Every eCommerce business has this argument. The brand team wants equity. The performance team wants conversions. Meanwhile, someone mentions “balance” and everyone nods while secretly planning to win the next budget meeting.
Watch and listen to the episode
Danni Bramall has been in those meetings for 15 years. As Head of Brand at Pretty You London (and previously at Boohoo Man, Public Desire, and agency-side with John Lewis), she’s learned when to fight for brand and when to swallow the data.
The healthy debate you should be having about eCommerce branding
Danni joined Pretty You London three months ago. At the same time, a Head of eCommerce started. Two new people. Two different objectives. Lots of conversations.
“There’s no magic formula,” Danni admits. “If there were, we’d all be millionaires.”
However, she doesn’t see it as a fight. It’s a negotiation. Brand pushes for longevity. Performance pushes for quick wins. Consequently, someone has to ask the real question: when does this become brand damaging?
Take sales. How long do you stay in sale? How many mid-season promos before your eCommerce branding looks permanently distressed? This year’s Black Friday stretched to two weeks. At some point, you’re just training customers to never pay full price.
Therefore, the question isn’t brand OR performance. It’s knowing when you’re sacrificing one for a short-term gain that costs you in the long run.
When the data tells you your creative instincts were wrong
Here’s where brand people get uncomfortable.
Danni recently oversaw model reshoots at Pretty You London. Elevated the look. Changed the feel. Some models performed brilliantly. Nevertheless, some tanked.
“I have to swallow that,” she says. “From a creative and brand representation point of view, these worked for me. However, the numbers showed the audience didn’t like some of them.”
The takeaway? Test and learn applies to eCommerce branding as much as performance. Even established brands switch things up every few years. The difference is they do it deliberately, not desperately.
Why big tech made us boring in eCommerce branding
Remember car ads? Proper car ads. Volkswagen. The ones where copywriters and art directors sat in rooms for days until they got the perfect line.
Now look at car advertising. Picture of car. Looks nice. Finance deal. Logo. Done.
“Big tech has made us boring in the creative world,” Danni says. “Not by choice, but because we have more asset rollout than ever before.”
Furthermore, when you’re retargeting at scale, producing thousands of variants, something gets lost. Brand personality disappears. Everything becomes wallpaper. Consequently, you’re so busy being everywhere that you forget to be someone.
In contrast, the brands that cut through (Specsavers, Ryanair) know exactly who they are. They’ve done the research. They’re confident enough to be brave. Meanwhile, everyone else is just filling feeds.
The one thing that makes online brands stand out
Here’s what generic CRO advice misses: UX can be identical. Your differentiation comes from content.
Are you showing enough product detail? The right angles? Video that actually shows how fabric falls? Variation in models, sizes, skin tones?
Zara does this well. Their art direction causes noise. The model angles, the still life – it’s giving you a different experience even while you’re in a purchase funnel.
“If I see a product in a campaign setting and it inspires me, that’s what made me click through,” Danni explains. “Would a flat lay have done that? Probably not.”
Therefore, the practical stuff (checkout flow, colour swatches, page speed) is table stakes. The content is where you stand out.
Why “front of mind” beats “stumbling upon” in eCommerce branding
Here’s what everyone striving for serendipitous discovery gets wrong: you can’t afford it.
“I need some pyjamas. Pretty You London is obviously where I’m going” – that’s the goal. Not hoping someone happens to see your ad while they’re already in-market for something else.
Consequently, brand awareness isn’t about catching random browsers. Instead, it’s about being the first name someone thinks of when they need what you sell. That takes consistent investment, not clever targeting.
When to start thinking about eCommerce branding
Danni’s answer: Day one. Obviously.
“I’ve built brands from scratch from a blank piece of paper,” she says. “They were the best projects because they had the right foundations to grow upon.”
It’s like building a house. You need solid foundations before you can add extensions. Similarly, the brands that hit a ceiling are usually the ones that skipped this step – they went hard on paid acquisition, scaled quickly, then flatlined because they never built anything worth remembering.
But here’s the nuance: eCommerce branding isn’t rigid. “Like us humans, we grow and learn and change. Our core values stay the same, but we adapt.”
The best brand foundations give you guardrails, not restrictions. Consequently, they stop you spiralling into random product launches while still leaving room to grow.
What to do right now
Danni’s takeaway is beautifully contrarian for anyone expecting a quick hack:
Build more time into your day.
“We’ve started to expect everything to be done quickly. However, good creative needs time and thought and craft.”
Go down a rabbit hole. Allow yourself an hour a day to research random things. Be curious. You never know when it sparks an idea.
The best creative work (like those old car ads) came from people thrashing it out for days. Not from rushing to meet an asset deadline.
Blatant plugs
Connect with Danni on LinkedIn
And one day, look out for Perfect Human – Danni’s future brand. Watch this space.
The gist
- eCommerce branding involves balancing brand equity and performance goals, requiring negotiation rather than conflict.
- Data-driven insights may challenge creative instincts; testing is crucial for eCommerce branding success.
- Brands should focus on content differentiation to stand out, not just optimizing user experience.
- Building brand awareness requires consistent investment and should start from day one, establishing strong foundations.
- Take time for creative processes; good work is thoughtful and not rushed, much like traditional advertising.
