To connect with their target audiences, many brands associate their products and services with a particular experience or lifestyle. The key to a successful brand, after all, is creating the perfect/valued experience for consumers. In particular, lifestyle brands invest a lot of time and energy in understanding their target audience's wants, needs and way of life. But what exactly is a lifestyle brand?

By definition, lifestyle brands "seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of their products contributing to the definition of the consumer's way of life." You interact with them daily and might no even know it's evoking a "lifestyle." When you think of Lululemon, however, you probably think of yoga pants and the lifestyle associated with it — yoga, health, wellness, and suburban women shopping in Whole Foods.

If you live an active style, you might lifestyle brands have a deep understanding of their target consumer’s way of life. They understand the type of experiences that they crave, as well as the people, places and things that motivate and inspires them. It’s not simply a compilation of their demographic data with some key "interests" and "likes" thrown into the targeting keyword list — it’s understanding their consumers fully as an anthropologist would understand a culture.

In the last few months, we worked with Live Kindly is a lifestyle brand targeting 18-25 year olds with the mission to promote kindness. Depending on how you look at the mark, you might see a smiley face or a dove carrying a leaf in its beak. The circular shape of the logo is inspired by the karmic idea of getting back what you give — kindness is contagious and will eventually come back around. We’re currently building the Live Kindly website where you’ll find t-shirts, hats, stickers and enamel pins that will be available for sale soon. We want one of everything!