Case Study: Jekyll & Hide's Success Story

In the highly competitive eCommerce sector, relevancy needs to be a top priority.

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One day you’re in, and one day you’re out. Online businesses must constantly be aware of ways to keep their brand and products in front of the eyes of their customers.

Quick Question:

Name three luggage companies off the top of your head.

Okay, if you’re a frequent flyer, maybe this was easy. If you only travel every once in a while, you probably don’t even know what brand the luggage collecting dust in your spare room is.

The point is, with everything that goes into the process of travelling - purchasing plane tickets, applying for passports, making hotel reservations; the list goes on - most of us probably think of luggage as a bit of an afterthought.

That is, until it breaks. Which is precisely what lead Bernard and Gary to develop their own, much more durable, suitcase product - and to figure out a way to offer them at a price the average traveler could afford.

While it would be easy enough for the partners to simply develop a more sturdy and affordable alternative product to base their new company around, they realized this alone wouldn’t be enough to get their foot in the door in an already saturated market. They needed to digitize

Instead, they positioned Jekyll & Hide not as just a luggage company, but as a brand focused on all things travel.

Essentially, their reasoning came down to the fact that luggage is more of a means to an end than an end in itself.

As Bernard explains,

"Even before we were like 'let's choose leather luggage,' we were talking about editorial content and all we can do in the travel space. We see the long-term potential for Jekyll & Hide to be much, much more than just selling luggage."

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This outlook led to a number of content-related opportunities for the team at Jekyll & Hide. Instead of creating content centered around luggage (which, let’s be serious, probably wouldn’t be all that engaging), they created blog posts, , social posts, digital marketing, and even being included in several physical magazines focused on the lifestyle behind luggage and travel.

This enabled the company to stand out in a crowded market, and provide value to their target audience in a way no other luggage brand does. This, in turn, led to massive engagement—and absolutely massive growth for the company, as well.

Jekyll & Hide “somehow” snuck into the $32 billion luggage industry that Bernard and Gary had seen as relatively stagnant. Within its first year of online operations, Jekylle & Hide had generated over R5 million in sales - and quintupled this number in fiscal 2019. As of August 2020, Jekyll & Hide has sold over 500,000 suitcases and accessories, generating a massive R9 Million in less than three years.

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Take home message

The take home message here touches on the point we mentioned earlier when discussing Amelia Jackson's shift in page-building strategies:

It’s not about what your product is, so much as what it allows your customers to do, that makes them value your brand.

Bernard and Gary took this idea and ran with it, creating a variety of content to help their audience get more value out of their travel experiences across the board. For them, it’s more important to promote the lifestyle their product is a part of—not just promoting the product itself.

Do you want your target consumers to purchase your products? Of course. But, as Jekyll & Hide proves, this can be done in a way so that your promotional materials actually provide value to your audience—and don’t come off as “salesy.”