Bigger Than This Read online

  BIGGER THAN this

  by Fabian Geyrhalter

  Copyright © 2018 by Fabian Geyrhalter

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

  BRANDTRO PUBLISHING

  320 Pine Avenue, Suite 1010

  Long Beach, CA 90802

  ORDERING INFORMATION:

  For details, contact the publisher at the address above or

  send an email to [email protected]

  ISBN 978-0-9896461-7-8

  Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information in this book is accurate at the time of first publishing. The editor, publisher or author cannot accept responsibility for damage or loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of the content of this publication.

  This book is dedicated to those entrepreneurs who are driven to launch brands rooted in empathy for humanity.

  CONTENTS

  BRANDS IN COSTUMES, About Bigger Than This

  THE RESURGENCE OF COMMODITY BRANDS IN TIMES OF INNOVATION AND DISRUPTION

  THE 8 COMMODITY BRAND TRAITS AND THEIR COMMANDMENTS

  | 1 |

  STORY

  When the background story is bigger than the product

  CASE STUDY: FISHPEOPLE SEAFOOD, Fish

  COMMANDMENTS

  | 2 |

  BELIEF

  When values are bigger than the product

  CASE STUDY: GEA, Shoes

  COMMANDMENTS

  | 3 |

  CAUSE

  When the cause is bigger than the product

  CASE STUDY: BOMBAS, Socks

  COMMANDMENTS

  | 4 |

  HERITAGE

  When a sense of location is bigger than the product

  CASE STUDY: SHINOLA, Watches

  COMMANDMENTS

  | 5 |

  DELIGHT

  When the small delight is bigger than the product

  CASE STUDY: POPPIN, Inexpensive Office Supplies

  COMMANDMENTS

  | 6 |

  TRANSPARENCY

  When trust is bigger than the product

  CASE STUDY: EVERLANE, Apparel

  COMMANDMENTS

  | 7 |

  SOLIDARITY

  When solidarity is bigger than the product

  CASE STUDY: PLANET FITNESS, Fitness Centers

  COMMANDMENTS

  | 8 |

  INDIVIDUALITY

  When customization is bigger than the product

  CASE STUDY: FANATICS, Fan T-shirts

  COMMANDMENTS

  THINK BIGGER THAN THIS

  APPENDIX

  RESOURCES

  FURTHER READING

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  REFERENCES

  INDEX

  FOREWORD

  by David Glaze, Creative Director, AMAZON

  Authenticity. Like storytelling, disruption and the dreaded innovator, authenticity has become one of those buzzwords that gets tossed around with abandon, often vaguely twisted into copy in the hopes of riding a current marketing wave and ultimately blurring its actual meaning. However, like all such overwrought terms, the concept is actually based in an underlying truth...authenticity is indeed a valuable brand attribute, so long as it is, well, authentic. In Bigger Than This, Fabian Geyrhalter quickly moves beyond the clichés, identifying key building blocks of an authentic brand and specific ways to leverage them. In a delightfully concise, rapid-fire read, he makes the case for rediscovering the spark in seemingly mundane commodity products and services. Brands need not be radically new to inspire passion, he argues, but thoughtful and honest in finding, telling and embracing their story.

  We all want to believe our favorite brands have a soul. Not so long ago, advertisers had the luxury of telling whatever story they chose with little chance of negative consequences. We were willing to suspend our admittedly less-developed cynicism to embrace brand stories we could relate (or aspire) to. No matter that our corn flakes were mass-produced in enormous factories; there was a nurturing breakfast in every bowl...the box clearly said so. Some cigarettes would make us sexy, others hip or macho. Brands told us what they “believed” in, and we believed what they told us. Activists or regulators would occasionally burst the brand bubble of a particularly bad actor, but generally we were left to our contented illusions.

  Then came the Internet and social media. Suddenly consumers have the ability to share their individual brand experiences and echo those of others. No institution, individual or product is safe from scrutiny. Many once-revered brands have been revealed to be not so much interested in our well-being as their bottom lines, their stories simply fabricated to appeal to a particular target market. Banks, cable companies, food producers, telecoms, insurance companies...the list goes on and on.

  At the same time, technological innovation has exploded, challenging us not only with an ongoing deluge of new devices and services but also whole new ways of interacting with each other and the world at large. This flood of information and paradigm shifting can all feel rather sterile and overwhelming, even for digital natives. The soul is missing.

  It’s no surprise, then, that consumers are embracing brands, both new and old, that convey simplicity, caring and craftsmanship. It’s also no surprise that this trend creates an enormous opportunity for commodity products. We inherently understand commodity products: a watch that just tells time, a shoe that just protects feet, a whisky that’s just for drinking as is, no explanation needed. And who wouldn’t be more interested in reading an engaging founder’s story than a magazine-thick instruction manual?

