Can we, as a company, a retailer and an advertiser, have email communication and not highlight our products? Here's how, with this newsletter from The North Face.
In this campaign, the brand has chosen not to present any of its products. What is it? What? How? Deploying marketing resources without a revenue target?! Is it possible?
You'd better believe it! A strong brand identity, a focus on values and aspirations, all served up by carefully thought-out storytelling. In this case, this means highlighting and supporting athlete ambassadors to convey the company's messages of inclusion, respect and environmental issues.
Here, inspiration and identification are what we're looking for. The advertiser mainly addresses a captive, concerned and convinced target, the better to touch its heart.
The sobriety of premium design
Aligned with top-of-the-range positioning (premium), the design of this newsletter goes straight to the point.
Text alignment. Normally, I tend to fight against centered text for reasons of legibility. Here, the texts are short, there are few of them and the line lengths are just as short. What's more, it fits in with the premium brand posture.
The content is presented in a single-column format, with efficiency rather than complexity in mind. The same goes for the color palette, the vast majority of which is in black and white for maximum contrast.
High-quality iconography. A photo selection that we can feel has been well crafted and that, in addition flows naturally into the background color of the sections (or content blocks) in the email (fade to black in the intro and grayscale at the bottom of the email). Very classy.
Prioritized calls to action and few in number. The objective is clearly stated: go and see the film. The alternative is a page redirecting visitors to the site, where they can find out more about the behind-the-scenes aspects of such a film.
A retailer with nothing to really sell?
In any case, that's not its purpose here. You won't find any product images, prices or promotional or sponsorship offers.
The only clues or reminders are the presence (in duplicate: header and footer) of a menu block with the names of the product categories. Also at the very end of the message, a simple text link to "find an official store". Sobriety when you hold us.
You might reply that The North Face is so well known that they can afford this kind of campaign. To which I'd ask, "How did they get there?" Chicken or the egg, the eternal debate.