Wanna Get More Sales?
Hoodie sells $1m in pre-orders with this genius ecommerce marketing hack
Welcome to an exploration of this genius marketing hack from Flint & Tinder. So…
Food for thought: why DON’T people buy stuff? Why do they say ‘no’? Like, why doesn’t everyone who sees a product in a store just pick it up and buy it?
$1m in 30 days
Well, aside from not having unlimited cash or the will to shoplift (lol) it comes down to 1 word.
This isn’t discussed enough, but it’s the 1 thing that decides whether people buy stuff or not. The word is:
“STATUS”
Unpacking that: humans are animals. So at the end of the day, we’re real simple. We do things that will increase our Status (makes us feel better than others) and we avoid things that decrease our status (make us feel worse/lower in the social hierarchy).
Evolution is responsible for this. In the old days, low status humans were ostracized from their tribe (today we might call it “cancelled”), got isolated, and might have literally starved to death. Whereas valuable, high status homo sapiens had access to the best food, shelter, and mates. High status = resources = pass your genes into the future = good. It’s biological.
And so, to this day…
…every time we buy stuff, we weigh our options ⚖️⚖️⚖️
Here’s someone buying an ab wheel on Amazon:
We say: “Hmm… will buying this ab wheel on Amazon INCREASE my status or DECREASE it?” We run a ‘Status Calculation’: “hmm… if I buy this ab wheel, I’ll be spending money. This will decrease my status by thirty dollars because I’ll have less liquid cash to spend. But on the other hand, it will give me 6 pack abs so that when potential mates see me without a shirt at the beach this summer, I’ll have better odds. The wheel costs $30. But better mating chances are certainly worth more than $30. OK, I’ll buy it. Click. Prime 2-Day Shipping. Boom. 5-Star Review. Goodnight Maureen. Come on Eileen. Bob’s your uncle.”
✔️
(note: thanks to Russell Brunson for articulating this “status” idea so clearly; it’s the best explanation I’ve seen)
So if you want to sell more on Amazon, convince people they will NOT lose status. And they’re BOUND to gain status! Do this, and the scales tip in your favor. What if there was a way to guarantee to shoppers that they won’t lose status? There is.
You can offer a guarantee!
Here’s how 1 simple guarantee generated $1m in pre-orders for a “regular” physical product.
The year: 2013.
The startup: clothing brand Flint & Tinder.
The platform: Kickstarter, the crowdfunding (basically pre-order) website.
The product: the company launches the “10 Year Hoodie” and does $1m in pre-orders.
The guarantee: we’re so confident in our made-in-America quality, that we’ll mend the hoodie for the next 10 years if anything breaks. As their Kickstarter page says: “Built for life, guaranteed to last at least a decade and backed with FREE mending! Every stitch tells a story — put it through its paces and it’ll actually get better, more interesting, and more unique over a lifetime of wear.”
Brilliant because:
– it reverses potential status loss which makes spending the $$$ easier
– implicitly says “we’re supremely confident in this product”
– also, the guarantee was positioned as central to the product offering. Not as an afterthought
Many Amazon products are backed by guarantees, but it’s on like… the 5th bullet point of the listing.
Or tucked away in the Enhanced Brand Content.
But sometimes, like the 10-Year Hoodie, placing it front and center can make you some serious bank.
done-for-you service
