Crafting A Strong and Salient Brand Association

One of the main reasons we had success was the fact that we had a strong story that conveyed a singular idea, concisely and consistently over a long period of time.

Most importantly, everyone in the company cared DEEPLY about that message - wanting to get it out there as broadly as we could.

It truly was our mission.

Read on for context, lessons, and takeways:

One of the biggest joys of the experience at Chubbies is being able to work with hilarious creators to take a less serious view of 'work'.

If we're not careful, the weight of work can become suffocating.

And, since work often takes up the majority of our waking hours, it seemed important to us, purveyors of the weekend lifestyle, to create content bringing a little levity to how we view work.

If there's one thing we wanted Chubbies to be associated with in people's minds, it is the fun and release associated with the feeling you get at Friday at 5pm, when the work week is over.

We wanted to be the go-to piece of apparel that you throw on when the work week is over. When you put on Chubbies, it is the weekend.

Chubbies = Weekend

It's a singular idea, feeling, and use case.

Therefore, everything we did was associated with the weekend, and one of the angles to convey that idea was to poke a little fun at the seriousness of work.

That's the reason we exist, and we all felt it was extremely important to get the message of fun, levity, and stress-reduction associated with work as broadly distributed as possible.

That's why mental health is the cause we focused most on.

There is a single thread that ties it all together. A single narrative.

In life, our customers a busy. They have a million things going on.

We only have a fraction of a second to tell a piece of our story while people are scrolling their feeds.

The story needs to resonate, be concise, and be consistent.

Without that, it will be almost impossible to build a salient enough association in a consumer's mind that will drive the conscious or subconscious behavior to seek your brand out when they have the need for your product.

And, since 95% of your potential customer base is not in the market when you show them content (paid or organic), our content must be able to be

1) conveyed in a fraction of a second
2) resonate (the reason you exist must be compelling)
3) be concise
4) be consistent

if you do this over the course of years, people will come to you without being prompted by conversion focused ads.

That's the dream.

That's where growth in contribution dollars comes from.

That's where the global, multigenerational brands come from.

Anyone can do it.

Just pick that one idea you want to get into the world so much it becomes your mission in life.

Peel back all the non-essential components of the idea and get really good at articulating the essential core of the message.

Rinse & Repeat one million times

That's it!
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