Ever since the founding of Facebook in February of 2004 and Twitter in March of 2006, marketing has completely changed. Brands that once built campaigns to push market awareness through standardized marketing channels are now using social media to drive brand awareness and sales.
A prime example is the streetwear industry, which does a great job of using social media to control supply and demand. Instead of focusing on pushing many low-priced items, these brands sell out a limited number of extremely marked-up items fueled by social media hype and promotion.
Combining social media trends and viral content allows them to leverage the hype and causes the demand far to exceed the quantity available.
I absolutely love this business model, which led to me connecting with Elie Neufeld, founder of DHTK. After identifying streetwear as a major trend in fashion, he launched the brand to merge various major trends, creating one lifestyle brand. By leveraging trends in sports, fashion, and other facets of youth lifestyles, DHTK demonstrates the result of correctly executing marketing trends. While talking to Neufeld about his growth strategy for DHTK, he shared his gameplan for viral growth, which is universal and applied to any industry.
1. Identify influential trends on social media:
Being active on social media gives you a glimpse at what's popular in today's society. LeBron James has grown from being one of the top basketball players into a worldwide cultural icon in recent years. Between appearances in blockbuster films, brand alignments, and switching from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat and back again, James has become larger than life on and off the court.
DHTK accurately identified sports as a cultural trend with several top performers -- LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Stephen Curry all push culture forward with their massive following and influence. Turning to social media can provide you with insight to clearly identify the major trends that people are talking about.
2. Understand and identify the "cool factor."
Many brands and entrepreneurs can spot major trends, but simply following them is not enough. You need to understand what the "cool factor" is and leverage it to grow your brand. If you can associate your brand with a trending "cool factor," you ride that wave, drawing attention to your company, which is fueled entirely by that trend.
3. Build social media awareness
Build brand awareness requires you to identify content that will work with the specific trend you are going after. It doesn't matter if we are talking about a brand in the fashion, music, or sports industry -- each requires a unique style of content the consumer demographic wants to consume.
DHTK understands it fits into both sports and fashion, creating social media posts that work with both niches. Determine relevant trend niches, identify the prominent hashtags, and spend time determining what content styles your target audience enjoys interacting with. When you do this correctly, the outcome is more engagement and more potential customers discovering your brand.
4. Associate with influencers
Influencer marketing is one of the most promising trends -- consumers want to relate to the people they follow on social media. Associating your brand with influencers can result in consumers automatically relating with you, based solely on that relationship with someone they follow on social media. It's important to make sure an influencer's brand story aligns perfectly with your brand's narrative.
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