  The author’s genuine enthusiasm for this topic is infectious. I’ve known Fabian for almost two decades, since we worked together to bring the car brand Acura to life in the digital world. His passion and optimism for the process of reimagining existing brands and birthing new ones seems to have only grown over the years, along with his considerable expertise. Perhaps most refreshingly, Fabian’s impatience for marketing fluff and business-speak keeps him focused on sharing insights for action. Bigger Than This is no collection of philosophical musings but rather a guidebook for finding the potential in even the most mundane product or service. Expect your copy to become dog-eared...you’re likely to find yourself referencing it again and again.

  – David Glaze, Creative Director, Amazon

  BRANDS IN COSTUMES

  About Bigger Than This

  It is the Saturday night before Halloween as I start writing this book. Outside of our house, mayhem ensues. It is coordinated and focused mayhem: people are dressed up in costumes that are sexier, creepier and funnier than who they truly are.

  Dressing up for Halloween is a great analogy for how many educated consumers see branding: a fake persona is crafted to evoke emotions from a specific audience in order to achieve a predetermined goal. Brands don’t often try to scare customers to get their attention as people might on Halloween, but in the end the game of dress-up is at the core of much of the marketing, advertising and branding that exists today. It sounds as calculated as it in fact can be, but fortunately this approach is on its way out. Brands are being forced to leave the costumes to humans during Halloween. Instead they opt for complete transparency and engaging, open conversations because of the rise of social media and the birth of a generation ready to participate, as long as the brand�
��s approach is inclusive and amicable. It is a great moment for consumers but a scary one for big brands that are not adapting. The moment presents a huge opportunity for agile startups ready to connect with a large audience in deep ways almost instantaneously.

  As I rode my bike down the beach for a weekend ride recently, the song “Moving Mountains” by Skylar Grey came on my music player. The line

  “Instead of

  moving

  mountains,

  let the

  mountains

  move you”

  | SKYLAR GREY, “MOVING MOUNTAINS”

  got stuck in my head. It occurred to me that the latest wave of brands we love is not leading through disruption and/or innovation. These brands are actually launching with nothing other than a commodity product – with nearly instant brand advocates and huge scale to follow. They are not moving mountains by trying to reinvent a product or service (like Uber, the transportation network, does by being clearly innovative) or the experience one has with it (like Drybar, the blow-dry salons, offering a new experience). Instead they launch their brands based on a different kind of uniqueness: an empathetic story. Their tribes are the mountains that move their brands. They let their brands be moved by the people who love them. It’s a remarkable strategy, one that is highly inspirational to consumers and hence aspirational to brands. Bigger Than This analyzes brands that are not about

  shoes

  and

  socks

  and

  watches

  and

  furniture

  and

  staplers

  – even though some actually are – but the stories that make them bigger than that, bigger than the commodity product they represent and sell. I’m someone who is obsessed with startup innovation, the power of design, enhanced customer experiences and brand-building as a whole. Noticing this quiet trend made me refocus my obsession on brands that don’t innovate on a product level yet are still fascinating on a brand level, perhaps even more so than innovators in their space.

  “I hate to say it, but we’re

  all selling commodity. I’m

  really proud of our food,

  and I know chefs would be

  furious if they heard me

  say that any of what we

  sell is a commodity, but

  let’s face it: What you’re

  going to come back for –

  or not – is how we make

  you feel.”

  | Danny Meyer, Restaurateur & Shake Shack founder

  Fast Company, February 2016

  As I started taking notes on this topic for one of the columns I write, I realized that this idea, too, was bigger than that. It deserved to become an actionable guide for startups as they set out to define their story and for ventures that need their brand to connect on deeper levels, tell a more engaging story and ultimately stay afloat, even if their product or service is mundane. This is something any brand can do, perhaps with a little help from specialists.

  Over the course of this quick read, I will define eight traits of brands that sell commodities and want to be bigger than this, paired with ample case studies. Any entrepreneur and marketer can adopt fresh ideas from this crop of bold ventures that connect with customers on an empathetic level – with no costumes required on either side.

  Undoubtedly, by the time this book is published, some of the companies I have included will have changed their approach to branding. No business stands still. Nonetheless, the approaches they are using now are worth examining as you create your own brand strategy.

