This simple reframe can add a little desire to your brand.

But it’s not for you—it’s for them

Who wears a Metallica t‑shirt? Or an Elton John t‑shirt? Who wears a Patagonia t‑shirt? Who wears a Lego t‑shirt? Who would wear a NASA t‑shirt? A Tesla t‑shirt? An Apple t‑shirt? A South Sydney Rabbitohs t‑shirt? Or a Pauline Hanson t‑shirt?

What if your brand was a t-shirt? Who would wear it?

The t‑shirt is an easy way to signal to the world who you are. 

“I’m the kind of person that believes technology will save the planet (and I have a man-crush on Elon Musk)”

— says the guy in a Tesla t‑shirt.

“I’m creative and I value play” says the woman in a Lego t‑shirt.

“I know more about music than you do” says the girl in an obscure indie band t‑shirt.

Sometimes it’s more complex. The guy in the Microsoft Excel t‑shirt might be saying “I’m smarter than you because I’m wearing a free shirt from this conference I went to instead of getting sucked into paying for an expensive brand”.

And the teenager in a David Hasselhoff t‑shirt might be saying “I’m so cool that ironically I even look cool when I’m wearing something that’s clearly not cool”. 

What’s it for?

Whatever the reason, the t‑shirt says something about the person wearing it.

You might say, a person hires the t‑shirt for the day to tell a story about themselves.

So if your brand had a t‑shirt, ask yourself who would wear it? And then ask, what story would they be telling the world by doing so?

Because even if you don’t have a t‑shirt—and maybe would never have a t‑shirt—your brand itself is a t‑shirt. Metaphorically at least.

Everything we buy tells the world a story about who we are.

So we’re not really talking about t‑shirts. We’re talking about identity.

What kind of person buys from you? And what does that say about them? 

Who do they become when they buy from you?

If you make cheap tyres, your customer becomes the smart shopper who knows how to find a bargain.

If you make chunky 4x4 tyres with superior grip, your customer becomes the outdoor adventurer who knows the best gear for extreme journeys.

And if you make crazy expensive low profile racing tyres, then your customer becomes the only dad at school pickup who can actually afford to spend so much on tyres. (At least, that’s what he thinks.)

Who does your customer want to be?

It doesn’t always make sense. But it’s not always about making sense.

Why does the enthusiastic home cook spend three hundred dollars on a fry pan when she could get one for twenty dollars?

Why does the aspiring triathlete buy a new carbon fibre bike that’s only half a gram lighter than the one he already has?

Why does the passionate entrepreneur hire these consultants instead of those ones?

We like to think we’re making rational decisions.

The home cook says she bought the expensive fry pan, because it’s French, and Jamie Oliver uses one just like it, and it goes in the oven as well as on the stove and it’s better for slow cooking and it retains the heat and… she has a whole lot of other reasons she used to get her partner off her back.

The triathlete says he bought the bike because every gram counts when you’re trying to shave seconds off your time.

And the entrepreneur says he hired these consultants because they used to work for Google, so they’re the best.

It’s not about what you do. It’s about their identity.

These reasons are merely the rational thoughts that justify the decision after the purchase.

The reality is the home cook wants to be the culinary expert that all her friends come to for advice and exceptional baking. The triathlete wants his training buddies to know that he’s on the cutting edge. And deep down the entrepreneur wants to live the Silicon Valley startup fantasy and he thinks spending time with the ex‑Googlers, playing ping pong in their office, makes it real.

And it’s about what the others think of us

Just like the t‑shirts we wear, everything we buy says something about us—to the people around us.

And that’s the key. It’s about what we want the others to think of us.

So who does your customer want to become?

The features and the benefits of your product are all great. They’re part of your story and they are important. 

But once you start to see who your customer wants to be and you know how you can help them become that person, you have a better shot at making a connection.

So what do you need to do?

First, get laser focused on exactly who your customer is. Who wants to be the kind of person that would wear your t-shirt?

Second, think about what they want and how this helps them become who they want to be.

Next, instead of talking about how nifty your product is, this is where you show you actually understand who they want to become. This isn’t what convinces them to buy. But even better, it builds rapport. 

Help them to see that ’wearing your t-shirt’ is helping them become who they want to be.

So then, at the final step, when you ask them to take your hand on the journey, they already trust you. Because they‘re already on board.

It’s not a sales message. It’s a helping hand that leads to the place they want to be, and they might just pay you for guiding them there.

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Photo by Aaron Weiss on Unsplash