Get Your Geek On

WHAT MARKETERS CAN LEARN FROM TAPPING INTO PASSION.

- Ann-Marie Alcantara

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, finding a single Star Wars T-shirt for women was harder to find than Luke Skywalker. Women and girls who loved the franchise instead settled for a small men’s shirt, a predicament that voice actress for Star Wars: The Clone Wars Ashley Eckstein was fed up with. That’s how she came up with the idea in 2010 to create Her Universe, a geek fashion company.

As more digitally native brands start to home in on under served consumer niches, like targeting hair-loss shoppers or cheaper shaving products for women, these upstarts can learn from geek fashion and beauty brands such as Crunchy roll, Her Universe and Shiro Cosmetics, which not only launched in the early days of ecommerce but also managed to stick around.

One key take-away: Think of consumers as a community and understand what products are missing in their life.

“There’s just an incredible benefit in really going deep and understanding your audience and solving a problem for them,” explained Emily Heyward, co-founder and chief strategist at Red Antler, a branding company.