@theoryofkhaos: People think Vacation sunscreen won on great design. It didn't. It won on a smell. It's called the Nostalgia Effect 🧠 Let me explain... Think about the smell of chlorine. You're not thinking about chemicals. You're thinking about being nine years old, at a pool, with nothing to do until dinner. Nostalgia does two things to your brain at once. It makes you feel closer to other people. And it makes you feel like the same person you were back then, which is oddly comforting. Here's the part that matters for brand strategy. When someone is sitting inside that feeling, they hold onto their money less tightly. They stop comparing prices. They're just trying to stay in the memory a bit longer. Vacation launched into a category that sells on fear. Skin cancer. Damage. Protection. Vacation went the other way and made the scent the product. They brought in two perfumers to build it, and the notes they landed on weren't "tropical" or "fresh". Classic Whip did over 100 million views on TikTok and sold out four times in a row. And so the lesson is this. Most brands ask what their product should look like. The brands people obsess over ask what their product should remind you of. The feeling you're selling already lives in your customer's head. Cult branding is working out which one, then being the only brand that hands it back to them 😈 #branding #cultbranding #brandstrategy #brandpsychology
