The Goop-ification of space
Plus: Every Gen-Alpha is building a brand
Morning,
Personal shout out to Denise, a long-time reader, who gave the letter a shout in a great post on brands backtracking on positioning.
Super appreciative when you share insights you find here.
And welcome to all the new people here. Excited to have you.
As always, the lens of this letter is a best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What I’m dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands.
Let’s dive in!
CULTURE
REACH VERSUS FANS IS A GROWING DIVIDE
Patreon’s CEO, Jack Conte thinks algorithms are killing the "follower". Patreon is rebuilding its platform to support the super-fan better with products that seem similar to Substack’s. Outdoor Voices founder, Tyler Haney’s new venture TYB is also tackling something similar. Cool to have options but most brands are overwhelmed as is so we’ll see what wins out.
COLLEGES NEED TO GO INTO PREPPER MINDSET -> AfterSchool -> The Hustle
4 East Coast colleges announced $90K/year tuition this week. Meanwhile, the WSJ says enrollment in vocational training programs has surged. And Gauth AI (owned by ByteDance) is doing homework for kids. Higher education will be dead in 20 10 years if they don’t figure out its value proposition.
THE WORLD FEELS DARK, BRANDS ARE GOING LIGHT
Lighthearted, humorous content is where brands are leaning right now. Aura Bora’s bit on ‘new products’—hysterical. Loewe’s spelling bee—so good (also great casting). Sol De Janeiro sunscreen launch is fun (they also worked with comedian Jake Shane on some bits). SpinDrift’s true crime show—funny. Sergio Tacchini’s a good albeit safer take. Humor can be hard for brands to pull off. You have to hire good writers. It’s worth it though.
WHERE YOU GO IN THE WORLD MATTERS
StratScraps is a fun insider industry read. This quote on media placement was good:
“Comms architecture always puts channels at the bottom. But executions shouldn’t be assigned channels. The tactic should be built with the channel in mind. Comms isn’t just a guide to where things are going, it should happen before creative concepting so the team can see the place the ideas will exist within.”
OLDS WANT TO GET FIT, BUT DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT GYM
Saying it again, +60s are a great brand demo. The fitness industry is missing out on them though. There’s a gaping opportunity for an Orange Theory for boomers. If anyone wants to work on this and franchise it, give me a holler. A few of the stats:
The fitness club market is a $112B industry.
There are few classes catering to 59-77 leading them to opt-out.
1-in-6 people will be over 60 by 2030
+60s hold over 50% of US wealth.
Over 60m people are members of health clubs in the US, but fewer than 25% are older than 55. The boutique studios / small gym industry is projected to grow to ~$80B by 2029
F&B
HAPPY COFFEE NOT MAKING EVERYONE HAPPY -> Feed Me
Target picked up Happy Coffee. The brand, which was founded by Craig Dubitsky (also the founder of Hello Oral Care products) and Robert Downey Jr., is getting some flack for the branding. Feels very much in line with Hello’s branding but one was an oral care product and one is very much not…
Manischewitz rebranded. It’s cool to see a brand with so much history go after a fresh look and a younger demo. But it feels like it’s lost all its nostalgia. This brand comes with generations’ worth of stories in every family. Some love it, some hate it, but it’s always there. Don’t lose yourself in a bid for the future.
We wrote about Impossibe’s rebrand (and big move to the color Red) recently. Came across this pop-up booth for ExpoWest and it’s making the brand feel like Heinz mixed with a bit of Taqueria Oronico. The moodboard is showing.
FAST FOOD GOOP IS HITTING -> Feed Me
“Gwynnie to Go” is a funny headline but Gwyneth’s restaurants are no laughing matter. People are hooked. Including @firstrodeo (former founder of Golddune, whose substack is def worth reading). Decent and healthy food delivery is a gap and good for GP on filling it. (Still dislike Goop’s logo, it should be SO much better).
TRADER JOE’S IS TRAITOR JOE’S?
Beloved niche—but popular!—brands like FlyByJing and BrooklynDelhi are calling out TJ’s for making private-label dupes of their products. Foxtrot does this too (still love them). Amazon has long been knocking off best-selling products. Would be cooler to have in-house incubators/RD happening but not what boards want to invest in.
YOU NEED TO BE HIGH TO SPEND MONEY ON GETTING THIS HIGH -> The Hustle
Starting in 2025, you can half a million to enjoy a meal from a Michelin Star restaurant in a “SpaceBalloon” 100k feet above sea level. A 6-hr “Stratospheric Dining Experience” serving ‘Holistic cuisine’ awaits complete with suits from Ogier. The Goop-ification of space is here. But beyond that, extreme experiences are a real space (ha) for brands to play.
People, including Andrea Herández, are not happy about Momofuku’s cease & desist letters targeting (small) brands that use the (trademarked) term Chili Crunch. Chili Crisp is ok, Chili Crunch, no. Yun Hai Pantry calls out that this is the equivalent of trademarking ‘barbeque sauce’. The comments on Momofuku’s latest post say it all. Brands, don’t do silly shit like this, it is not worth it.
DRUGS
Everyone’s obsession with ayahuasca is seeping into CPG. Kava-based psychedelic water, kanna chews, “psychedelic and psychoactive snacks [are] increasingly on the rise.” People just want to escape. Expecting a lot of brands in this space but the sentiment of escape is also something any brand could embrace.
