• As civil rights demonstrations echo across the US in response to the death of George Floyd, businesses may not know the right way to convey support for the black community. 
• Rebranding expert Tiffany Tolliver said silence is the worst thing for a company right now and could affect your bottom line. 
• She explained which approaches work, which don't, and why brand messaging in a time of civil unrest and injustice is so important for your business. 
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This week, many major brands have turned to social media to show their support for racial justice after the death of George Floyd led to protests against police brutality across the US. But many businesses have been silent, perhaps because they aren't sure how to best express their support or are afraid of backlash. 

Rebranding expert Tiffany Tolliver said silence is the worst thing for a company right now. A brand's choice to not say anything could affect its bottom line at a time when messaging should be so much more than a single post.

"It's not just a blanket one-step move," she told Business Insider. "It's rooted in a consistent plan for action."

Tolliver is the founder of The Emmarose Agency, which provides brand consulting and web design for women entrepreneurs. Over the past several days, she's seen prime examples of brand statements that support people of color, as well as disappointing examples of how brands are missing the mark. 

She analyzed social media posts to break down what works, what doesn't, and why brand messaging in a time of civil unrest and injustice is so important for your business. 

Step 1: Decide against silence. It's counterproductive and could affect your bottom line.

There are two main reasons silence is not the answer, Tolliver said. The first is that it's counterproductive to the conversations happening around racism, police brutality, and inequality. When brands owned and operated predominantly by white people choose not to speak out, they are opting out of using their privilege and influence to reach people. It can communicate to customers and followers that the company's leadership doesn't care, or point to an underlying fault that its teams are not diverse. 

"It goes back to us not feeling seen and heard," Tolliver said. "The businesses and the brands that I love, that I support, that I give my money to, when I see them making a choice to be silent, it almost feels like they don't understand me." 

Secondly, when white-owned and operated businesses stay silent, they are inadvertently passing the work onto an oppressed community that is hurting emotionally, physically, and mentally. Though a company's vow to be silent could be intended to listen and be thoughtful, it undermines the very people they are trying to consider and could leave them feeling underserved and unheard. 

This can also influence how non-black communities and allies take their cues and react to these issues, continuing the cycle of unheard voices among the oppressed. "If I'm a non person of color and I see brands muting themselves, I probably will mute myself as well," Tolliver said. 

Ultimately, silence could hurt your bottom line. Over the past couple of days, Tolliver has seen companies delete Facebook comments and threads, effectively muting a conversation, which can lead to customers drawing away from that community and pulling out their money.

"If I feel comfortable there, I personally am going to spend my dollars there," she said. 

Companies keep the message alive, Tolliver explained, when they choose to acknowledge their advantages, commit to amplify black voices, and authentically support black businesses. And if brands choose not to write a statement, Tolliver said they should unschedule posts, ads, and other marketing promotions and amplify black businesses instead.

Step 2: Listen to your community and understand its reach

It's important to understand your brand's audience and the customers looking to your company for guidance. 

"We're not just talking about one group of people. We're talking about a group of people that have supporters," Tolliver said. 

Put simply: your followers have followers who have followers. 

Responding appropriately to current news events and injustice requires brands to shift their content schedule to address feedback and questions from followers. As an example, Tolliver cited the women's career community, Create & Cultivate, which initially made a single Instagram post to address racism then moved on to its usual content.  

Many of its followers expressed concerns that the brand didn't amplify more black voices or provide more resources. 

"Speaking out on social injustice has been a one-line type of approach," Tolliver said. "'We can move on and get back to business as usual.' But it's harmful." 

A few days later, Create & Cultivate posted nine black female voices to follow and launched more content throughout the week focused on black women, including workshops hosted by black entrepreneurs and experts. 

Tolliver said that though the brand started off with a misstep, she applauded its swift action after feeling the pressure from its community. 

"If you feel comfortable collecting black dollars, you should become equally as comfortable ensuring that your platform is a safe space," she said.

Step 3: Don't get caught up in hashtag trends

On Tuesday, many Instagram accounts posted a single black square with the hashtag #BlackOutTuesday to show solidarity for the black community. But this movement was originally intended to be #TheShowMustBePaused, a day for the music industry to recharge and hold itself accountable, according to Vulture. 

Though many had good intentions, this fad backfired when Instagramers posted #BlackLivesMatter in their captions. This hashtag is usually used to post resources and updates from the Black Lives Matter movement, but by Tuesday morning, it was just full of black squares. Tolliver points out how companies can be ill-informed to only follow what's trending and not do their own research. Following a trend for the sake of appealing to your audience can come off as not genuine. 

"It shows us a lack of empathy for the whole situation outside of injustice and inside our community. You don't value me," she said. 

For example, Tolliver said that wedding-planning software company Aisle Planner did not acknowledge support until followers including she and her friend — a wedding planner who uses the service — called the company out in Instagram comments.

Tolliver said the company deleted the comments, then posted a black square for #BlackOutTuesday with a caption saying it was "muting all posts to amplify the voices of those hurting, ensuring that the loudest message on social media is that Black Lives Matter."

