Starting your brand is the easy part; then comes the legwork, maintaining relevancy, and looking for those breakthrough moments. In a flooded market and a fractured attention economy, it can be difficult to keep eyes on your business.
At the Fast Company Innovation Festival, three industry leaders gave their tips for gaining recognition. The consensus: Maintaining a successful brand is so much more than having a good product. You have to situate yourself in the cultural conversation; from there, people will start paying attention.
Melissa Ben-Ishay, cofounder and CEO of Baked by Melissa, is most famous for her bite-sized cupcakes. For a younger generation, though, Ben-Ishay is likely most known for her viral TikTok recipes. That internet visibility is by design.
“I think brands and social media are synonymous today,” Ben-Ishay said. “When I posted a salad that got 40 million views, I immediately saw an opportunity to continue to build an audience that comes to me for something, [to] create that genuine connection. Then you could do whatever you want. But nobody responds well to being sold to, not on social media, because it’s where they’re going to rest.”
Amanda E/J Morrison, cofounder and CEO of Julie Products, agrees with the value of social media for a breakthrough. She’s used platforms like TikTok, as well as college campus visits, to make her reproductive pharmaceutical company more approachable.
“You can never assume that anyone, just because they have a uterus, understands their body,” Morrison says. “How do I make that conversation culturally relevant? How do I make that conversation sometimes funny? We use a lot of dark humor and a lot of comedy writers. How do I make it so that I can get an 18-year-old’s attention when they are glued to their phone? I really need them to pay attention to this.”
Morrison points to some of the brands she’s collaborated with: Alfred Coffee, OGBFF, and the Clermont Twins. For some, these names are unrecognizable; for the young audience that Julie Products is trying to reach, these are vital entry points.
Online fame for brands is rarely incidental. Yoon Ahn, cofounder of Ambush and global curator for Nike Women’s, knows the key to relevancy is staying up-to-date with your audience’s desires. Her recent viral blip, designing Naomi Osaka’s outfit for the U.S. Open, was a testament to her broader savvy.
“I understand what could tick that crowd and what will make people tune in,” Ahn says. “It’s really about understanding your audience.”
No matter how many TikToks a brand pumps out, or how many collaborations a brand queues up, a breakthrough is the product of continued craft: “As long as we stay true to our craft, bring the genuineness to it, and if it hits at the right moment with the right alchemy, I think that’s when it will connect to consumers,” Ahn says.