“I wear a suit. I make money myself so you can trust me.”
“I’m growing a beard, trust me, we’re both about manliness and grooming.”
“See my tattoo? I’m an artist/free thinker as well. You can trust me to cut your hair.”
“Hey, you’re seeing me in this profile picture with my kids. I’m a family man, so I’ve got perspective and morals. You can trust me I won’t scam you.”
“Welcome to the my shop. I’m wearing a fancy sneakers, jeans and a shirt, because that’s what I’m about. So are you? Cool, lol, let’s talk”
“My hair is long and I like colourful, trippy visuals. Oh you like LSD as well – haha.”
It can go on and on. I was younger and I wore suits because I thought they were cool – I liked how I looked, I felt groomed and all that stuff (the suit experience, if you want). I’d take it as far as comparing it to kids wearing an astronaut suit but that’s a stretch.
Then I got out of the suits phase but something stood. Learning about fits and some deep tailoring lingo helps one discern between people who wear suits just for the sake of it and people who like them. You know it: the classic navy suit that’s ill fitting. I thought these people were wearing them because they “had to”. In a sense, they do, but I thought it’s literally compulsory because of their job.
I’m not saying anything new here and if you’re reading this and ever wore a suit (or any business attire), you know it at least in your subconscious. Maybe I’ll get it out of there.
Wearing a suit is a way of communicating the first sentence of the article.
It may sound some way but it’s the truth. I make money myself so as to be able to afford this suit that
- can’t be replicated (i.e. fake/counterfeit)
- if it’d be cheap you’d see it from a mile
- communicates to you that we’re about the same thing
- invokes tradition, seriousness and calls for many other concepts
That’s all you’re saying to people. And it’s not to show off – it’s simply to make it easier for you to associate with others who believe that. Screening or filtering, if you want.
Surely, Steve Jobs was wearing the turtleneck and the New Balance sneakers. But look him up in the ’80s and connect that with his personal brand image that he had built up to the point of wearing that.
Truly, he influenced the Silicon Valley tech CEO image of today to the point where shirt + sneakers is the look. But that’s simply because the aforementioned combination is another language/message to be sent to other people.
I wear a Rolex. I wear a Timex. I don’t wear a watch because I’m rich but I don’t want you to know that.
I wear all black. I wear grey and navy. I wear 4 colours at once.
Different languages, different messages.
Because our civilisation is at the point where we’re advanced enough to be able to secure basic needs for so many people in our society, we can get to this level of communication.
Where’s the damn user churn thing in here?
It’s easy. You have your users/customers, which is: your tribe. “Dress up” your company accordingly – you don’t want to be a businessman to hippies and vice versa.
You know who you’re helping, make sure you don’t “building the future for challengers” in your headline and instead maybe say “Delivering flowers within the same day – it’s never too late”
People are strongly attached to beliefs – isn’t that how religions are the longest-living “marketing campaigns”? Or maybe call it industry. If you’re making it clear that you’re on the same page, they’re more likely to stay (to dress up this word, call it “user retention”) and not to leave (“user churn”)
P.S: Yes, accidentally I gave another example, the one above with dressing up words.
About Ch Daniel
I run chagency, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.
I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app
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