How to Brand an Experience
Welcome to the sixth episode of #peekintoprocess. On this episode I met with Tara Gray of Modern Maven (@modernmaven) to discuss branding the experience, the elements needed to do so, & what a good experience feels like.
Or simply read the highlights below.
The Basics
Erin
Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this magical little experience. This is the sixth episode of the #peekintoprocess.
So, just to give you a little bit of background on what Peek Into Process is, it's looking behind the scenes of branding. Today we're gonna talk and dig into the Modern Maven brand. More importantly, how to bring an experience to your brand, which Tara does better than anyone. But rather than have me give too much explanation of what it is that Tara does, I'm going to turn it over to her!
You can explain why you’re in a bathtub. I know you guys are all jealous; she’s in a bathtub and robe, we’re having mimosas, not too bad! Tara why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself and the Modern Maven brand.
Tara
I'm Tara with Modern Maven. Gosh, I started Modern Maven as a blog right after I had my daughter, about six months after I had her. Instagram was first coming about, and I was very excited to be able to connect and communicate with other women from literally all around the world. It was amazing to have this app that allows you to do that.
I started meeting women who were in the same position I was, who were maybe stay at home moms or just had a baby and who were also creative and just being a little bit challenged to go from either a working world into a stay at home mom role or whatever it might be.
So I called it Modern Maven because the word ‘maven’ means, typically, a female who is a little bit of a Jane of all trades, who does a little bit of everything, who has a lot of different interests, and the ‘modern’ was just kind of fluid with what I was looking at - modern crafts and taking older artistic forms like embroidery, or whatever it might be and creating a more modern look to it.
So the Modern Maven came about in that way. And it's stuck, years later. It started with the brand for the blog, and then transitioned into doing crafts and craft fairs and doing other business endeavors which has now grown into where we are right now.
Erin
Yes, and I've had the opportunity to have some working sessions with you and I think the fact that as an artisan, as a maven, or Modern Maven, you know your brand has to encompass a lot. And so it's not just about photography, which we'll get into. It's not just about styling, it's not just about the crafts. It's actually about an experience.
We know that when you were in Hawaii, that was where Modern Maven was born, or was it born in Colorado?
Tara
It was technically born in Colorado, but the shift into a business didn't really start until we moved to Hawaii.
Erin
Okay. So I think that something that's iconic of your brand, of course, is the tropical theme. Was there a tropical sort of slant to it when you were in Colorado?
Tara
No, not at all. I mean I've always loved color. Really, that's been my driver, as in my background is interior design, my degree is in design. I've worked as a designer, and an educator in design for my entire career. I've always had a huge fondness of color. But it wasn't until we moved to Hawaii, and doing design there, we have this whole other landscape and culture to pull from - where in Colorado, color for me there was bold, warm tones.
We get to Hawaii and now we have the ocean, and we have all of the tropical florals, and we have the beautiful textiles from the Hawaiian culture. That really shifted my focus from both a design standpoint and an aesthetic standpoint, but there's also my shift and my change in the colors that I loved.
Erin
How does that shift, now that you have regionally, or geographically, picked up Modern Maven and brought it to Jupiter Florida, again another coastal town. How do you think the actual nature outside - the environmental experience - affects some of your choices?
Tara
When we knew we were coming to another tropical coastal location, I was really excited to not only bring that Hawaiian feel with us, but start to integrate certain things. I feel like I'm still very in tune with those influences from Hawaii, but it's fun to think of lots of new things that are more local to Florida.
Erin
Well, and also, I think that the name of your brand Modern Maven too, there's a driver in probably constantly trying to evolve and modernize, I mean that's sort of its origins anyway.
Tara
Right. Absolutely. And I feel like, for me, my goal in my business is to constantly be using my skill set and creating something new, creating something unique. And so, that's part of what's been happening with me here and my business and changing things. Now that we've come to Florida from Hawaii, you know... what's next? What else can I bring to our local women? And that all affects how my business changes.
Branding an Experience
Erin
Yes, and building your brand. So now let's talk about - what is the Modern Maven experience?
Tara
Well, I have a few experiences, but I would say the experience, outside of the creativity and the color and all those things that are very obvious just when you first look through whatever it is - my Instagram, it's a visual brand - but also the feel of it is extremely important to me.
I'm a huge proponent of kindness and gratitude and trying to lift up other women and other business owners up, that's just been something that's hugely close to my heart for a really long time, and I want that to come through in whatever experience I offer to my clients. I want them to come and feel special. I want them to feel like they are being treated beautifully and that they are beautiful and that they have something to bring to the table.
Erin
You talk about that feeling, And I think part of the experience is you want that feeling to be evoked.
I'm sure you might show behind the scenes, but we are currently in sort of a closed, filtered, sun streaming through, textiles, little cocoon, and you know so, I don't want to say manipulates, but it's really hard to have a sad moment - you feel a little bit out of your own reality, out of your body, and we've talked about that. That you want to capture this moment, not even moment, but we talked about, is it an altered reality? Because there's nothing digital about this experience, but picking it up, and transporting your life for a moment.
Tara
I love that idea that somebody feels transformed by the environment that I've created for them.
And I hope that that comes across in any of the styling that I do, whether it's with the bath, the bus, if somebody asks me to do a custom styling for them, they want me to create a picnic on the beach, or whatever it might be, all those elements are important to bring in for them so that they really feel transformed and transported to a different space outside of their normal day.
What I love is when people open the cabana and they look around and they go ‘Oh my goodness, you know, this is something I've never seen before. This is something I've never experienced before. You know, this makes me feel so wonderful. This is luxurious and all those words when they come out of my client’s mouths, that is why I did it. I want my clients to come in here and feel like they can just be themselves and they're going to be captured on film in their most beautiful relaxing luxurious light, and to just make them feel special. Yeah, like there's, like, there's just nothing else like it.
Erin
Well, it's interesting because you think about if you could capture the first of anything, like your first kiss, and you could capture that and bottle that, but when you kind of open this up, this is probably the first time that people have seen or been a part of something like that. So to be able to capture that sort of excitement and joy, like the first time you take a kid to Disney World, you know. So this is a little bit of an adult Disney World.
Tara
A lot of us, especially as women, don't take that time to pamper ourselves or do something special for ourselves. We often choose special moments in our life like that to get photos taken of ourselves, which is wonderful. However, I want women just on any day, to say, I want to feel beautiful, I want to be captured in a different light, and for them to get this experience for themselves or a husband to get it for their wives or whatever it might be. Yeah, we can make you feel special and get you out of your daily schedule, and come relax and have something just really different and unique happen.
Erin
The details are layered. And that's also very much your experience.
I want to also talk about the fact that not only are you offering these experiences but now you're capturing them. So this is a little bit, not new for you, you've always been a photographer but talk to me about how that's been personalized for you, going into your brand, what that means to break into it. And you and I have had a long conversation about this idea of experiential design, but it's one thing if one person can experience it, but if you don't capture it, your community and your clients can't share that experience.
It's almost like an expansion of your product line, right? So you're now being able to expand to more events, and I can only imagine where that's going to take you, I don't think you can really sit still!
Tara
I have a hard time. What is Alice's quote - ridiculous ideas, or impossible ideas before breakfast? I do feel like that sometimes. I'm thankful for my husband who reigns me in, because I could literally have 20 different businesses. I have a lot of ideas.