Episode 240: I’m With The Brand (unpacking how brands influence our brains), part two

Earlier this year, a friend/client of mine–who is a small business owner–was incredibly blatantly and intentionally knocked off by TJ Maxx.  TJ Maxx is an “off price” chain with more than 1300 stores in the United States. It is just one brand owned by TJX, the multinational megacorp who also owns Home Goods, Marshalls, Sierra Trading Post,  Winners, Homesense and TK Maxx.   Last year, TJX reported $56.36 billion in revenue.

My friend’s business? Run by her and her husband, literally supporting their family.  All of this came to light when an influencer–who actually also lives in Lancaster County–shared a video of a bunch of new arrivals at our local TJ Maxx. Someone tagged my friend in the comments, then she shared the video, then I watched it…and wow, these were exact replicas of her products.  

Now, you know by now that fast fashion is constantly knocking off every brand out there–even other fast fashion brands.  And TJ Maxx is no exception. What made this especially striking (and a slam dunk of a case) was that TJ Maxx had actually reached out to my friend just a few months earlier about potentially carrying her products or working together on some specific items just for them.  So there was a clear chain of intent,  and my friend also copyrights all of her designs, so TJ Maxx was in a whole heap of trouble.

The whole premise of TJ Maxx (or more like, the whole illusion of it all) is that everything in TJ Maxx is actually leftovers from designer brands and overstock from department stores.  And while that certainly was the case for TJ Maxx in the past, in this century, not so much. Why? Because off price stores have blown up and expanded in this century.  Beyond the TJX stores filling strip malls across the US, there are also Ross, Nordstrom Rack, Saks Off 5th, Macy’s Backstage, even Bloomingdales has an off price chain of stores. And of course, there are also outlet malls near just about every tourist destination here in the US.  How could there possibly be enough overstock and slightly irregular products to fill them all?  The answer is: there’s not.  And now the bulk of the inventory in all of those off price stores is made specifically for those stores, even if it has a “real” brand name label like Nike or Calvin Klein.

To make this disconnect between the available overstock inventory and the number of stores it would need to fill a little bit more clear, let’s use Nordstrom as an example.

The concept of Nordstrom Rack is that it sells overstock from its Nordstrom department stores. And sure, there is a little bit of that in each location, grouped together with a sign that declares “from our stores.”  But there are 258 Nordstrom Rack stores in operation right now.   Meanwhile, there are only 93 Nordstrom department stores.  How could those 93 stores generate enough “extra” inventory to fill 258 Nordstrom Racks? It couldn’t.  And so the store is filled with other stuff: some online returns, “excess” inventory from San Pedro apparel mart brands (I call bullshit on it being true overstock because of the sheer volume on the racks in each store), some overstock from brands that are way overproducing, but mostly, product that was made specifically for Nordstrom Rack. And you’ll see this across the store in every department. To be clear, I know this concretely because I have friends who literally work for companies that make private label product for Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx, Ross, and so on.

If you look closely on the TJ Maxx website, the company even says it is doing this.  “Some of our merchandise is manufactured for us and some we design, particularly when what we see in the marketplace isn’t the right value for our customers, meaning the right combination of brand, fashion, price, and quality.”  And btw, the price is why TJ Maxx is likely to knock off a small brand because a small business will never be able to meet TJ Maxx’s pricing requirements.

This can be kind of confusing to customers because nothing  in a TJ Maxx store has a TJ Maxx label, right? So you don’t know what was made especially for them. But that doesn’t mean that there are “label-less” products just chiling at TJ Maxx. Everything has some kind of brand on it.  For me as a seasoned professional, the sort of “fake brands,” (aka private label) are really easy for me to spot.  A private label product is one that a retailer gets produced by a third-party but sells under its own brand name…or in the case of many of these off price stores, it might have labels that these manufacturers already use for all of its private label production. That manufacturer (vendor is another term for them) might have a license for a brand name they can use, too.  Maybe they even licensed the name from someone like Authentic Brands Group.   Or it might use some brand labels that TJ Maxx or Nordstrom Rack already own.  For example, back when I was an accessories buyer at Urban Outfitters, we did not have a design team or production department for accessories.  So instead, I would go to these showrooms in NYC that made accessories and jewelry for EVERYONE, from Macy’s to Forever 21 to TJ Maxx to Anthropologie.  I would either pick products from these showrooms lines and tweak them to make them right for Urban, or I would develop something from scratch (sort of being the designer myself). Either way, each item would get one of the Urban Outfitters brand labels I talked about in the last episode.  Later, at my other jobs, including Nasty Gal, some items might be designed in house and our production team worked directly with the factory to make it happen.  Others were developed by me (the buyer) with vendors at the San Pedro Apparel Mart, who would sew in our Nasty Gal labels.   This is a very common practice and just about every retailer out there is doing this in one way or another.

In the case of what happened with my friend and TJ Maxx, clearly the buyer had sent photos of my friend’s stuff to one of their vendors, who decided that making exact copies was a good idea.  And to be fair, my friend may have never discovered this if that influencer hadn’t posted that video, and then the algorithm hadn’t served it to someone who recognized her work.

I saw that video when my friend shared it  and while I was stunned by how exact the knockoffs were, I wasn’t exactly surprised.  I had seen this happen a few times last year, with artists who sell their art either on Etsy or on their own websites, walking into a TJ Maxx or Home Goods store and finding exact copies of their art on coffee mugs, wall art, and other items.  And every time these artists posted about it on social media, the comments section was kinda mixed: 50% people being angry and supportive of the artist, the other 50% being angry…and supportive of TJ Maxx.  

“Why didn’t you trademark your work?” Btw–the fees for trademarking a design start at (in total) about $400-ish per use of the art, and that doesn’t include paying a lawyer to do it.

“This is just how business works and you should grow up and accept it.”

“You are obviously bad at business if this happened to you.”

“It’s not TJ Maxx’s fault…they just buy excess inventory so someone else did this to you. Stop blaming TJ Maxx.”

Even people saying “BRB running to TJ Maxx right now to buy some of these for myself.”

