As an animal lover, Nadia knew she wanted to do something different. Her love of fashion and the animal kingdom made her start a sustainable clothing brand of her own that could express it all through beautiful illustrations. 

Inspired by her decision to follow through on her interests, we decided to chat with Nadia, the founder of Fauna, to talk about the ecommerce marketing tips and strategies she used to take her unique brand to the market.   

About Fauna

Fauna, founded in 2015, is inspired by the animal kingdom, as expressed through its beautiful designs. 

It was launched by artist & NCAD graduate Nadia, a proud member of The Institute of Designers Ireland (IDI) and the Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI). 

The award-winning sustainable Irish brand offers its customers fun, colorful, and organic clothing. It was born through Nadia’s love for the traditional screen printing process. It’s the first, and the only sustainable Irish kid’s brand to screen print in-house. 

Fauna also offers bespoke print options to its customers, and its creative process can be watched online. It provides a beautiful eco-friendly baby gift box service as well. The brand proudly supports endangered animals through its World Wildlife Federation (WWF) plush toy partnership and partners with an Irish organization committed to reforestation.

In Nadia’s words, “Fauna is for everyone. We are an inclusive brand and do our best to keep our prices down and our products ethical. Style should not cost the earth. Sustainability should be accessible. We are always learning, always creative, always inspired.”

Now that you know what Fauna is all about, let’s look into the one thing they have used to grow online – brand building. 

Ecommerce marketing tips: Using brand building for authenticity 

1. Be you, and be professional while creating your brand

Nadia emphasizes the fact that being professional and being yourself can take your brand a step ahead of other similar brands. 

Nowadays, many new brands are following the best startups or companies in the same niche, so it’s hard to differentiate between the two. Nadia advises not to do the same. Instead, take your time and do your best.

While building out your brand:

• You shouldn’t give in to any kind of pressure. Struggles and challenges will come in everyone’s life. The key is to focus on one thing at a time, diversify your skills and walk on your own path.
• Focus on starting out slowly. Do one thing at a time. Try to grow your brand organically, which will help you to give a solid foundation. 

2. Create your own brand identity

Nadia further explains that learning the business and marketing sides helped her create her own brand. As she almost worked alone, she wore many different hats – designer, marketer, customer service, and others. This helped her to learn a lot of new things. 

“I have two part-time people, sometimes, I outsource printing work. Essentially, it’s me – who does all the work.” 

She combined her passion for design, creativity, and animal love into one, and that’s how she started Fauna. 

Along the brand-building journey, she learned:

• Storytelling – that helped her to connect with customers. By using storytelling through different means (design, audio, or video), her customers can easily relate to her brand. 
• Brand identity – Nadia quickly learned that creating your own identity in the eCommerce business is the only way to offer your customers something unique. Otherwise, it’ll be hard for your customers to identify your brand in the long run.

What did Fauna do differently from other brands? 

While building out her brand, Nadia decided to focus on her intuition and not follow the footpath of other brands. She knew doing so would only result in her customers forgetting her brand quickly in no time.

But showcasing her identity and her personality, working with her instincts — Nadia did something creative and unique, and many of her customers love her for the same. 

She advises not to follow other brands – as they don’t allow you to put your best foot forward. With no visibility into their reality, struggles or how they championed it all, it will be hard to do something unique. 

“Instead, build your own path, and go through struggles. Create your own formula, and soon, you will see success meeting your doors”.

Listen to the full episode here: 

Content Kettle is our E-Commerce Special podcast. Starting an eCommerce business may have gotten easier. But taking your products to buyers is getting tougher by the day. In the age of rising competition and a digital-first take on consumer-brand relationships, what eCommerce marketing strategies really work? In this podcast, we talk to brand owners, marketers, and eCommerce experts to help you reach ‘what works’, faster.