”To brand or not to brand, that is the question.”
My apologies to Shakespeare but I feel like branded jewellery has become a dirty word in the jewellery industry. I mean this industry was practically built on the back of small-room sole traders – master craftsmen and women who made a living with word-of-mouth reputations.
This is where the jewellery industry started, but times have changed and we all need to keep up.
The world has embraced brands on every level and the jewellery industry is no different. The right brands in the right store help us all move forward and continue to build our businesses.
Brands don’t need to be in competition with sole traders, they can help bring new clients into the store during traditionally slow times and build a collaborative relationship between brand, store and client.
Sydney University guest lecturer and brand management specialist Peter McDonald defines brand as “the relationship someone has with a product or service as a result of his/her total experience.”
This got me thinking about Uberkate and the relationship we have with our customers. I mean, sure, we are a brand now, but we weren’t always one.
I have always been one of those creative types, busy designing and making things, be it clothing, bags, belts, wallets, scarves... the list goes on. My foray into jewellery nearly a decade ago was simply an extension of my creative curiosity to experiment and play with different materials and forms.
I started making pieces of jewellery for myself, and then for family, friends, friends of friends and then Facebook friends. It has felt like a completely organic process resulting in my designs being warmly embraced by people close and known to me, each becoming a spokesperson and brand advocate simply by discovering, wearing and then falling in love with my jewellery.
I only founded Uberkate when I realised the number of pieces I was making was a commitment I could no longer manage outside of my full time role as a TV producer. Fortunately for me, the clients’ relationships to me and the pieces I was making had been well and truly established by then so... hey presto, it’s a brand – at least, according Peter McDonald’s definition.
My view on a true brand is that it can’t be manufactured after a couple of meetings and a trip to the business name registration office.
A real brand is an extension of a person or designer and their passion is the driving force behind a good business. Sure, there are tools out there to help you along the way – social media, for example, is a great way to interact with your customers and I highly recommend Facebook even if they do say it’ll be dead by 2020.
In the meantime, I’ll be focusing my efforts on creating stunning new designs and turning out quality pieces... and I’ll be relying on my family and a team of loyal employees who have been the champions of the service side of the business – all elements that build a better brand!
As Uberkate has grown from word of mouth, to online and now to physical retail, the advice and support being provided to all of our customers has remained very personal. With my team providing this amazing level of help with customer ordering, quality control and after sales care, my time can be dedicated to creating and making, which is critical to our future growth.
From a retail perspective, the right brand in the right store is the birth of a relationship between the brand, the store and the customer.
The store becomes part of the brand’s journey and they both need to nurture each other to be successful.
For us, branding in-store is a positive because it becomes part of the essence of the store. If the staff connect with the brand then customers can come in and not only connect with the brand but with the staff as well. That can create word of mouth, repeat business and a whole host of other possibilities.
With that in mind, I don’t believe brands need to be in competition with each other – they can be in the same store and have a relationship that compliments one another. In fact, I’d like to see a future with less competition and more collaboration.
Brands are born and die every day. To keep mine alive, I think I’ll give a little more daily thought to the people behind the store counter, the people parting with their hard-earned, and the people wearing and cherishing the Uberkate brand.
Kate Sutton is founder and designer of Uberkate.