And to be honest, this is what you see on every post where an artist, maker, or designer (always small businesses) shares that a big company knocked them off.  It’s so gross and frustrating to me that so many of us will show up to defend the honor of SHEIN or Home Goods!

When I saw this video of my friend’s stolen designs, obviously I had to jump in right away to leave a comment, talking about how disappointing this was, how her business was literally run by and supporting her family, and how her stuff is actually better quality, too.  Pretty innocuous, but just wanted to be one of the positive comments at the top.

So that was in like March? Well in late June, I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee with Dustin as I do every morning.  It was early and I was in my pajamas. And my phone just started blowing up as someone named “hummingbird4e” was tagging me over and over again.  I had no idea who this person was and their comments weren’t making any sense…until I realized that she was responding to my pretty innocuous comment on that video…that video from three months ago btw. 

Okay, well first off hummingbird4e: tariffs are actually going to destroy our local economy, one small business at a time. 

She was also responding to other people’s comments on that post (including the original comment from my friend saying “hey, those are copies of my work!). She was giving my friend advice like “you should know that this is just how business works and hopefully you’ll learn a lesson and trademark your work next time.” To others, she was saying “this isn’t TJ Maxx’s fault, this is whoever they bought it from.”  I tried to engage with her nicely (this was when I was still in my “be nice to rude people” era) explaining my work experience, how TJ Maxx really gets their products, etc….but she just kept going and going.  And eventually I just had to block her.

But once again, I found myself asking, “why would someone spend hours fighting with strangers on the internet on behalf of TJ Maxx?” After all, it’s not like TJ Maxx –a huge brand that is a part of a mega corporation–would return the favor, showing up to defend and protect hummingbird4e in traffic altercations and small claims court.

Oh right….branding!

Let’s think about it for a minute:

• TJ Maxx’s core customer is a woman, often 25-54
• She tends to be middle to upper income
• She sees herself as fashion conscious, but too smart to pay full price for it. Even hummingbird4e has “passion for fashion” in her instagram profile. TJ Maxx literally has invented a term for its customers: Maxxinista, merging fashionista with Maxx to illustrate that its customer is stylish but smarter than regular fashionistas because she never pays full price. Even on its website, TJ Maxx says, “we’re smart shoppers, just like you.”
• She feels as if she is getting a good value for her money because TJ Maxx has told her, “Unlike more traditional retailers, we generally don’t do promotional pricing activity like sales, coupons or other gimmicks – just exciting merchandise at amazing prices, every single day!”
• In fact, she kinda feels like TJ Maxx is doing a service in the public good, right? Finding the best stuff, selling at the “real” prices, rather than the higher prices of those greedy department stores with their merchandising and gimmicks. “We love our bright, modern stores, and our lean, no-frills way of working helps us pass spectacular savings onto you. So, don’t expect fancy extras in our stores – just amazing merchandise at fantastic prices.”

And if your only exposure to TJMaxx is shopping there, maybe following some Maxxinista accounts on social media that post their latest finds or seeing commercials on television…well, why wouldn’t you think that TJ Maxx is amazing and worth protecting!

The fact of the matter is that TJ Maxx, like a lot of the big corporations out there, is not a good company. Customers have complained of declining quality of products over the years, along with less “real” brands in the store. It literally encourages customers to overconsume, with no talk of sustainability or ethical manufacturing.  The company cancelled orders in 2020 and refused to #PayUp when other retailers bowed to public pressure and did the right thing. Last year the Center for Environmental Health published a report that said while other retailers have worked hard to adapt their supply chains to avoid lead in products, off price retailers (including TJ Maxx) have not done so. In California, last year TJ Maxx workers filed a class action lawsuit alleging that they were forced to work through unpaid breaks and were not given the correct sick day accrual.

Is TJ Maxx any worse than any other big company out there? Probably not, but it’s also maybe not worth spending the day fighting with strangers on the internet.  Think of the time, energy, and emotional impact of all of that!

But that’s the power of branding: it makes you feel like you are part of something, that your appreciation and consumption of that brand says something about you.  And I like that we are starting this episode with TJ Maxx, because it illustrates that while some brands are successful because they are “cool” or “premium,” TJ Maxx has taken a different approach…and it’s just as powerful.  The question remains: does TJ Maxx really need your defense, after all it’s a big corporation, not a person. And would TJ Maxx return the favor should you find yourself in hot water on social media. Hmmmm…well, when you put it that way… What brand would you be happy to defend on social media for a few hours?

Welcome to Clotheshorse, the podcast that is ambivalent about TJ Maxx, but gets really offended when someone refers to the Grocery Outlet as “the Gross Out.”

I’m your host, Amanda, and this is episode 240,  part two in an ongoing series about brands and how they influence our identities and drive consumerism.

In part one we explored the meanings of brand and branding, along with the history of branding. I also revealed some brands that are really just licensed zombies at this point.  You should definitely listen to that one first!

In this episode, 

• We are going to hopefully answer the question “why might someone get caught up in a brand?”
• We will explore the background and influence of Marc Gobe’s 2000s book Emotional Branding, considered “the bible” of contemporary marketing and branding. 
• We will walk through the “10 commandments of emotional branding” and examples of how they have been applied
• And we will unpack  how the application of these 10 commandments has influenced our own relationships with brands, building large communities of strangers who are brought together because of where they like to shop/ what they like to buy.

My goal in all of this is for all of us to realize that brands are not our friends, many brands are running off of vibes, and that it’s lowkey kinda stifling and maybe even damaging to build our identities around them. Plus: when you stop caring about brand names, you probably just start dressing for yourself and buying/wearing things you like.  Which is always great for cutting down your consumerism!

I want you to be a part of it! So send me your stories about brands that you used to be obsessed with…and why you aren’t any more (or maybe you still are).  A brand that disappointed you. Or a brand you LOVE now because of something they did or didn’t do.  You can record these thoughts as a voice memo on your phone and send them to me.  Or write an email. Please do not DM me on Instagram. Chances are I will miss it because my notifications are always blowing up there.  My email address is always in the show notes.  It’s [email protected]

Okay, before we jump into all of this, I would be remiss as a podcast host if I did not remind you that Clotheshorse is coming to the West Coast in October, and I’m doing two live shows:

🐴 Thursday, October 23, Seattle WA at Here-After

🐴 Sunday, October 26, Portland, OR at Holocene

Tickets are on sale and a limited number are available, so get them now!

