Wicker Wings - Mama’s Mission.
You aren’t just carrying a wicker bag, you’re carrying someone’s story.
The way to people’s hearts.
According to a Stanford University study, stories are remembered up to 22x more than facts alone. Think about it for a moment, when someone reels off a whole list of facts how many do you remember? Yet when someone tells you a compelling story, that stays with you, and you share it with others.
Stories are the way to people’s hearts, they’re what make people connect with us on an emotional level. When a brand has a unique story, it has the power to persuade and to motivate. It is emotional processes that guide our behaviour, especially our decision making.
A story to be told.
On meeting brother and sister co-founders James and Belinda Yu and hearing the story of their luxury handbag brand ‘Wicker Wings’, I instantly recognised a truly unique and wonderful story that needed to be told.
This is a story of honouring their Grandma’s (aka ‘Mama’) Mission, of celebrating their Chinese heritage and their Grandma’s past, and of empowering female artisans in a small village in Indonesia.
Honouring a legacy.
Then a young mother with limited opportunities, ‘Mama’ had worked hard to support her family and build a better life, handweaving baskets in her rural village in China. James and Belinda now honour her legacy, helping women today to earn a living weaving their bags using ethically sourced, environmentally friendly materials.
Loved by Vogue and Net-a-Porter amongst others, the handbags are then hand-finished with finest-quality Italian leather in their Manchester artisan workshop.
A compelling brand narrative.
This strategy was designed to help James and Belinda tell this powerful story, guided by the tried and trusted formula used by Disney and Pixar, and juxtaposing the brands ‘mission’ and ‘fashion’ chapters to create a unique and compelling brand narrative.
And the ‘gleaming detail’? The one moment that captures the very essence of the story? A brother and sister fulfilling their ‘Mama’s Mission’.
