The customer
Brennan Heart, the pseudonym of Fabian Bohn, has been an important player in the hardstyle genre since 2002. He is known for his energetic sound and has achieved several successes in the hardstyle scene throughout his career. In 2006 he won the DJ Contest at Qlimax, an international event dedicated to hardstyle music. Since his early successes, Brennan Heart has become one of the most respected figures in hardstyle music. In 2015, Fabian founded his new label “I Am Hardstyle”, which followed with an album of the same name with some of Brennan's biggest hits from his entire career. The album was released worldwide and received critical acclaim for its innovative sound and production value. It also served as a way to bring hardstyle music into the mainstream consciousness and opened many doors for other artists within this genre. Through I Am Hardstyle, Brennan Heart achieved what few thought possible: popularizing hardstyle across all genres of electronic music.
The challenge
Brennan came to us because they wanted to broaden their merchandise line and take it to the next level. They wanted to turn I Am Hardstyle into an international brand and were looking for someone who could help them with the final production of their clothing, although they initially did not want to make large purchases.
The solution
Understanding the customer is essential to creating successful merchandise. One way to discover customer insights is to dive deep into the data. By analyzing consumer trends, purchasing patterns and feedback, we were able to understand the needs and wants of their customers. In the case of I Am Hardstyle (IAH), it was important for them to recognize that their target audience was largely young adults who were interested in dance music and looking for social acceptance within their community. IAH identified this target demographic by conducting surveys, interviewing existing customers and industry experts, and collecting data from online forums and social media platforms.
Once we better understood who their customers were, we adjusted the merchandise collections accordingly. This allowed them to effectively reach potential new customers and delight existing customers with new high-quality merchandise with cool and innovative prints. Furthermore, they used influencers on various networks, as well as engaging content such as photos and (music) videos in which they showed the I Am Hardstyle merchandise collection. Through these efforts, they were able to effectively build brand loyalty among customers while increasing engagement across all channels; ultimately leading to higher sales revenue for the company overall.
The result
Merchandise collections updated annually and sold to enthusiasts all over the world! We have been working with Brennan since early 2019 and he is now one of our most valuable customers.