‘Character Gives Respect’ by G-Star RAW

‘From origin G-Star is a creative out of the box brand. We stand out with our never predictable combination of art, fashion, and design’. ‘Keep it simple and don’t over-engineer it’ Dennis Woesthof explains, Global Go To Market Manager at G-Star RAW. 

Some brands fall in the pitfall and turn into a sales machine once they grow from a start-up to a mature brand. They risk losing their distinctiveness to the sales figures. But, if you have a solid fundament of who you are and why you do what you do, it is easier to stick to your brand story. And let that resonate in your content. Consistent and recognizable.

The devil is in the content details

For G-Star, we strive for a combination of a recognizable basis enhanced with surprising creative freedom’. If you do not have your basics in place, your audience will notice and feel the inconsistency. They sense the clutter and messiness.

The devil is in the details. Make sure your fundament is described to the last detail, solid and very recognizable. Only then you can vary in your individual and local campaigns. Give each campaign its own creative character. Create freedom and diversify with the allocation of your budgets and resources. Not one campaign is the same and whilst the brand story stays recognizable G-Star.

Local relevance and shorten time to market

Once you have set up the global campaigns with master assets, you can roll out and localize to the different markets. Tune and tweak for local relevance and market maturity. Because you have this solid fundament for your brand character, you can maintain ‘the same’ identity over all the markets.

Another advantage of having your fundament and character in place, besides this creative freedom, is to shorten your time to market. And you can be more efficient with the (production) budgets. Not reinventing the design wheel over and over again.

The work actually starts after launch

‘Last but not least’ Dennis adds ‘the next step is to track and improve your individual campaigns based on sales data once the items are available in stores and online'. ‘The work doesn’t stop once you launch your campaign, it actually starts once you launch'. ‘This is a common mistake within the fashion industry, the data is too often overlooked and seen as a burden on creativity.’

‘Show your true character in all your content. Remember it is that personal creative touch that sparks the magic for a brand’.