14 who is your VIC

if you work in or around luxury fashion, you will have heard the term very important client one too many times by now. I have been obsessed with the special treatment and secret experiences that the top 1-5% of clients who are responsible for 10-30% of a brands revenue since 2017, I started writing about them when I was a masters student at central saint martins. by now I have so many insight stories that I could write a book. from having the keys to your clients home so you could go to their house and stock their closet with the newest items so they could try them on in the comfort of their own walk in closet (no upfront payment btw) to flying in a seamstress overnight because the dress doesn’t fit right. the VIC lore is becoming mainstream, but I think it still hasn’t clicked with many people that everyone has VIC’s in their life, and they should be treated as such. I’ll take the example of “community management” of a creator.

it sounds like a very lame marketing technique, but i simply cannot understand creators who don’t value the people who support them. if someone takes the time out of their day to comment on my content, I will take the time out of mine to reply. you’ll see cool it girls with 30 thousand likes and 30 comments, a clear indicator to me of someone who doesn’t appreciate or interact with their audience, and that will backfire at some point. i repost any story that I am mentioned in, even if that means my DMs are overflowing. how are you on social media and not being social? of course my VICs get early access, to whatever it is that i’m doing. there are 8.8 thousand people in my instagram broadcast, if I ever have something to share or announce, they will be the first to know. that is VIC treatment. anyways, if you are thinking to yourself, how does this apply to me though? if you use your social media to share any of your work, whether that is photography or writing or pr or creative direction, you will have VICs. and that VIC might be your aunt susan who always comments on your work, but you should show your VICs appreciation. you want to use your platforms as your business card, which already takes a lot of courage, but you need to interact. it takes me about 2 seconds to go on someones profile who has messaged me something nice, to go and like 10 of their images. i only follow 333 people on instagram but best believe I like every post I see. if you put me in a close friend story, I will interact. expecting support but not supporting, the math is not mathing. i have never turned down taking a picture with a follower, even if I was unshowered at the airport, I think people never forget how you made them feel. the amounts of letdowns I had when I first met people who I admired online.

also- clients and community can be very separate crowds. if you are a magazine, let’s say vogue italia and you think the person commenting on your latest shoot on instagram is the same as the person who has a subscription to your printed issue, you are mistaken. your community is not the people that buy the magazine. sure, there can be a slight overlap, but the community are the people who share content, who show up to parties, panel talks, you share your shoots on their moodboard accounts, tumblr, pinterest, who nitpick them apart on twitter, who make fan edits. the same goes for any brand. your community often doesn’t have the means to buy your product, but they have the willingness to show up and support, which i think is worth much more. in febuary i launched a necklace with my friend ambie (necklace here, it’s made to order https://www.ambiestapleton.com/products/timing-bolo-necklace-ambie-stapleton-x-b-sterling-silver) the necklace cost over 600 dollars. we decided to do a launch event in new york. not for the people who buy our things, but for our communities. which is the friends who always show up, the people who always comment, the person who shares your content in their moodboards. we organised the event ourselves, bought cakes, printed posters to give away and had a bluetooth speaker. I would assume that less than 1% of my audience is willing to buy a necklace for 600 dollars, but 100% of people would show up to an event of ours, if they were in the city at the time. and they did. and in this time i think it is so insane when brands, such as phoebe philo, allow no comments or tagged pictures. meaning no interaction. when I find a new brand on instagram I go on the tagged images to see what people are buying. how real people are styling it, it’s much more telling than a glossy lookbook shoot. I see a total of 5 unboxing videos in tiktok of phoebe philo because the brand clearly does not want community. (and yes, sure sure the community is some rich lady in london or dubai who doesn’t have social media or doesn’t need to post an unboxing, but to me, that makes a brand so cold). the row share a monthly playlist on spotify with their community. it’s not much, but it IS interaction. with the people who don’t necessarily buy, but support. talk about the brand, put it in their public moodboards, write about it. I for one follow almost no brands on social media because why do I want constant advertising? for my podcast brendawareness, the instagram account never features the podcast. it is a moodboard account of art I am liking, photo shoots, quotes I found inspiring. I don’t want to shove the podcast down people’s throat, I want them to hopefully follow the account and share the content with their friends or see an art piece and dive into further research of that artist. and because of that, there is a subconscious positive bond with brendawareness, even if they are not a listener. they are part of the podcasts community.

back to you and your work. I know for a fact that you are posting and have silent watchers, the ones you might even know personally you never like anything but watch everything. I hope you have the courage to mute or unfollow them. I hope you have a sitdown with yourself and observe who actually is supporting you, and have a think about how you can interact with them more. what is your version of VIC treatment for whatever it is that you are offering? early access, discount, or even just interaction as in messages, replying to comments. writing thank you emails. who are your valuable audience members? who shares your newsletter with their followers or friends? how can you let these people be seen and heard?

in this media climate, I really think personalised experiences are the future, and you should focus on this asap.

it goes without mention that VIC treatment obviously also can be applied to your personal life. running after the person who never gives us anything. desperately wanting approval from the judgy friend in our life, instead of focusing on those who clap when we win. I hope it goes without saying that you must be a clapper, too.

time to reflect!!!!!!

identify your client, your community, your VIC and think about how you can offer them the treatment they deserve, in return for supporting you