used when quality and brand reputation is more important than price.
• Easy Affiliation with Positive Lifestyle Ideals: If you can easily associate your brand and products with environmental sustainability, freedom, independence, or luxury, you can craft a wide variety of messages and marketing material that establish that connection. However, with a bit of creativity, you can do the same thing for any type of product in any market.

Some of the brands most well-known for their lifestyle marketing include:

• Nike: Advertises athleticism, fitness, and self-empowerment.
• Marks and Spencer: Established itself as a keystone in luxurious lifestyles and offers its target markets a high quality of life through extravagant goods.
• Lululemon: Emphasizes healthy living and mindfulness.

3 Benefits of Lifestyle Marketing

Lifestyle marketing offers many benefits to brands that want to cultivate a devoted audience of consumers.

1. Versatility: Once you find the right themes and messaging, you can build on the same ideal lifestyle images with different products. This is a great way to introduce product lines and next-generation additions cohesively. You can also easily carry the same themes and lifestyle markers across various media and platforms for omnichannel marketing.
2. Stronger Brand Recognizability: Lifestyle marketing, by its nature, aligns your brand with a specific niche or target market. If you emphasize sustainability, artistic freedom, or anything else, your brand will naturally be affiliated with those attributes and the personality of the target market that values them.
3. Better Audience Engagement: Selling to today's markets requires a strong connection where shoppers can engage with your business. You can develop conversations about your customer's values and your initiatives through lifestyle marketing. This strengthens your audience's affiliation with your brand, and more interactions often lead to more sales.

Start Your New Lifestyle Marketing Campaign With WFSB Advertising

Lifestyle marketing can turn your brand into a powerhouse, but it can be hard to get started. Turn to WFSB Advertising, a media partner that can help you create strong marketing plans, develop your lifestyle marketing strategies, and produce content for different media platforms.