Both venues have told me that tickets are selling very fast and will most likely sell out as we get closer to the day of the show, so don’t procrastinate! Links are in the show notes and at clotheshorsepodcast.com

A 1999 New York Times article about furniture design called “Seductive Objects With A Sly Sting,” declared, “in the last 50 years, the economic base has shifted from production to consumption. It has gravitated from the sphere of rationality to the realm of desire: from the objective to the subjective, to the realm of psychology.”

In other words: people are buying things because they make them feel a certain way.  And nothing could be truer about branding, particularly the notion of emotional branding, in this century.  

These words are so true, that Marc Gobé, writer of the 2001 book Emotional Branding, chose to get started with those words in the introduction.  Gobé–founder and former CEO of one of the top branding firms in the world–changed the very nature of marketing and branding in this century.  And everything he discusses in this book–and his follow ups “Brandjam: humanizing brands through emotional design,” and “ Citizen Brand: 10 Commandments for Transforming Brands in a Consumer Democracy”–has been used (either intentionally or indirectly) by every big brand, successful startup, and cult brand in this century.   

Over the next two episodes, we are going to dig into the framework of emotional branding, while also exploring examples of Gobé’s theory in action. He passed away in 2014 from a brain tumor, but the impact of his ideas continues.  And while I’m pretty cynical about marketing (which would tend to make me pretty cynical toward Gobé’s work), I have to acknowledge that he also had some pretty radical ideas about the roles we as consumers play in sort of building the world we live in. He believed in the concept of a “consumer democracy,” the focus of his book Citizen Brand.  

It’s hard to find any media coverage of his work because it existed in a largely “early internet” era so it no longer exists online. But I did find this mid 00s  interview with him from the blog Design Emotion.  On the topic of “consumer democracy, he said, “Citizen Brand was an attempt to bring a better understanding to the role brands play within society. My feeling was that people were seeing a cause to rebel against the manipulation and lack of ethics of certain brands. Brands need to be about responsibility and people are not ready to sponsor brands that are not in line with their beliefs. Brand activism could go in two directions: it could be against the concept of branding in general or, as I believe, a way for consumers to change the course of a brand’s direction by voting with their wallet for the brands they believe in. I predicted this would be the influence of a consumer democracy.”

There is something bittersweet about reading those words now, in an era where it feels like a lot of things we buy–regardless of the category of product or the label on it–seems to somehow be controlled by a small group of billionaires.  And I see how the ideas of Citizen Brand–specifically brands that stand for something and give back–was weaponized as a marketing tool from the mid 2010s until recently, with give back products, promised donations, even the #girlboss era. We’ll talk about all of that next week. 

His words also feel more important and real than ever…and by “real” I mean, people are finally recognizing their power to steer the courses of these brands . If you don’t think that lots of intense conversations are happening behind the scenes at Target right now regarding the impact of the boycott, well…trust me, they are. It’s easy in a world of billionaires buying elections and mega corporations price gouging and stepping on workers to think that we are powerless to change anything. But as I always remind myself when I start to feel hopeless: there are way more of us than them.  And they need us–literally–to keep their businesses going, as customers and workers.  We can’t let them get away with anything.

So listen–I have a question for you: have you, yes YOU, ever found yourself defending a brand, retailer, MLM, exercise plan, or really any other product in the comments section of  a social media post? Have you ever fallen on your proverbial sword for Trader Joes’ or SHEIN or Soul Cycle or Hello Kitty or Selkie?

I–like all of you—have brands that I trust and like:

• My favorite cosmetics are from Axiology and Half Magic
• I love the soap and body moisturizre from Vellum Street
• I buy most of my personal care and cleaning products from Grove Collaborative
• I eat enough Fly by Jing chili crisp for a family of four
• I really like David’s toothpaste
• Humble is my current favorite deodorant
• When it comes to clothes I like Nettle Studios, Gravel + Gold, Nikki Chasin, Boyko, Meals, and Jungmaven.  I really like Flower Mountain sneakers and I wear Melissa jelly shoes almost every day.

I buy stuff from these brands because I trust them, the quality is good, the aesthetic is in line with what I like, and I feel some sort of connection to them. Am I going to get into a fight with strangers on the internet about any of them? Probably not…okay, that’s not true, I would definitely get into a fight with anyone who is mean to Nettle Studios.

I have fallen in and out of love with brands over the years.  You can always kinda tell what brand I really love at a specific time because I usually buy something from that brand as a birthday gift to myself.  

Back in the day, it was usually Free People.  But after working for Nuuly and attending all of the Free People product meetings, interacting more with the team there, seeing the dysfunction of it all, and finally seeing in black and white how little they were paying to make the clothes they sell for much, much more….well, the spell was broken. While Free People once represented a certain vibe and way of life that I wanted to embody, now it just feels gross and very, very uncute.  Definitely not something I want to be a part of anymore.

After my Free People phase, I was obsessed with Selkie.  And for a few years in a row, I bought a Selkie dress each year for my birthday.  That brand, its aesthetic, and its marketing felt like the fantasy life I wanted to have.  It felt like I was wearing on the outside what I felt on the inside.  But after the company used AI to design some prints last year and the way the founder handled all of that, I just felt less interested.  And honestly, seeing the way people were overconsuming and hoarding these dresses in the Facebook fan group just ruined it for me.  We’re talking 2, 3, 4 dresses from every drop.  Husbands building entire rooms to house someone’s Selkie collection. I also felt like some of the people in that group didn’t share my own personal values. I didn’t want to be a part of that anymore, either.

In between Free People and Selkie there was a brief dalliance with Loveshackfancy, but I had a really weird and uncomfortable visit to their New York showroom (where I was visiting as a buyer, planning to place orders for Nuuly).  I left feeling like Loveshackfancy was really a brand for skinny white rich ladies and they would prefer that I not be a part of their lifestyle.

