In 2016, I joined my cousin Regina to build Urban Southern. I’ll never forget the morning that I woke up with a vision to build a brand with Regina that could empower women. So I called her on my way to work, all excited, to share the idea. We could take what both of us were already doing — with her leather bag designs and my creative talents in storytelling and marketing — to create a business together. By using our story of where we come from, we could create the foundation of a strong brand.
We both spent time apart to contemplate it and came back together with the belief that this was bigger than us — we were called to empower other women in this endeavor.
Together, we rebranded Urban Southern as a brand for women. We changed the mission of the brand, using our own life story as it’s central message, so that women could connect with us on a personal level. We used the brand as a platform to encourage women and teach intentional living.
BEFORE: THE OLD WEBSITE
The existing website didn’t look bad, but it wasn’t responsive on mobile and the checkout feature wasn’t always working.
AFTER: THE NEW WEBSITE
Updated with fresh imagery and rebranded with a new mission, we launched the new website in October of 2016.
I wanted to design more than a beautiful website. So I used design elements that would be relatable and down to earth — the goal was for women to feel like they had found fellow women like themselves to do life with.
The vision of empowering other women was a goal that we continued to hit in many different ways as we built the brand - not perfectly of course - but, that was always the passion that moved Urban Southern forward.
In the first year, we wrote and published more than 50 lifestyle blog posts and attracted more than 100,000 new visitors. By creating a brand that involved our community, women felt as though they were participating in something greater than themselves. Our content was consistently communicating this through helping women feel as though they were participating — by inviting them behind the scenes and letting them see our imperfections. We created a feeling within the brand that we were all doing life together. It was never about what one person could do by herself, but about what we could all do together.
MAKING THE WEBSITE BETTER OVER TIME
Progress over perfection is always my goal. That meant I was always looking for ways that Urban Southern could progress forward in it’s branding, website function and content. As the company grew, I used Urban Southern’s website traffic data and research to continue to improve the website. In the winter of 2019, I updated the homepage completely with new features and improved clarity.
Creating drawn illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, I integrated the subtle reminder of the Amish-Mennonite illustrated childhood books into the brand. I updated the slogan from “Honest leather that simply fits your everyday” to a two part statement that felt more value focused for women, “Get an honest leather bag / Love it for a lifetime.”
I used our beautiful product photography by Nancy Center to update the shop page with a clean look that made it easier for our customers to find and select the products that they were looking for. Each product included a variety of lifestyle photos so women could have a good idea of what the product looks and feels like in real life.
To read a couple of case studies on specific marketing strategies that I implemented to grow Urban Southern, check out the blog.
“Meg is a delight to work with. I worked with Meg when she was creating the marketing strategy and brand concept for Urban Southern. She’s a delight to work with and has a keen understanding of marketing best practices and is also tech savvy, which helps her in dealing with high-level technical discussion. Meg would be a solid team member to have in any organization as she’s a team-player and lights up any room she wanders into. Would work with her again in a heartbeat.”
