“There is a big demand for white shirts, because white shirts are consumable. It’s a staple in every man’s wardrobe”. That was one of the things CK Chang, founder of Oxwhite, said to Brand360. We had the chance to talk to him about his brand story and how he managed to sell 10,000 Oxwhite shirts through an online campaign.
CK believes that something as essential as a shirt should not have to cost so much. With more than 10 years of experience in traditional offline retailing, he started Oxwhite with a vision to change how the common man consume clothes. This vision, for the young brand, currently comes in the form of a white shirt.
Despite their current milestone, things didn’t start off well for Oxwhite. They had developed a cool new white shirt, with interesting benefits and features including the use of Supima cotton, one of the world’s top cotton brand. But it does not seem to be selling. The product was not received positively by the target audience. CK told us about how it was rather a challenge to solve the problem of their low reception and brand awareness at the first stage of their business.
Then, he and his team realised the solution was to tell people of their brand story.
What is a brand story? A brand story is a consistent set of messages that make sense of your brand personality, purpose, brand positioning and target audience. It is the humane connection that presents your brand strategy in a more practical and understandable way to your customers.
Oxwhite has other branding and marketing strategy which heavily involves emails, social media advertisements and referrals. One of their main branding activity is the telling of their brand story. We identified 4 main elements that make up their compelling narrative:
“When you flipped it around and talked about your personal journey and why you’re doing this, and the story behind the brand, that’s where you attracted people’s attention,” said Julia, referring to the change Oxwhite and CK experienced after their brand story was told.
With their brand story, Oxwhite had better reception and improved their brand awareness. People started to be interested in their narration that involves all these 4 elements. And with a great brand story, Oxwhite then marketed their one product with all the benefits and features. Combined with their effective online campaign, the rest was history.
Oxwhite’s story had more chapters to cover. The brand has ideas for trousers, socks and even female garments in the future. But the one thing should remain is Oxwhite’s brand story to champion the people and make everyday luxuries available to everyone. We thanked CK again for his brilliant insights and a great example of how a brand story can help build a business.