So what am I going to buy myself for my birthday this year? Probably a ticket to Japan again.  It’s the only thing I feel like I “need” right now.

But one thing you might have noticed as I talked about the brands that I loved in the past (but feel kinda “meh” about now) is that in all three situations it was something I wanted to be a part of, that I wanted to sort of wrap myself in for the outside world…until I realized that I just wasn’t into it any more.  But WHY would I want to be a part of a brand? Oh you mean, I can be a customer there.  I mean, couldn’t anyone be a “part of it?” Or more importantly, could I just buy something from them and leave it at that? What is this whole desire to be a part of a store, a brand, a big corporation?

Feeling as if you are a part of something is a key element of branding. Whether your vegan, plastic free deodorant makes you feel like a responsible environmentalist every time you wear it, or that french puff dress makes you feel like a character out of Bridgerton…your relationship with brands is all about the vibes they are creating…and which vibes react best with your brain.

Yesterday I had a headache and I just felt kind of annoyed with the world. And everyone at the grocery store was being really rude and loud.  On the car ride home, I went on a rant to Dustin about how I have so much anxiety about people overconsuming workout clothes. Which then went into a whole diatribe about how it sucks that most activewear is plastic and toxic, and I know sometimes it’s the best option for some forms of exercise…so why not limit our consumption of these items to the bare minimum if they are kind of a necessary evil?

Now, when you’re talking to Mr. Dustin Travis White about your frustration with things like non biodegradable clothing, he’s generally a pretty captive audience. And his opinion on all of this was…many of the top selling activewear brands (like Nike, Free People Movement, Outdoor Voices, and Lululemon) all have very strong branding that almost indoctrinates people into their sort of “activewear cult,” making them want to wear those clothes everywhere as a signal that they are part of that cult (or at least, that “lifestyle”). Also, these brands are status symbols at this point. Lululemon leggings are $98.  Wearing them out in the world shows that you have the means to afford $98 leggings.

But also…critics of Lululemon have been saying for years that the brand operates like a cult:.

• The company says on its website, “Our purpose is to elevate the world by realizing the full potential within every one of us.” Which does sound pretty intense for, you know, a store at the mall that sells leggings. Why would a clothing company be elevating the world and helping us find our full potential? Think about it.
• Employees talk about an internal culture of toxic positivity, focus on personal growth via constant feedback, pressure to exercise constantly, and share personal information with their managers.
• Also, Lululemon is linked to Landmark Forum, a “self help” program that is considered very cultish.

I am going to share some links in the show notes about Lululemon and its cultish nature. You should check them out.

I mean, just saying “hey, everyone, this clothing brand is kinda like a cult” is pretty weird, right?

But this cultishness is not an accident.  It is very much intentional.  And if you or someone you know is actively wearing Lululemon leggings right now or is obsessed with some other brand, I want you to know that doesn’t make you less smart or a bad person.  

One of the many books I read to prep for this series was Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell. I highly recommend it for anyone who is remotely interested in cults and why people end up in them. It’s a strangely light and breezy read for such a heady concept.   When Parade magazine (not the underwear brand) asked her in 2022 why she wrote Cultish, this is what she said, “I want to implicate us all and show us that nobody is immune to cultish influence. Prevailing wisdom will tell us that cult followers are desperate or disturbed or naive, but that’s really not true. What I and many other scholars have found is that the people most likely to join cults or wind up in destructive groups are really intelligent, bright and cheerful. They’re optimistic. They’re idealistic in a way that can sometimes not be positive.”

It is that same optimism and idealism that gets us to buy into a clothing brand whose purpose (alongside making lots of money) is “elevating the world by realizing the full potential within every one of us.”

And emotional branding sort of plugs into that innate goodness, desire for joy, and intelligence within us all.  Furthermore, we’re all lonelier and more isolated than we have ever been as a species.  Finding our people, a place where we belong, a place where we feel safe, it’s challenging! Sure, we might find that at school, church, our volunteer gig, our families, or our hobbies…but sometimes it’s just not there either.  And that’s how people get sucked into CrossFit, MLMs, intense political conversations on social media, specific facebook groups or subreddits…or even via just being really, really into a brand and finding others who also love it. There are tons of subreddits and Facebook groups devoted to one single brand and people are chatting in those groups every day, building friendships and a shared sense of purpose.

The original version of Emotional Branding was released in 2001.  I have the updated version from 2009, which while being updated to reflect social media, online shopping, and the Obama campaign, still feels pretty out of date in some places, particularly in terms of language.  But it was also published 16 years ago and a lot has changed since then. I’m telling you this because I’m about to read you another quote from that Design Emotion interview with Marc Gobé.  He uses the term “tribe,” which never ceases to give me “white lady who loves Free People and Moon Juice” vibes.  And by now, language has evolved enough (I hope) that we recognize that the use of the word “tribe” by white people to talk about marketing is just not okay.  But here’s the quote, which actually DOES (when you ignore the antiquated word use) touch on why we get so sucked into brands:

“ I also support the idea of new tribes in which the individual is recognized, but in the context of specific shared values. For instance, what the Kinsey research did for America was more than just giving data to people about their sex lives; it also brought a sense that on the fringe of the ‘perfect heterosexual society,’ many people were defying the norm. Therefore, someone who felt isolated and personally at odds with the rest of society could find out that actually many others were like him or her. The web is becoming that tribe; people can meet and connect with others who have the same values without losing their own sense of identity. These fringe groups are often the most influential and the most likely to adopt a brand that will support their choices. Mass marketing is dead; understanding communities of individuals is the future of marketing.”

Essentially what Gobe is saying here is this: A good brand, a well marketed and well defined brand, will create a community around it that people will want to join. 