  A NEW WAVE

  OF COMMODITY

  BRANDS IS

  | WINNING HEARTS |

  AND IS

  TEACHING US

  HOW TO TURN

  ANY PRODUCT

  INTO AN

  | ADMIRED BRAND. |

  THE

  RESURGENCE

  OF COMMODITY

  BRANDS IN

  TIMES OF

  INNOVATION AND

  DISRUPTION

  We live in times of amazingly fast technological advancements. Every day we learn of a new jaw-dropping innovation, try a new app that creates fresh conveniences, test a service that is even easier to use than the one we relied on yesterday. These services allow us to receive our purchases at a speed we could have only dreamed of just two years ago (e.g., Amazon Prime Now, which delivers online orders within an hour). Many services come with a human attached – someone who actually walks us through every step of whatever product we have just received upon delivery. Enjoy, the company that delivers tech to your home, for instance, comes with a “consultant” in tow, who sets up everything for you.

  “An entirely new system

  of thought is needed,

  a system based on

  attention to people, and

  not primarily attention

  to goods – (the goods will

  look after themselves!).”

  - E.F. SCHUMACHER,

  Small is beautiful

  You won’t read about those companies here. I am writing about a subject that has barely been explored: companies that launch seemingly boring commodity products into this world without edgy technology but manage to transform themselves into staple household brands for urbanites and beyond. They are brands such as TOMS shoes and Shinola watches. Their marketing to consumers is not built around new product benefits, significantly different features or a big innovative design vision, just commodity shoes and commodity watches. Still, consumers have gone nuts for them.

  These brands strive for what I call the AND?DNA. The AND?DNA is the search for something that was not inherent in the DNA of their offering but in the DNA of their carefully crafted and authentic brand story. When they introduce their very basic products to consumers, the natural question anyone would ask is, “And?” – as in, “And why should I buy these very basic shoes?” These brands can answer the “And?” question with an intriguing, convincing and honest answer that adds a new layer to the brand’s DNA: the story.

  “And?”

  is a question that brands selling a commodity must answer on several levels, and so should you:

  “And why would a consumer suddenly deeply care about your perhaps plain offering?”

  “And how do you tell a bigger, relatable and sustainable story around your offering that can turn it into a beloved brand?”

  “And why do you and, if applicable, your employees devote your time to this particular offering, turning it from simply a day job into a daily passion with all of your heart and soul?”

  “It’s not what

  we do but how

  we do it.”

  The IOAN Team – Wall graphic at the Industry of All Nations flagship store in Venice, CA

  Embracing commodities is a counter-movement to the mindset of Silicon Valley, where it seems every startup is innovating on its product or service or simply adding a new “innovative” feature into the mix. Because of this, one can quickly come to the conclusion that anyone selling a commodity-based brand must embrace the ideologies of social enterprise. That thinking would make a lot of sense if we took into account only the numerous startups that use the one-for-one model, where a brand gives one product to someone in need for every product sold – specifically to a receptive audience of millennials who want to make a difference in this world and do good. That is the case with TOMS and eyeglass manufacturer Warby Parker. TOMS sells a standard shoe nearly equivalent to the common Argentinian alpargata or the classic French espadrille, while Warby Parker sells inexpensive frames. Although I do include a fair share of social-good-oriented companies in this book, they are only one subset of the ventures that are building exciting brands around commodity products. In the pages to come, you’ll read about commodity-product-based companies that create consumer love through stories that go far outside the realm of giving back.

  People will always be drawn to brands. We find comfort in associating ourselves
with a brand image that evokes an emotional reaction in us, and we like to share it so it attracts like-minded people to us. By proudly affiliating ourselves with the local National Public Radio station through a sticker on the back of our cars, or wearing the vintage Rolling Stones tour T-shirt to Sunday brunch, or showing off a cool new brand app on our phone, we like to share what we want to be associated with because it formulates our own personal brand. We may be doing this consciously or subliminally, but we are all doing it. The way we brand, the way brands market, the way people market on a brand’s behalf and the sheer size of brands people love are all changing forever though.

  “As exciting as

  the digital age

  is, the most

  brilliant, fastest

  tech can’t bring

  what human

  connection can

  bring.

  | Jim Brett – President, West Elm,

  Fast Company, September 2016

  One obvious reason is the rise of social media. Many consumers, especially younger ones, pride themselves on being early adopters, and they build their personal brands around sharing their new discoveries. That’s not a new phenomenon. Years ago, they might wear the T-shirt of an indie band they knew before the group started playing stadiums touting corporate sponsors’ names. Today, it’s about embracing innovation. Based on the rise of crowdsourcing sites (like Kickstarter and Indiegogo) and social media outlets that report on the latest and, sometimes, the greatest for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, innovation is seen as the new norm for many young consumers. Millennials in particular are ripe to fall in love with new brands, so much so that they invest their hard-earned money in someone else’s unrealized vision of future products, merely prototypes, just to see them turn into realities. Once those dreams turn into actual brands, these early supporters are running toward them with open arms and are ready to endorse them and shout those endorsements to hundreds or thousands of their social media followers. Why? Because they feel the pride of having been an early adopter. These consumers root for the brands they discovered early and truly want to see them succeed.