WTF is ‘Vibe Marketing’ and How Do You Use It to Grow?

Written By Chris Shirley MA FRGS

In the digital noise of the 21st century, the brands that stand out aren’t always the loudest, they’re the ones that feel right. This is ‘vibe marketing’: a subtle but powerful approach that focuses less on selling features and more on creating a feeling.

 

Vibe marketing is about cultivating an atmosphere, the mood, energy, and aesthetic that people associate with your brand. It’s the reason why certain coffee brands feel like creativity in a cup, or why a tech start-up's website makes you feel like the future just arrived.

 

It's emotional, not transactional. It’s the brand equivalent of walking into a room and instantly knowing you belong.

 

Why It Matters

Today’s audiences, especially Gen Z and millennials, aren’t buying products, they’re buying belonging. They want to resonate with a brand’s values, its aesthetic, its sense of humour, even its imperfections. If your brand feels sterile or overly polished, it can come across as inauthentic. But if it has a vibe , a mood that aligns with your audience's identity , you're no longer interrupting their world, you're part of it.

 

At Hiatus.Design, we often see that the brands with the strongest visual presence aren’t necessarily the biggest, they’re just the ones who’ve figured out how to own a vibe.

 

What Does Vibe Marketing Look Like?

It might mean a website that feels like an interactive zine instead of a corporate brochure. It could be brand colours that break convention, or a tone of voice that’s uncomfortably honest, in the best way. Vibe marketing shows up in the micro-details: the way a loading screen makes you smile, the sound design in a launch video, the typography on a product box.

 

Importantly, it’s not just about aesthetics. Vibe is strategy. It’s intentional, and when done well, it builds long-term loyalty, even community.

 

How to Build Your Brand’s Vibe


1.        Start with identity, not features


What does your brand feel like? Is it bold, quiet, nostalgic, irreverent?


2.        Curate everything


From music and photography to motion and microcopy, every touchpoint should reinforce the same mood.


3.        Design for a tribe, not the masses


Vibe marketing works best when you speak directly to a specific type of person, and exclude everyone else.


4.        Stay consistent, but not static


A great vibe evolves. Your brand should grow like a person, not just a product.


Vibe marketing isn’t a gimmick, it’s what separates forgettable brands from cult favourites. At Hiatus.Design, we help adventurous brands get their vibe right from day one or recalibrate when things feel a little off.

 

Because when your brand has a vibe, people don’t just notice.

They feel it.

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Chris Shirley MA FRGS

About the Author:

Chris is the founder of Hiatus.Design, a mission-driven branding and website design company that works with clients all over the world.

Over the course of his life, he has travelled to more than 60 countries across six continents, earned two Guinness World Records, completed the legendary Marathon des Sables, summited Mont Blanc and unclimbed peaks in Asia, become a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS), rowed across the Atlantic Ocean and obtained a Masterʼs degree in Business Management (MA).

https://www.hiatus.design
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