Let’s look at some examples here:

• Selkie: Before every fast fashion brand started knocking them off, Selkie was the first more widely distributed brand to sort of speak to this particular aesthetic and the people who wanted to wear pastels, big fluffy dresses, drink tea in rose gardens, go to Bridgerton balls…generally live this life of idealized princess in a watercolor painting at golden hour. And the people who gravitated to Selkie were so thirsty for this because previously it had been impossible to find. Now these people not only get to buy the clothes they fantasized about wearing, they get to connect with others in the Facebook group, go to meetups for Selkie fans, and share photos of themselves on social media with their other Selkie friends.  SO MANY PHOTOSHOOTS happening in Selkie at any given moment. And lots of Selkie weddings.
• I would also group together the more “dopamine dressing” brands like Nooworks, Big Bud Press, and Fashion Brand Company.  These are brands that stepped in and created fun clothes for adults, full of color, boldness, and whimsy when the status quo of fashion was kinda either boho, sexy, or beige. And these brands also have incredible customer loyalty, complete with customers who shop from every drop and very active Facebook groups and subreddits for reselling, sharing outfit inspiration, try-on photos, and speculation about the next drop.  And yes, people from the Nooworks group have literally made plans to hang out in real life. 

I think it’s easy to see why these cool indie brands would have thriving communities surrounding them, but guess what? There are multiple TJMaxx/Marshalls/Home Goods subreddits and Facebook groups, where customers share their finds, outfits, and decorating ideas.  One of the groups on Facebook has 468,000 members!  Ulta has a SERIOUS subreddit that is solely for customers, sharing their orders, product feedback and suggestions, and their frustration with the rewards system.  The discount grocery store Aldi also has multiple Facebook groups (the Aisle of Shame group has almost 2 million members) and a subreddit, too! I had to leave the Aisle of Shame group a while back because it was getting transphobic, and TBH it was a relief because those people were overshopping every single week, not for groceries, but for the clothes and tchotchkes on the “Aisle of Shame.” 

Which brings me to one of the sort of “halo effects” of these customer/fan communities: they drive others to shop.  Like a lot.  One person posts something that they bought, then everyone else is looking for one, too.  At least in the clothing brand groups, buy/sell/trade is part of the agenda, but in the TJ Maxx, Ulta, and Aldi groups, people are just cycling through a lot of stuff really, really fast.  Allegedly these groups are in no way run by the brands themselves, but wow, I would love to know the data on how much sales revenue is driven by these groups sharing and getting others to shop, too.  The thing is: no one shows up to these groups because they are looking to overconsume.  They show up because they want to meet other people who appreciate the same things.  It’s like joining a birdwatching group, book club,  or a sewing circle.  Or following the subreddit for your favorite show…except shopping is at the core of it all.

Marc Gobe didn’t exactly predict the Aldi Aisle of Shame Facebook group in his book, but he did lay out the “ten commandments of emotional branding” that ultimately do lead to a group of 2 million people who are all searching for the same cat bed and burgundy leggings in one aisle of a discount grocery store….because as Gobe says in Emotional Branding, “the biggest misconception in branding strategies is the belief that branding is about market share, when it is really always about mind and emotions share….[people] will fulfill their desires for themselves and for everyone around them by bringing an unprecedented personal and emotional dimension to their choices and decisions.”

In other words: people want vibes and meaning, not just a catchy jingle or a coupon. And with the right vibes and meaning, you will find yourself with a brand that builds a community around it.

So what are the ten commandments of emotional branding? Well, before we jump into them, I do want to point out again that the original was published in 2001, with the updated version that I own released in 2009.  Where were we timewise at that point?

• The first iphone was released in 2007. 
• Instagram wouldn’t launch until 2010
• Myspace was still pretty popular in 2008, until it was overshadowed by Facebook in 2010.
• Barack Obama won the presidential election in 2008
• The global financial crisis and the ensuing recession began in 2008.

Marc Gobe is writing during a time of remarkable social and technological change. Amazon was still a bookstore. Fast fashion was still primarily Forever 21 and H+M. Target was still in its designer collab era and people definitely called it Tar-zhay.  Whole Foods was still owned by Amazon.  So he’s writing about a world that would look very different by 2020. 

