AOW Insider | Interview: Branding + Advertising Tips from Kristen Caron of Raven + Lily
This month, I'm delighted to present an interview with Kristen Caron. She’s Creative Director of Raven + Lily, a women-led brand offering handmade jewelry, accessories, and items for the home.
I feel quite lucky to have such amazing colleagues like Kristen to go on walks and chat about the sector with. Like me, she moved to Paris a few years ago. During our most recent walk, Kristen was kind enough to share some interesting insights on her approach to advertising, how she keeps Raven + Lily competitive, impactful referral websites that have led to sales, along with some of her favorite shops in Paris.
Continue below to read the full interview:
When did you join Raven + Lily? What excites you most about this company?
I joined Raven + Lily in 2016 and became creative director at the end of 2018. I love the collaborative energy, diversity and commitment to creating something beautiful.
I’ve followed Raven + Lily for many, many years now and love seeing how it's grown and evolved. Can you tell me what challenges you faced during that journey that other artisan brands might learn from?
That’s great to hear and thank you! We have faced many challenges. The two most important things for us have been reframing our brand narrative so that the focus was on product quality and aesthetic – highlighting the artistry and entrepreneurship of our artisan partners – and looking at our products through the lens of fashion.
Once we embraced the idea that we wanted our customer to see a handbag or set of bangles on our Instagram feed and purchase it right away, we immediately began to find creative collaborators to help us reestablish the brand. They were all from such diverse backgrounds, experiences and locations. I think this is probably our super power. Anyone wanting to start an artisan-focused brand should deeply consider the equity relationships they have with their partners and stay committed to diversity of thought, experiences and backgrounds.
As many new online retailers are popping up, how do you stand apart from the crowd? How are people finding you?
I think right now it is so important for brands to know what they are about and to express that consistently. I really think the old mantra to ‘be yourself’ is so applicable to brands today, especially for artisan and/or sustainable brands. Their customers crave authenticity and meaning, so for the brave and the creative, now is the moment.
We aspire to target customers who will respond to our brand values and responsibly produced designs. Impactful referral websites like Good On You and Remake allow shoppers to see the ethical and sustainable fashion ratings we have scored that align with issues they care about. For advertising we primarily use systems like Facebook and Instagram to target similar brand audiences. We use Google Ads to identify relevant keywords that have a high search volume to drive people to our website. And social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest allow us to align aesthetically with customers who want to see how the brand has evolved.
I love how Raven + Lily takes the time to keep the brand’s designs fresh and new. How do you manage new designs working with so many artists?
I think we have just the right number of partners right now. A big shift for us was focusing on our strengths in accessories and home goods and then finding product developers with deep experience in the field. This really allowed us to focus and not take on too much. We have always known that creating and producing to keep up with a calendar and seasons that don't align with our client’s expectations or how our artisans work was not sustainable.
The pandemic allowed us to re-shape our merchandising intentions. Before the pandemic we were doing several collections per year including pre-season collections but now we have established core styles and focus on updating techniques, materials and our color combinations to keep the product fresh yet seasonless.
I see you have gotten a lot of press. Any tips for others on how you have achieved this?
Based on our awards and the recognition we have received from our sustainability efforts in the industry, additional press have reached out to learn more about our brand and how to feature us. We have been studying what organic press might look like for us.
In terms of growing sales, what are a few areas in which you have invested in that have actually worked?
Recently, we have invested in text advertising through Attentive, which has been
the new best way to target our most active customers on promotions, new arrivals, and back in stock notifications so they can be informed instantly on brand updates. Since most people are spending more time on their phones it seemed like the best way to target our loyal customers and gather instant sales.
Can you share some of your favorite sources for inspiration and news?
For vintage fashion, I love the Paris store @thanxgodimavip; for family-friendly homewares and fashion @smallable_store has a great selection of sustainably made products - check out their greenable section too; when I need an English language book, I head to @theredwheelbarrowbookstore; for clean beauty products @ohmycream; for flowers and plants, I love @aoyamaflowermarket_paris and @sweetjungle.paris.
For more info, visit: https://ravenandlily.com/