Tolliver said it seemed like the company was merely trying to win back support from their followers. "It was more discouraging to hear that they were attempting to stage support, which is something that I've also seen brands do, which is a huge no-no."

Aisle Planner later posted a series of statements to its Instagram story acknowledging the mistake and the steps they are now taking to show support and improve. Tolliver said this small step was a glimmer of hope and she urged them to create a plan to address and dismantle what she calls the systematic and oppressive issues within the company.

Step 4: Don't delete critical comments. It's OK if they make you uncomfortable.

Tolliver said it's important for brands to inconvenience themselves and be willing to get some things wrong, with the understanding that it's about something much bigger than yourself. In a time of difficulty and confusion, there will be many unanswered questions, which requires vulnerability.

"Silence doesn't make you vulnerable because I can't see it," she said. 

Tolliver sat on the board of a creative community called the Rising Tide Society for three months. Yet she didn't feel represented when the company remained silent on social media after George Floyd's death. So she called them out in a comment on one of their Instagram posts, which they then deleted. 

The company has since posted in support of anti-racism and the BIPOC community, but Tolliver said that when people express their feelings in comments, a company's response should not be to delete them. 

"When you delete the posts, it makes me feel unseen," she said. 

Step 5: Make a long-term plan

Finally, posting a message of solidarity, sending links to resources, and elevating black voices are only the beginning steps of an ongoing conversation brands should be having. Companies need to initiate substantial changes in their organizations and think of ways their impact can last through the coming weeks, months, and years.

In the case of Create & Cultivate, Tolliver said they have an opportunity to bring more diversity to their team and become more consistent in amplifying voices of color on their panels at events. 

The fact that many non-black owned and operated companies are just now asking these tough questions point to a larger flaw in their organizations: they haven't given people of color a seat at the decision-making table to begin with.

"They're flocking to these people in a state of panic, when a course of action could have been to amplify and authentically support black businesses in the first place," Tolliver said. 

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In the late 1990s and early 2000s, fast fashion disrupted the apparel industry as we knew it. People could suddenly buy trendy clothes they saw on the runways of Fashion Week for a fraction of the cost and achieve all the looks en vogue, without the luxury prices. 

But over time, many realized these low prices can come at a human and environmental cost. Customers are now demanding transparency in pricing and manufacturing practices, but many brands have some catching up to do.  

This month, US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came under fire on Twitter for selling a $65 sweatshirt emblazoned with the call to "tax the rich." Despite people's political differences, the biggest issue wasn't the message, but the price tag. Comments said the sweatshirt was too expensive for "most average working-class" people and "only the rich" could afford it. The price has since dropped to $58.

Chief analyst at real estate and economics media startup Better Dwelling, Stephen Punwasi, who worked in mass-market apparel for  about 10 years for companies like Tevrow + Chase and Bluenotes, argues that the price of each piece of clothing reflects the cost of the materials and labor required to make it. 

"Consumers are biased to their experience. When a final price point is your only comparison, products are highly commoditized," he told Business Insider in an email. If brands want customers to buy their products at premium prices, they'll need to explain the reason for the price tag. 

Ultimately, it's not the consumer's fault for questioning a price tag, he explained. Rather, clothing brands are responsible for setting low price expectations by driving what they pay for materials and manufacturing lower and lower. Retail is highly competitive and oversaturated. In a world of cost-conscious shoppers, the brand offering the lowest price, wins. "It's fair for a consumer to have some alarm bells go off, and ask if they're being screwed," Punwasi said. 

The price of AOC's sweatshirt remains a case study for how businesses can more effectively and transparently communicate pricing to customers off the bat.

Why did people think AOC's sweatshirt was 'so expensive'?

Most apparel brands aim to sell their items for double the cost they pay to the manufacturer, according to Punwasi. If a sweatshirt costs $50 wholesale, the end price for customers would be $100. However, competition for high-volume pieces like T-shirts can slash these prices and command even lower prices.   

After marketing, advertising, payroll, rent, and a slew of other expenses, final profits typically end up around three to 20% of the price tag, according to Punwasi, as long as the product is purchased at or around full price. Clearance and deeply discounted apparel doesn't always turn a profit. 

The product page details for AOC's hoodie provide key information that warrant its price tag. First, it's made in America, where minimum wages and labor standards are higher than in other countries, plus the factory real estate is undoubtedly more expensive, Punwasi explained. The graphic was also printed by union workers, which means they were paid more than the minimum wage. 

"Could it be cheaper? Yes, but one person's spending is another person's income," he said. "Racing to the bottom also means driving consumer wages lower, so balance is important." 

Adopt radical transparency in your user experience

Only in the last decade have customers become more informed and concerned about what goes into their purchases. Before 2010, they were relatively in the dark without much information from brands about how their clothing was produced, distributed, and priced. 

"It was never communicated to consumers that some things are cheap, because the rest of the price paid is an environmental or human cost," Punwasi said. 

Fashion used to be a notoriously secretive industry, he said, until consumers began questioning the ethical cost. That's when brands like Everlane launched to create apparel for a growing customer base that wants to know how their clothing is produced and the reasons for the prices. 