1. Consumers buy, people live: rather than seeing customers as consumers who must be manipulated and conquered, create desire in customers without harassing them or talking down to them.  One thing we will talk about more next week is Gobe’s assertion that people don’t want to feel like they are being sold to, so you kinda have to be sneaky about it.  And the social media era and its influencers made it realllllly easy to sell to someone without it feeling like an ad.
2. Products fulfill needs, experiences fulfill desires.   This is the dawn of more elaborate merchandising in stores, the instagrammability of it all, and a desire to spend more time shopping in a space.  This is also how car companies started sponsoring music festivals and stores started hosting bands and tarot card readers.
3. Honesty is expected. Trust is engaging and intimate.  It needs to be earned. Now this one is interesting, because even though it was early in the life of the internet when Gobe wrote this, he felt that brands were essentially required to be honest now because the internet exposed everything about them. And I do think that social media made it easier to interact with brands and call them out, get your friends to pile on.  Blogs like Urban Counterfeiters and later, Diet Prada on instagram facilitated communicating the bad things that brands were doing that weren’t “big” enough for the traditional media outlets to cover, but mattered nonetheless.  But I also think that in the past ten years or so, brands have gotten BETTER at hiding the truth using technology and the existing ecosystem of social media and digital content to create a smokescreen. I think a lot about Nike simultaneously flooding the internet with stories about recycled sneakers, while also lobbying aggressively against any legislation that would ban the import of products made with Uyghur forced labor.  A smart brand with resources can easily drown out the bad stories with some affiliate marketing and a good advertising campaign.  But thinking about this commandment and the idea of trust reminded me of an example of a brand that really gained my trust on a much higher level in the way it dealt with a difficult situation: Nooworks.  Now, I’ve always admired Nooworks and I often use them as a case study in good branding (and good business practices) when I’m teaching small business classes:
   1. –Nooworks makes clothing in the United States (all production is done in the Bay Area) and the prints on the clothes are part of collaborations with a diverse range of awesome artists.
   2. –This blurb from their website really nails it:“Nooworks is a woman owned, women run business. We make limited edition textiles with artists we love in cuts to make you look and feel good. All our garments are produced in California. We try to source all our materials in the USA and work with incredibly nice people. We are a small team with a lot of love. Thanks for your support.”
   3. –I mean, already after reading that, my heart is full of vibes for this brand. But it’s all genuine. Over the years, they have extended sizes to 5X and they have very open, transparent communication with their customers. It’s no wonder that they have this highly engaged, very devoted fanbase. And because they operate with such integrity, their clothing is essentially collectible, with high resale value.  So there is a thriving secondhand economy within the Nooworks community.
   4. –In 2023, Nooworks revealed a new print collab with California artist Ana Osgood.  Almost immediately, the comments section on the instagram post filled with people who thought that print looked a little familiar to them, with some actually sharing art that indicated that the print was a direct copy.  The problem? The print wasn’t a copy of art by Ana Osgood, it was the work of Brazilian artist João Incerti.  
   5. —What happened next is where and when Nooworks won my trust and admiration in a major way.  Allegations of copying and knockoffs happen nonstop in fashion.  I mean, this episode began with TJ Maxx stealing my friend’s work.  Generally when it is called out (especially on social media), the brand quietly pulls the product, then destroys it or sells it off to someone like TJ Maxx.  The social media team goes into hyperdrive, deleting the posts and any negative comments.  It may even turn off commenting for a few days.  Essentially going silent until people move on.  And it usually works…because there is always something new to be upset about.
   6. –Nooworks took a different approach: it extra super communicated about it with a series of posts.  They reached out to the original artist, João Incerti, offering to pay him for the use of the art.  After all, the product was already made, it cost a lot of money to make, and destroying it would be both irresponsible/wasteful and a big hit for a small business like Nooworks.  Incerti instead asked them to donate the money he would have been paid as an artist to two charities: the Rainforest Foundation to help Indigenous and traditional peoples of the world’s rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and uphold their rights and Yeah Arts, funding art education making arts education more inclusive, accessible and relevant. Nooworks also renamed the print Desert Disaster.
   7. –This might all seem like a minor blip in a chaotic world, but it just felt so real, so honest, and so thoughtful, especially in comparison to how most brands would have handled this situation.  That trust  made me a fan for life.
4. Quality for the right price is a given today.  Preference creates the sale.  I laughed reading this part of the book because he says this “Levi’s is a quality brand, but it has currently lost its preferential status.  Victorias Secret, a brand that has achieved an enviable and highly charged emotional connection with consumers today, is revolutionizing a new category and redefining the hosiery and beauty business.” I think it’s important to call out that he wrote this at a time when many of us were heavily dowsing ourselves in Love Spells body spray (or any of the other Victoria’s Secret body stuff.  But actually….the fact that most of us are EW GROSS about Victoria’s Secret right now in 2025 and we consider Levi’s a respectable heritage brand, speaks to how preference changes with time, trend, and brand image. But also “quality for the right price is a given” is laughable in the fast fashion era…when price rarely indicates quality (when you’re buying from a big retailer).  And really this just illustrates to me that many brands have been coasting by on vibes for the last decade, de-prioritizing quality and getting away with it because so many people are devoted to the brand.
5. Being known does not mean that you are also loved.  Truer words have never been written.  But for years, brands felt that just “awareness” of their brand was good enough. That if you were reminded of a brand often enough, eventually you would just buy it because it was familiar to you. I swear this is how I ended up binging Girls in 2015. But in the last century, brands didn’t realize that their customers also needed to like them.  And while that sounds pretty basic in 2025, this was a startling new concept.  So in the 00s and 2010s, we saw long hated brands like Texaco, AT&T, even Walmart trying to build affection within their customer base with give back campaigns and expensive commercials.
6. Identity is recognition.  Personality is about character and charisma! Yes, brands could no longer just have a good logo or a cute store, they needed to have a sassy Twitter presence (Wendy’s) or silly commercials (like every car insurance company).  Or they had to be super cool (Glossier) or super sexy (Skims).  This is why brands share memes on instagram, or try to create posts that play into memes and sort of “algo language.” Why? Because they want you to see them as a character that you relate to. By now, at least one of you is getting really riled up and you’re about to send me an email that says something like “OKAY, BUT WHAT ABOUT SMALL BUSINESSES?” 

So let’s talk about that for a moment.  

When I’m teaching brand, branding, and social media/marketing to small business owners (or even working on this with my clients), I tell them to drop the “we” if they don’t have employees and speak in terms of “I and me” a lot more often.  I think many of us have been trained to use we and us to seem bigger and more important.  If there is more than one person working on a business, then surely it is a business to be respected? Eh, I don’t think so. To be honest, I think it’s really important that small business owners are transparent about themselves, the day-to-day reality of running their business, and what matters to them.  In an era when people defend the honor of TJ Maxx on instagram, more than ever small businesses need to differentiate themselves by leaning into (and being super honest about) their smallness, their values, and who they are behind the scenes.

The reality is that a lot of small businesses have a real personal relationship with their customers. I think a lot about what it was like to go around town running errands with my grandma when I was a kid.  She has lived her entire life in York, Pennsylvania. When I was a kid, I can remember a time (it was brief) when big chains still had not invaded the county.  Yes, we had McDonald’s and chain stores at the mall. Two Kmarts and a Toys R Us…but we didn’t have Walmart or Target. Only locally owned grocery stores. Most restaurants were not chains. The pharmacy was locally owned. So when we were out running errands, my grandma knew most of the business owners–who were actively working in their stores–and she stopped to chat with all of them. They had either grown up together or they were the children of people she had grown up with.  In fact, my grandma actively hated and avoided the big chains that were slowly moving into town because they seemed faceless and greedy.  These business owners were the people who showed up to fund the town Halloween parade or the high school Homecoming dance. They funded local scholarships.  The sponsored youth sports teams.  They donated materials to my girl scout troop.  Heck, some of them helped pay for me to go to “gifted” camp every summer. 

