The business of sustainability

Did you hear that sustainability had a rebrand?

• Traceability is now risk mitigation

• Resale is now recovery of value

• Repair programs are now customer loyalty

• Recycled textiles are now supply chain future-proofing

This is genius and here’s why - businesses don’t do anything if it isn’t a benefit to their bottom line, especially today in this economy.

The rebrand is taking sustainable concepts that no one has cared about for the longest time and rebranding the terms into something that will make companies money, so now they are listening.

When I read this all I could think about was the time 15 years ago when a trip to the Scientology headquarters used the same exact principles and taught me how to sell a $4 product for $10.

And I’m going to show you exactly how to do it too.

(PS you can scroll down for the lesson on branding to boost sales if you don’t want to read the back story that inspired this post).

I was killing time in Midtown with a friend before dinner. We walked past the Scientology headquarters and thought - why not? We signed up for the free tour. Which is, of course, a sales pitch.

Everyone inside was smiling a little too hard. They walked us into a private room and played us a 15-minute video about the fundamentals of Scientology - specifically about the conscious and subconscious mind. Except they didn’t call it that. They called it the analytical mind and the reactive mind.

The moment it ended I asked: “Isn’t this just Freud rebranded with different words?”

They insisted it wasn’t the same - because different words make it a different thing entirely. When I pushed back that the definitions were identical, they simply said “You’re not understanding. Maybe you need one of our programs….”

The rest of the visit went exactly as you’d expect. They probed for personal vulnerabilities, promised we’d leave every session happier, and produced scientific-looking canisters with dials as proof that our problems could be solved in 30 minutes.

I pretended to get completely sucked in. My friend thought he’d lost me to a cult and physically dragged me out…

I just wanted to see how far it would go…

Sorry to any Scientologists reading this.

Scientology didn’t invent new psychology. They invented new vocabulary. And that vocabulary made everything feel proprietary and impossible to replicate.

You’ve been watching this at work your entire life without noticing:

• Bone broth is chicken stock

• Hydrating lip gloss is petroleum jelly with color

• Biotin gummies are B vitamins in candy form

• Bamboo fabric is rayon

• Tencel is generic lyocell with a brand name

• Performance fabric is polyester with a marketing budget

It’s all in the wording.

Same concept as timeshare sales. Create an offer they feel silly saying no to.

How do you say no to “don’t you want to be guaranteed happier in 30 minutes?” You don’t. The offer is framed around something the person already wants.

Other examples you may have come across:

• Weight watchers - Eat what you love and loose weight.

• Capital One Venture - you're already buying groceries, paying bills, and booking travel. You might as well earn free flights while you do it.

• Gym membership - First month free. No contract. Cancel anytime. (Good luck getting out of that contract after you didn’t read the fine print).

Clever, huh?

This is exactly what sustainability just did with it’s rebrand and it might be the most genius rebrand the fashion industry has ever seen:

Same concepts but a completely different sell.

Businesses don’t do anything unless it benefits their bottom line - especially right now in this economy. The moment sustainability stopped being about saving the planet and started being about protecting profit margins, every CFO in fashion started paying attention.

Now I’m going to give you the exact 30 minute exercise to do this for your own brand to create an offer people can’t say no to.

We will:

• Learn how to create new branding vocabulary unique to your company that helps you stand out from all the other product noise.

• Then, create a sales pitch that leaves your customers feeling like it would be crazy not to buy.

And, to prove this works with any type of brand I am going to use these 3 niches as examples.

• Yoga pants

• Kids clothes

• Women’s dresses

Let’s go…

I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson. And if you want the good stuff - the step-by-step instructions on how to actually do this for your own brand - that’s for paid subscribers only.

Here’s the thing: a subscription is $5 a month. Sixteen cents a day.

For that you get this guide, every piece of paid content I’ve ever published, and everything I put out going forward. A lesson like this one alone would cost you over $100 anywhere else.

Full disclosure, I spent half a day writing and building this lesson, so I think $5 is fair.

And honestly? If you don’t - you might just be in the wrong place. Because if you don’t value other people’s time, it’s going to be very hard to ever value your own.

BTW - “PS- In case you are curious…” and “Lastly, before I go, a few cool things…” will always be FREE. But the guides, how-tos, and true industry knowledge (like this weeks email marketing guide) will now be $5 a month.

Still in Florida, and it’s HOT!

I figured the hotel would be empty, because who goes to Miami in August if they don’t have to?

I was wrong, it was packed.

But, packed with budget travelers - loud, badly behaved, and full of attitude, in my opinion.

Which got me thinking about how travel has changed in general. Old-school hotspots like Tulum and Ibiza are having some of their slowest years ever.

Read the comments (I do) and it’s the same story again and agin: the sky-high prices just don’t justify the experience anymore. Why am I spending $35 for an acacia bowl in Tulum (where the internet doesn’t even work) when I could have cheaper in NYC?

Or, in the case of Miami why spend $1200 a night in the high season when I could post the same exact Instagram photos for $300 when it’s slightly hotter out?

And, that loops back to what I’ve been saying about retail, almost every week now. It’s not about your customer having the money to spend - it’s about them not wanting to feel like an idiot for spending it.

• Why is hotel bedding always white?

• What does unskilled worker actually mean?

• Have you seen these new stretch zippers?

• The ultimate guide to t-shirt fabrics

Aka branding alchemy of turning $4 chicken stock into $10 bone broth…