World-Building in Marketing

My little candle brand recently passed 500 units sold, but you would never guess it by looking at my bare IG account. It’s because until recently, this concept of ‘World Building’ completely escaped me. Had I known about this a year ago, I’d have probably sold a few thousand units by now.

The landscape is so competitive that repetition is no longer enough. Consistency is essential, but everyone needs to innovate (and I’m no exception). I’ve done a few weeks of research into how the best brands are marketing today (a lot has changed), and broken it all down into this short post on world-building. I hope you find it as clarifying as I did.

What is world-building?

Billion-dollar brands use these strategies every day. It’s what makes garage streetwear designers go from nobody’s to millionaires in a year or less. It’s always been ‘around’ but hasn’t been applied to product-based businesses.

World-building is the future of marketing.

I didn’t understand this concept because I missed the boat on “vibes.” My linear thinking style prefers clear definitions, examples, and details spelled out for me. After so much research, I’ve gone ahead and defined everything here for you.

World-building is the process of creating an immersive environment with its own cohesive aesthetics, stories, characters, and values. Brands use world-building to create the context for their desired customers to understand more than just the products. It’s to elaborate on the entire narrative or ‘world’ in which those products are used and consumed.

Minimalist, futuristic aesthetics like Apple, Tesla, and Muji focus on easy-to-understand products (the user experience), ‘clean’ aesthetics that use empty space on purpose, bold typography, and to-the-point packaging.

Eco-forward, clean brands like Aesop, Patagonia, and Allbirds build their worlds around sustainability and natural products. These companies exist within the bigger context of protecting and preserving the environment, which their clients gravitate towards.

This is not just about products. Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Disney have all built worlds around movies or books that feel like they’re taking over every industry, from toys to playing cards to video games and more. The world gets bigger, but that cohesive' story' continues even when new products are introduced.

In many cases, world-building is very niche. You don’t have to be Disney to build a world. It starts with understanding the customer.

Breaking down world-building in marketing

The ‘clean girl’ aesthetic has been trending on TikTok. Some of you may have never heard of it; others will say it’s old. That’s okay.

This entire narrative is structured around a few core elements.

• “Natural” looking makeup and hair (often in a bun or a ponytail).

• Neutral, well-fitting outfits (beige, gray, brown, black)

• Accessories like tote bags, minimally designed nails, ball caps and shades

But the aesthetic moves into activities, products, and a world. She’s at 11am, pilates wearing alo, skipping the mimosa at brunch for matcha in a reusable cup, and her home is filled with the aroma of natural candles and a Sage diffuser. Let’s not nitpick here. You get the idea.

Brands looking to appeal to this don’t just post lip gloss. They post the whole story. The morning routine. What the brunch table looks like. The outfit of the day. Everything. And along the way, you’ll see the lip gloss strategically placed in photos and video cuts.

Glossier is selling (and posting) a black cherry gym lock that fits the clean girl going to the gym so well. Glossier is a makeup and fragrance company dropping a gym lock. Think about that. These girls go to the gym so much that Glossier drops a lock that sells out, gets restocked, and sells out again.

Is every single post ever going to match a singular aesthetic perfectly? No. Like chapters in a book and seasons in life, there are variations.

Is a single IG account going to build a world? Probably not. But hundreds of “clean girl” influencers posting about one brand…now we have some characters who fit this world, pushing it out for new people. These are the fundamentals of ‘world-building’ in marketing. One story, a consistent aesthetic, characters who live it, and products that ‘just fit.’

Let’s get into a specific example.

How to know if you’re building a world

It’s the hotel example.

Lululemon, a beloved Vancouver brand, has gone worldwide, starting with famous yoga pants, and now so much more. But here’s a story about Lululemon that perfectly describes how we know they’re building a brand.

Around 4 years ago, a colleague and I were going through an exercise about ‘branding.’ I asked her to think of a great brand; Lululemon was actually her example. In different words, here’s what I described and why we know Lulu’s built a great brand.

If Lululemon had created a hotel, you would already know what it would look like inside. You see the food they’d serve in the cafeteria. It’s clear that “yoga” and other health-focused activities would be offered. We know the amenities already. We can even imagine the people who would choose to stay there over more popular, mainstream hotel chains.

Lululemon is not in the hotel business. But their ‘world’ makes it obvious what their hotel would look like and which of their die-hard customers would choose to stay there.

This is why it’s so important to sweat the small stuff. Are your interiors dark or light? Do you use wood floors, or carpet? Are tables carved by hand or manufactured out of metal and concrete? What does your brand stand for? What does it stand against? Do you have an enemy, or try to appeal to everybody?

If your business starts a hotel tomorrow, can you envision the offer as clearly as the Lululemon example?

My candle brand is nowhere near this.

But the brands that are crushing today are either clear on their future hotel, or building towards it.

Learning More

I was first introduced to world-building by the late Virgil Abloh, one of the youngest Creative Directors at Louis Vuitton, founder of Off-White, and what many consider a god-father type figure in streetwear. In the interview below, he made one comment that stuck with me.

“If I put this candle in an all white gallery space, it looks like a piece of art. If I put it in a garage, it looks like a piece of trash…I can either design the candle, or I can design the room that it sits in.”

This is world-building, what every brand will soon deem their new ‘marketing strategy.’

Design a ‘room’ that fits your audience's aspirations, beliefs, values, and aesthetics. Draw them into this room full of what they consider fun, beautiful, insightful, and desirable. The room becomes their world. Then, the products you create and place into this room have the context to become part of their daily life.

Build worlds. Then, sell products. Advice I needed to follow so much sooner.

The video below is the full interview with Virgil before his untimely passing. I hope it inspires you, too. Thanks for reading!