Stealth Marketing Strategy in the USA to Capture American Consumers

Brands like Balmain, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Balenciaga are trendsetters for all Italian companies looking for an effective way to do business in the United States with Stealth Marketing

In fact, all the most well-known brands in the USA are using this technique to be less intrusive in promoting themselves in the American market

Vogue calls it invisible marketing while Highsnobiety has coined the term “Merchtainment”: it represents the new frontier of strategies for selling in the United States.

Louis Vuitton and Gucci have launched pop-up stores in low-profile locations without making noise, challenging the belief that every major launch should be surrounded by interviews and posts from well-known influencers. These pop-ups were left in the hands of the communities hosting them, which triggered reactions on social media, not controlled responses but user-generated content and word of mouth.

Similarly, Balmain has stopped using print advertising in fashion magazines to spend its marketing budget on more informal tactics, while Balenciaga recently made headlines by presenting a fashion show where the models themselves didn’t know they were models, culminating with a Simpsons-style projection of how that bizarre runway should have looked.

A new trend is emerging in the world of marketing in America: while American consumers seek novelty and authenticity and designers try to stand out within increasingly crowded advertising channels, luxury brands are beginning to use more subtle marketing strategies to convey their message. This means testing low-profile, less intrusive, and ideally more organic tactics. Above all, this mode of existence in the U.S. market marks the shift from a top-down sales approach to so-called “stealth marketing”: essentially, American consumers become aware of the brand without realizing it.

In America, marketing explicitly aimed at selling has stopped being the most profitable: American consumers are overloaded with paid media and are tired of looking at their screens

Those selling in the United States have better chances of success if they use discreet sales techniques

American consumers are all getting a bit tired of aggressive selling. Marketing with this goal is not a brilliant strategy, and it should come as no surprise if customers end up rejecting it. How can you pay attention to an Instagram ad after viewing a hundred others? 75% of consumers never watch online ads...

“Stealth marketing” is fundamentally a relationship-building tactic that can also be shared and discussed with your target consumers in the USA

Unlike flashy billboards and sponsored posts on social media, the main goal of invisible marketing in America is not acquisition but loyalty. Take Nike, for example: over the past decade, the sportswear giant has moved away from high-budget strategies to invest in smaller neighborhood stores, events, and value-added services that allow interaction with a localized audience.

The idea is that loyalty is ultimately the final goal of these brands selling in the United States. After all, no one looks at a billboard or walks into Gucci saying, “Wow, Gucci is really cool, I want some!”: with Gucci or even with Balenciaga, the relationship with the consumer takes shape over many months, at events and on platforms where users talk about them.

WeTransfer has become a new powerful tool for introducing brands to certain segments of consumers in the United States

To respond to the rejection of marketing by American consumers, some brands (Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and Stella McCartney) are diversifying their advertising spaces and experimenting with unexpected platforms like WeTransfer, a free service that allows for sharing large files online.

The peak in revenue from WeTransfer's luxury fashion clients began in 2018 when companies operating in the USA realized that over 70% of the service's users worked in creative sectors, making it a preferred channel to reach the premium creative community in America.

Thus, stealth marketing on WeTransfer has become a new tactic for brands to engage and grow their communities within the U.S. market. The key advantage is that the advertising does not appear forced or coercive and therefore does not risk making the brand seem less credible or damaging its image, but there are many ways to do excellent stealth marketing.

In the future, brands in the USA will need to incorporate more subtle strategies into their marketing plans to sell in the American market

The growth of stealth marketing will not hinder influencer marketing and more traditional sales techniques in the United States. Rather, the shift in American consumer preferences indicates that brands will need to find the right balance between “push marketing” and “pull strategy”, between acquisition and loyalty strategies. In conclusion, the greatest advantage of doing invisible marketing in America is that this strategy produces a high level of audience engagement: consumers open to dialogue will leave with an almost innate understanding of what the brand is and what its core values are.

As an ancient proverb says, “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand.” ;-)