Your town or city might be filled with big box stores now.  The last time I went to NYC I was struck by how many big chains had moved into spaces once occupied by locally owned small businesses, and yeah it made me sad.  It also makes NYC more…boring! You might be asking “where can I find small businesses in a big box mega corporation world?” Well, first off, ask your friends. Many of them probably do own small businesses or know someone who does.  Next, look at your online communities.  The new “small town main street” of small businesses is online.  The problem is that the super loud, 20 lane highway of big business is kind of drowning them out.  So engage with the accounts of small businesses by commenting, liking, and sharing.

Now some of you are probably getting ready to send me an email telling me that not all small businesses are good, some are run by bad people, some underpay (or don’t pay at all) their employees.  Some create toxic and abusive environments. And some are actively scamming their customers.  Yes to all of that. The reality of human existence is that some people are kinda sketchy and cruel. Some people create a lot of harm and some of them do that via their business.  There are shitty people in just about every industry, working any kind of job you can imagine.  Ask me about the early childhood educator who drugged and sexually assaulted me.  Some small business owners suck.  That’s what makes it even more important to lift up and support the small businesses that are working hard to do the right thing.  So they don’t get lost in the noise created by big businesses and shitty small businesses.

A lot of this “emotional branding” stuff is about creating the illusion of small business for big businesses …maybe you won’t eat at fast food chains because you think they are all big corporate food science, but then Wendy’s makes you laugh on Twitter, so you give it a chance because suddenly Wendy’s has a personality.  Or maybe when Sephora sends you a discount code for your birthday, you feel like they really care and you have a real relationship with them.  

I am always super wary of bigger businesses that pretend to be small businesses.  My worst job ever still seems to masquerade as a small, woman owned feminist business…but when I was there, we did like $30 million in sales in one year.  Sure, that’s not Amazon, but it’s definitely not a small business either.  But people fell for that.  This company also mostly reposts other people’s memes on its instagram account because it makes them seem real and fun, like a business run by one or two really fun cool people. And yes, the CEO has definitely read Emotional Branding because her background is in marketing at Nike.  Sooooooo….ugh don’t get me started….okay, but actually one more thing: that business also felt that marketing was the most important part of running a successful business.  The product mattered less than the branding around it.  Or as Gobe said, “ Preference creates the sale.”

• The functionality of a product is about practical or superficial qualities only. Sensorial design is about experiences. So…what does that mean? Basically, it doesn’t matter how great a product works if the design isn’t cool and interesting. Apple products are a great example.  They don’t just work well, they look and feel cool. The Apple store feels both futuristic and warm. Clean but somehow cozy.  And sure, an iphone is great, but I have heard that a lot of the Samsung phones are actually better and do more things…but the brand is less cool.  Iphone versus Android has always been a vibes and branding issue, not a product quality issue.  And btw, I had an android phone for years (I loved it…it had a pull out keyboard) and the only reason I upgraded to an iphone is because back then, Instagram wasn’t available for androids (yet)…which also felt like a branding decision.

• Ubiquity is seen. Emotional presence is felt. This is one that definitely affects my feelings about a brand. Basically, if we see logos, billboards, merch, and commercials everywhere we go for a brand, it feels less premium and important to us.  And really, the less a brand advertises itself, the cooler it seems, right? The more we trust it. It almost feels like that brand has more integrity and we are super cool for being one of the select few to know about it. This sounds like a no-brainer to us right now in the 2020s, but for years the prevailing strategy in brand marketing had been “saturate the zone.  Get in front of customers before your competitor does.” Billboards, print media ads, commercials, contests, coupons, catalogs, etc.  And get yourself into as many physical locations as possible, by opening stores or selling wholesale to anyone who would have you. In this century, when the world is kinda saturated with stuff, brands and items that are more difficult to find feel more special and premium..and people are willing to pay more money for it, whether it’s vintage clothing, a cult makeup brand, or one of a kind/small run apparel and jewelry.  Makers and small brands out there: don’t let the jerks on social media who tell you that you’re overpriced ruin your day.  They were never going to be your customer in the first place. I promise that the right customer thinks your stuff is super valuable and unique…and they will pay the price that pays your bills.

One thing that is an important element of “emotional branding” that we will talk about next week is the idea that brands should be selling us stuff in a way that seems like they are not actually trying to sell us stuff.  And social media–which was just barely emerging when Gobe wrote this book–is the easiest way to do that, via influencers, haul videos, giveaways, carousels of photos customers took of themselves wearing the clothes, sharing memes, etc. It gives brands access to customers, an ability to remind them of their existence, without seeming too sales focused.  It gives them that “emotional presence.”  They are sort of tapping us on the shoulder every day to remind us that they exist, without explicitly running a commercial or taking out a billboard.

• Communication is telling.  Dialogue is sharing. With this one, Gobe is digging into this idea of advertising without advertising. He recommends targeted, more personal messages, like a discount code on your birthday or social media posts that start a conversation with you. Or nowadays a common marketing email is the text only email that appears to come from the founder or CEO of the brand…but it’s really coming from Klaviyo or Mailchimp.  It’s just another piece of junk mail.  He also underscores the power of PR (ironically most media coverage for brands is now pay to play via affiliates).  But also: collaborations with events, blogs (remember when every brand had a blog in like 2010-ish), social media content.

• Service is selling.  Relationship is acknowledgement.  This is where Gobe almost explicitly directs brands to fake the relationship that consumers have with small businesses:
  “Who does not feel special when someone in a store, a restaurant, or even an online merchant welcomes you by name?” To be fair, one time Dustin and I met my parents at the Applebees in Salem, OR and everyone there really did know my dad and seem very excited to have him there.  We felt like celebrities by association!  But we can see how Gobe’s advice here plays out in emails from Gap that start with “Hey Amanda” or even (shudder) marketing texts and push notifications from brands who magically know when you are near a store.  Or talking about pool slides with a coworker and opening Instagram to find it full of pool slides from different brands. We know all of this is just data, not true relationship and care, right?

