Let’s face it: social media marketing is overdone.  Even the least innovative businesses nowadays are quick to spring up a Facebook and Twitter page upon incarnation.  It’s work often done by unpaid interns, and I don’t think I’m being ignorant by saying that the whole strategy no longer has a unique allure to younger, tech-savvy markets as it once did.

Enter Lavan, a Vancouver-based fragrance and bath+body company that prides itself on its luxurious scents and natural products made of ingredients from the Dead Sea and surrounding areas.  Sure, the company has its customary Facebook and Twitter pages but what Lavan does differently is it’s blog.  Lavan has created a person, a young, health-conscious and self-pampering woman called Lady Lavan, who serves two important purposes for the company:

1. She is a key communicator.  In addition to robotic emails and Tweets, the activities and new products of Lavan are updated through this fictional woman — one who has everything from a favourite sport to a relationship status.  She appeals to and connects with consumers and even acts as a role model, explaining skincare regimens and her love for the luxurious products of the store.

2. Lady Lavan is a brand personality — in an almost literal sense.  She represents what the company stands for, but in the most human way possible. All the brand values that Lavan could have portrayed with a simple sign hung up in the store located in downtown Vancouver, Lavan presents them through this woman.  One question in her interview posted on her blog asks what her motto is, to which she responds “I believe in Good Karma and in being good to others, to nature and to ourselves.”

Taken from her Facebook page, this photo is a direct example of the illustration of Lady Lavan, and how she is directly used to convey Lavan (the company)’s values.

In a world that is increasingly infiltrated by mechanized computers and faceless technology, marketing tactics like this are what leave an impression.