THE PROBLEM

Coral Gables, and particularly the street known as Miracle Mile, is unique in the world as the only place so densely populated by bridal boutiques. The last time I looked into it, the number of bridal stores within a one-mile radius hovered at about 20. With most of these boutiques serving brides at a similar price point, and offering some overlap in the designers they carry, standing out among this density of competition was brutal. There was nothing stopping brides from parking at one end of Miracle Mile and then perusing the mile, store to store like a hummingbird, leaving no option unexplored.

The next issue was that brides oftentimes have no idea where to begin with their dress shopping experience, and when faced with so much choice, it was overwhelming for them. Who should they see first? What differentiated one boutique from the next? Would their size be a problem for finding the dress? Brides were brimming with questions about the process and completely overwhelmed with where to start and how to shop in an empowered way.

So how could we stand out against all our competitors, and make it so brides would choose to visit Merlili specifically, intentionally, instead of just wandering in while visiting the whole mile?

THE STRATEGY

I began by redoing the entire social media presence nearly from scratch. In investigating the competition, the brides that were choosing to come to us, and in speaking with past and present customers, I began to flesh out a narrative that we could use to stand apart from the competition. One common compliment that we heard over and over in our interviews was that we were by far the “kindest,” with a staff that seemed to genuinely care about brides, did not push a sale aggressively, and did not make brides feel judged or self-conscious about their bodies. The latter became a very important painpoint for our audience, many of whom were finding it nearly impossible to have an enjoyable wedding dress shopping experience due to their body size, and sometimes even due to the attitudes of other boutiques who were not ready to accommodate brides of their size. 

It stunned us that we were unique in this way, but we knew that we could milk the human ingredient that made Merlili what it is, and then shift our stock to meet this new niche.

Armed with other insights into our audience, including what drew in so many Hispanic out-of-country brides to our boutique specifically and how brides liked researching their wedding dresses before shopping, I began rebuilding our social media strategically.

The first, but easiest, obstacle was raising the aesthetic bar for our social media presence, making sure that the quality of content matched the elegance of the boutique and the quality of the gowns we carried. This involved photographing stock myself, coordinating styled shoots with other photographers and vendors for cross-promotion, and reaching out to wedding photographers to receive the albums from our brides to post. We made it a point to share all types of brides in a way that authentically represented the bodies that we dressed, and the kaleidoscope of lovely brides that we had served.

Next, I launched a long informational campaign, striving to make Instagram highlights, posts, videos, and more with information for brides who might just be starting out with common questions, concerns, and tips they needed to feel empowered in their shopping. The narrative voice as we did this was always friendly and helpful, as if your older sister who has already been through this process was speaking to you now, holding your hand through it all. And it worked! Brides were coming in excited and confident about their appointment with us, citing that thanks to our educational posts they felt as though they not only knew what to expect, but that they felt as though they already knew us personally.

RESULTS

After a nearly two-year project to grow Merlili’s social media presence, we had seen a 300% increase in followers, a 400% increase in engagement on our posts, and as a direct result, more brides coming through our doors. By the time I no longer managed their social media, Merlili had the most unique and thoroughly personal Instagram feed of any of the competitors, showing more user-generated content and original content by us than anyone else. We had also grown to have a significant selection of what are considered plus-size gowns, and thanks to a campaign to attract and empower more plus-size brides, we were making dress dreams come true for women of all sizes and body shapes.

Ready to embark on your own branding journey with a full suite for your brand? Reach out to me now for your own custom branding package, to stand out from competition and begin telling your own unique story.