Ultimately, the goal of emotional branding is to create an illusion for customers, and it can come in many forms. Going back to that interview that Gobe did with Design Emotion, he said:

The head, heart and gut approach is a way to decode people’s motivations and create an emotional brand identity. We have to assume that everyone has a rational side, a need to be involved in society and deep, gut desires that are self-revealing. We also have to accept that the scientific and psychological world has concluded that contrary to what we believe, most of our decisions if not all are emotional and driven by our guts. In our work we always try to find the percentage of “head”, “heart” and “gut” a brand needs to express. A fragrance, for instance, is mostly about “gut”, an insurance program mostly about “head”,” and a baby product about “heart”. Where I have seen this process work best is in evaluating the perceptions people have for a brand around these emotional guidelines.

The illusions that these brands build can vary. Maybe they choose one or they go with all of them: 

• The illusion of scarcity and coolness: when something feels top secret or rare, it feels more premium, like only you and a few other select super cool people know about.  So you’re likely to be more loyal to that brand, buy just about anything they sell you, and even pay just about any price they ask.  Kinda hilarious when you think about people lining up to buy stuff from Supreme (for example) because from 2020-2024, Supreme was owned by VF Corporation (a mega corp that also owns Dickies, Vans, Jansport, Icebreaker, Wrangler, Timberland, and more)…before it was sold to another mega corporation, EssilorLuxottica, in 2024. Now it’s part of a massive portfolio that includes Sunglass Hut, Ray-Ban, Lenscrafters, Oakley, Pearle Vision, and more. What’s cool and “authentic” about that? Yet Supreme maintains that image because of marketing, social media, partnerships, store experience, and media coverage. 

And btw, emotional branding of this nature can also be used to lure in employees and pay them a lower wage than other companies might pay. Raise your hand if you’ve been underpaid for the privilege of working at a “cool job.” I’m currently raising both hands and my feet!

• The illusion of identity: Shopping from this brand versus any other brand shows who you are to the world.  Which is often true, sadly enough. Lululemon leggings show you have some money.  Shopping at Target over Walmart used to mean you had taste and liberal values. Shopping at Anthropologie means you have eclectic, elevated, worldly tastes.  Whole Foods means you care about your health.  And so on…and I would ask (spoiler alert: this is the homework for this episode): how do your favorite brands make you feel? What do you think using those products and supporting those brands says about you? Or what would you like an outsider to think it says about you?

• The illusion of relationship and community:  Going back to TJ Maxx and its army of Maxxinistas ready to fight with strangers on the internet.  TJ Maxx makes its customers feel like they are part of a secret group of very smart, very stylish people… who TJ Maxx is there to serve and protect.  This is how cults build their following, with a message of “the world is terrible, fortunately the cult leader is here to protect you.” All of the language on the TJ Maxx website is about searching the world for “great values” and “great choices” especially for the customer.  Nevermind that TJ Maxx would also love to offer you a high APR credit card to pay for those purchases.  And while TJ Maxx might be there to offer you hot deals, are they going to show up to contribute to your GoFundme to pay your medical bills? You know, like a real friend would?  I would also say that SHEIN and Temu play into this similar idea of quasi relationship with the customers.  Sort like, “hey we sell you stuff factory direct so you can get low prices on everything and ‘live like a billionaire.’” Unlike every other company out there, we’re actually cutting out the middleman so you can live the life you deserve. Or Amazon might not be trying to be cool or masquerade as a small business, but it’s offering you convenience and sort of limitless options. And you can kinda order and receive stuff just about everywhere at this point.  It can start to feel like Amazon is there for you, no matter where you go.  And that alone creates a feeling of safety and trust. 

As we finish up this episode, because wow, this has been a lot…I want to remind you that the purpose of this series is to untangle all of the ways brands and branding are subtly influencing our behavior, whether it’s something as extreme as going scorched earth in the comments section with a stranger to defend your favorite brand, purchasing something from every drop, or even just putting something you would totally wear back on the rack at the Goodwill just because the label says Chicos or Old Navy. 

And as we are starting to see very clearly, BIG BRANDS ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS. They aren’t going to take care of us when we need help. They don’t really care about our birthdays (but they would love for us to use that discount code).  And to really get down to brass tacks here, they don’t even care about selling us quality product at this point.  It’s just vibes.  They continue to sell us worsening quality because the vibes (created via Emotional Branding) convinced us a while back that we should stick with this brand through thick and thin. But what do we really get out of that highly transactional relationship?

What struck me most as I did the research for this particular episode was how many virtual communities are built around particular stores and brands, whether it’s Aldi, TJ Maxx, Target, Madewell, Glossier, or any number of small indie brands. In a weird way, there’s some sort of magic happening in those groups: stories are being shared, friendships are forming, and people are even educating others about things like pronouns and why diet culture is a scam. True story! I’ve seen both topics covered in length in a variety of different brand fan facebook groups.  That’s why I’m hesitant to say these groups are inherently bad.  But the fact remains, they do drive people to shop more, often for things they don’t need. And sure, in the Nooworks group people are swapping and reselling their clothes (which is amazing), but in the Aldi and TJ Maxx groups, people are just buying stuff and kinda hoarding it. That kind of thing worries me. But what if you could take your brand fan community to the next level? Do some activities out in the world together.  Do a secondhand sale together and donate a portion of the proceeds to a mutual aid organization or gofundme. Share laundry tips and repair advice. Take the relationships to the next level beyond shopping.  After all, no brand is ever going to save the world, but we as individuals certainly can change things for the better when we’re working with one another.

Okay, everyone…that’s the end of installment two in this series.  I have been enjoying researching this and writing this (another 30 page single spaced script right here)…I really hope you are enjoying it too!

Next week, we are going to continue talking about Marc Gobe and Emotional Branding, by dissecting the branding trends he predicted in the 00s and how they became a part of the brand playbook through the 2010s:

• Cause marketing, girl boss, and brands that “stand for something”
• Toms
• Why everything was pink in September
• A portion of the proceeds…
• Round ups at checkout
• 1% for the planet
• B Corps, greenwashing, and vegan leather
• Words that got ruined by brands using them in bad faith
• And marketing on the luxury of time and convenience.

Wow, that’s pretty epic!