ALPHAS
BRAND YOUR TWEEN NOW -> AfterSchool
AP test and extracurriculars move over, personal brand has made it to college admissions. The only saving grace is Alpha's don’t need to go to college (see above). Get ready for a lot of tween influencers trying to look good for college.
RETAIL
BRUNELLO AND ZEGNA ARE COO-COO OVER CUSTOM
In a recent letter, we wrote about Zegna’s new China-based store that’s leaning into custom, tailor-made clothes. Brunello Cucinelli also got that memo and is acquiring Sartoria Eugubina, a renowned couture workshop. This trend has building for a while with the popularity of Tony Shirtmakers and influencers like Alex Delany and Dan Pelosi posting about tailoring.
The non-alc store to watch is not looking so hot. It might just be closing its retail location though and be focusing on distribution. But they might want to look out as Target recently announced they are going to carry more cool non-alc brands in stores.
TECH
“ShopMy, a marketing platform for content creators to connect with brands and monetize their content, announced that it raised $18.5mm… Affiliate is a huge category – it’s replacing a lot of traditional advertising.” Digital ads aren’t dead, they’ve just changed.
DON’T BULLSHIT ABOUT YOUR AI -> The Hustle
Don’t lie about your AI capabilities or the SEC will come for you. Delphia claimed it used AI to predict upcoming companies and trends. It couldn’t. $225k fine. Global Predictions false claims will cost it $175k. Fuzzy edges are popular but not a great strategy.
DUO’S COMEBACK COMES WITH GOOD LESSONS
Sean Colombo was interviewed about kickstarting DuoLingo’s growth. This was the best part IMO:
”Our learners wanting to build a habit gives us an advantage over other ways they could spend their time. For us, identifying our strategic advantage pointed us toward iterating on notifications and the streak system (which helps build the habit that our users want to build). When you find your strategic advantage, it will point you in the direction of product changes that should have outsize results for your business.”
SPORT
ALEX WANTS YOU TO WATCH SPORTS -> Feed Me
Alex Copper, of Call Her Daddy, is going to host summer Olympics watch parties. The Olympics are so amazing, more people should love them. Hopefully, this works. The games being in Paris will help regardless, content for Paris is always better. And the following Games in LA are no doubt going to be major for brands. Time to start planning for that.
AI WILL UP YOUR GOLF GAME -> The Hustle
AI means a 4-day workweek. Or so says Mets owner and billionaire, Steve Cohen. In light of that, he’s investing $3 billion in a golf entity controlled by the PGA Tour. Golf turning into a marketing/money-making sport is a fascinating development.
WELLNESS
REMEDY HAS A REMEDY FOR THINGS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF
Luxury wellness club, Remedy Place, launched a free platform called The Framework. The most fascinating things is what they are calling their offerings: human connection, intentional environments, time training, stress training, growth and development, appearance training, and conventional health. Too bad, as Emily points out, the website is non-functional, deeply want to read descriptions for these.
GROWN ALCHEMIST HAS OUTGROWN ITS PARENT
Grown Alchemist is splitting from L’Occitane. The brand is going private to accelerate growth and drive development in key markets, including North America and China. L’Occitane needs to sort itself—could be so great (again). Big holding companies have to figure out how to let brands innovate faster.
ORANGE GELEE’S COMEBACK STORY -> Wishlist
This product sold out quickly earlier this year. Devin wrote about the great job Vacation does in telling the product’s development story. People love nostalgia (and Vacation does it SO well), they love old people’s expert reccs. This has all the things. Take notes.
FOX IS ATTRACTING ALL THE BRANDS
Julia Fox did 2 collabs within weeks of each other. Liquid Death x Elf and Velveeta, Julia’s rise to darling is fascinating. Her fans LOVE her and the engagement on these posts is wildly positive.
TRAVEL
Reed Hastings is opening a members-only ski club. Ski resorts are struggling. That said, since moving close to one of Europe’s most famous resorts, I can tell you there are a lot of summer tourism opportunities in the mountains that the US hasn’t tapped into.
PEOPLE WANT YACHT MADE FOR KIDS -> Feed Me
Superyachts are now being built with water toys, gyms, and pizza ovens for picky eaters. Sure, yachts aren’t for everyone, but this points to a bigger trend. Parents want more options for things to do with kids. They are sick of playrooms, they want cool restaurants with good drinks and play areas. Switzerland is great at this, brands can look there for inspo.
FUN TO FOLLOW
Zillow Gone Wild is going to be a TV show
A produce liaison to LA’s best chef’s
Horrifying yet funny new ‘show’ by Gymnasium (formerly Faze), Boy Room
CJ Hendry most recently this public pool installation but all of it really
JUST FOR LAUGHS
The comment section on this post about Papa John’s new tagline.
Savannah Bananas’ perspective is entertaining.
Can’t tell if Emily was joking about this scoop on a new Cindy Crawford-backed spicy tequila, CasamigAs.
If you made it this far, wow and thank you. Just one more thing, before signing off. We used to post more long-format pieces like this one on Worldbuilding and the importance of brands having fun. Should we do more of that? Or are these weeklys fun? Weigh in in the comments. Thx!
That’s all, folx.