Braccialini has chosen IAKI to design the new positioning for Francesco Biasia, an Italian fashion handbag brand. IAKI has responded with a customer engagement strategy: from web design to social media marketing.
How did the collaboration with Braccialini start?
When we got to know the Braccialini company, we were won over by the Francesco Biasia brand and we proposed, via an informal e-mail, a project inspired by his charisma and designed to keep this as a reference value. We hit the mark with our perception towards the brand, our experience and our determination, and in the “cradle of the Renaissance” known as Florence, we reached an agreement.
What are the goals of Francesco Biasia?
Francesco Biasia is a fashion handbag brand belonging to the Braccialini Group, launched in 1977 as a creative artisan brand in Vicenza. A brand that has made its way around the world outlining its Made in Italy recognisability and getting a good brand reputation, but with a slightly sophisticated awareness in recent years. Francesco Biasia needed a boost and had the potential. The goals: to capitalise on the brand experience, increase awareness and nurture the brand reputation. All this in order to build a new brand identity. Strong, clear, recognisable and memorable.
And how did you respond?
The first step was to build a Francesco Biasia brand positioning. We entered the intimate world of women, possible Francesco Biasia buyers, and asked ourselves who they were, what work they might do and which places or events they might frequent. We listened to the handbags, trying to understand what they had to say to us. We looked at the models one by one, and we researched and identified the conceptual plots behind each shape and colour. We also did some web listening to understand women’s perception towards the brand. We realised that there was fertile ground and that we were headed in the right direction; in short, a brand identity was already taking shape.
A brand identity that you contributed to building, but how did you do it?
We built an identity code, a language, and we outlined the Biasia woman. IAKI created the customer engagement storytelling project by having not only women talk, but also their bag intimacy, their emotions, activating and developing a total brand experience.
Customer engagement storytelling in terms of copywriting, explain this a little more…
The brand is like a person: it has a silhouette, a personality and a language. The handbags, in addition to having a shape, speak and define a dictionary, an identity code defined by IAKI called the “Biasia Social Code” and built precisely on the basis of what women do and say in front of the mirror while they get ready to go out. What do they say? What do they put into their handbags? What will we happen to find? We discover their world. Everything they grasp, look at and seek from the outside. The handbag becomes a catalyst for urban connections, interests and passions; it is a dress code for the soul. And all of these links are not by chance, but define the personality of each woman and they tell a story, their story. To do this, we looked for a language that could be perceived as spontaneous, natural and suited to the reference target. And this is how the Biasia woman was outlined, the woman who asserts: “don’t call me a fashion victim“. A “working girl“, a practical, modern, charismatic woman who makes dynamic use of her time. She moves through her spaces with confidence and elegance. She pays attention to glam, but she is not a fashion victim, she seeks quality and looks at every detail.
So a Social Code is a campaign payoff, then?
Yes, at Francesco Biasia they have all fallen in love, and we also had an experience of love at first sight when we designed and saw it created. A payoff that has the dynamic soul of social networks, sharing and openness towards the world, which speaks of sociability, achievement and a code, a term that is an integral part of the fashion world and an expression of our time. So appropriate and aligned, and it has become a unique payoff, registered and linked to Francesco Biasia.
What has customer engagement strategy with such a defined analysis led to?
In terms of web design it has led to the creation of a fashion social website consistent with the personality, character and dynamism not only of Biasia bags, but of Biasia women. IAKI has designed an aggressive, aspirational website with content, a moving and highly appealing website that invites women to see themselves and reflect. A website designed as a lab loft. Here’s another concept created among the creative pencils and pens of IAKI: a laboratory loft, an open space that nourishes free experimental ideas released by the canons of academic fashion. In its design, social sharing tools were essential: Pinterest, Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook.
And what did you design?
A story-website, a code. The Francesco Biasia handbags are immersed in their Social Code and are presented to the public this way. The buying experience, which takes place through the e-commerce on the website, becomes such a full experience and not an action that is an end in itself. A space where fashion becomes culture and experimentation.
We haven’t talked about Social Media Strategy, have you touched on the topic?
Obviously. In line with what has been built and studied, IAKI has developed a digital strategy to facilitate the exchange between the brand and women and with full support for the designed communication strategy. IAKI thus defined an activity of Social Media Marketing and digital communication, totally in line with the Francesco Biasia brand identity.
The next steps to power customer engagement?
Influencer Marketing is on the doorstep, and who knows what other surprise and what other Social Activation.
What was the quid?
The perfect understanding of the soul of the brand and its precise definition, the brand storytelling that has invaded every area of communication, the integration between websites and social media channels, each increasingly functional. The active participation of women is also essential, as well as the continuous dialogue on brand identity topics and all the activities that have amalgamated in a sinuous path of harmonious and all-encompassing customer engagement.