Everlane adopted "radical transparency," explaining the real cost of everything they sell, down to the profit margins, labor, materials, and markup. And it's all seamlessly worked into the user's experience on the website. The company even tells customers what factory makes the clothing and who owns it. 

Punwasi compared shopping at brands like Everlane to visiting a farmer's market, where people are willing to pay a little more because you see the faces behind the product. "When people have a concrete connection to how something is made, and the true costs involved, it's easier to stomach paying more," he said. 

This approach can help drive sales and customer loyalty, Punwasi said, providing a competitive opportunity for more companies to explain why their products cost more compared to other brands. "Consumers feel like they're invested in a cause, rather than just a transaction."

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In 2020, Travis Scott launched a special-edition McDonalds meal and drew millions of viewers to a virtual Fortnite concert. The rapper announced his latest brand deal on Thursday with beer brewing giant Anheuser-Busch.

The joint venture is a new hard seltzer brand called Cacti that will hit shelves in spring 2021. The beverage was inspired by Scott's love of tequila and incorporates tequila's main ingredient, Mexican blue agave, according to a company press release. 

"Cacti is something I'm really proud of and have put a ton of work into," Scott said in a statement. "Me and the team really went in, not only on getting the flavor right but on thousands of creative protos on everything from the actual beverage, to the can concept, to the packaging and how it is presented to the world." 

Cacti will debut with three initial flavors — lime, pineapple, and strawberry — and a 7% ABV that's significantly higher than other hard seltzers on the market. White Claw is 3.7% ABV, while Bud Light Seltzer is 5%.

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It will be brewed in Los Angeles and will be available in a 9-pack of slim 12-ounce cans, along with 16-ounce and 25-ounce singles. 

Anheuser-Busch's parent company AB InBev is responsible for hundreds of big-name beer brands like Budweiser, Bud Light, Corona, and Stella Artois, and it's expanded into hard seltzer as the beverage has boomed in popularity in recent years. The Cacti brand joins other AB InBev seltzer offerings like Michelob Ultra seltzer, Bud Light Seltzer, and Bon & Viv, which launched as the first hard seltzer in 2013. 

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If you watch a day-in-the-life video of a so-called VSCO girl on YouTube, she'll probably show you her morning beauty routine featuring the dewy glow and pastel shades of Glossier makeup. She'll show you how she makes her iced coffee and drinks it with a metal straw. Then she'll give you a tour of her Urban Outfitters dorm room and a mirror view of her outfit, complete with a puka-shell choker.

Viewers who lived through the '90s might notice one item in particular: a simple, pale T-shirt with a stick figure and a simple mantra, "Life is good."

It may seem odd that someone born in 2003 would want to wear a clothing brand that was popular with their parents more than two decades ago. But the reemergence of Life Is Good apparel is also a story of resurrection for the Life Is Good brand and its business.

According to one of the company's cofounders, its executive team, and industry experts, 2020 had all the makings of a low year for the Boston-based brand. But it turned out to be one of the all-time highs. According to internal documents shared with Business Insider, the company projected it would reach $120 million in revenue by the end of the year and double its annual customer acquisition compared with last year.

Bert Jacobs, who founded the company with his brother John in 1994, said that kind of growth was largely attributable to one core belief: Life may not be good right now, but it will get better.

Website conversion broke records, as did charitable donations to the brand's nonprofit focused on healing childhood trauma. Donations at the point of checkout increased 151% from last year, with a total of $416,000 donated. (That's on top of the 10% of net profits the business donates to its nonprofit.)

No doubt some of this success is thanks to a new generation of super fans: Gen Zers who show up in droves on social media to be brand ambassadors or tout what they see as a solid vintage look, for free. "The brand itself is so kind," said Kiarra Thon, 16, who sells cropped Life is Good tees and other reworked goods on her Instagram page @thriftediscoverys. "I posted a picture on my main in one of their shirts, and they sent me a bunch of clothes and items for free! it made my day."

From the brink of bankruptcy to not a single layoff

Outside the thrift bins, the brand is still projecting its positive outlook onto the world — with the help of its mascot, Jake, the beret-wearing stick figure that camps, swims, bikes, and fishes on the front of its shirts. He's the epitome of finding the joy in life, especially for a year when it seemed everyone was grasping for a sliver of optimism.

Life Is Good has three spokes in its revenue-generating wheel: products it sells in stores wholesale, products it sells online, and licensing fees from partner companies that collaborate on Life Is Good-branded products. Wholesale, which made up nearly half the business, halted abruptly at the start of the pandemic. "All of a sudden we had zero revenue," Jacobs said.

By mid-March, the Boston headquarters of the roughly 200-person company closed and required employees to work remotely. In Hudson, New Hampshire, the company's distribution center could either cease operations or make dramatic changes to keep workers employed.

Like business leaders around the globe, the Jacobs brothers and their executive team had some tough choices to make. To keep the company afloat, they could file for bankruptcy and lay off half the workforce. But they wanted to do everything in their power to keep people employed.

That month, in a remote meeting from the kitchen counter of her apartment in Boston, the brand's president, Lisa Tanzer, asked managers not to panic but to tap into what she calls superpowers of compassion, openness, gratitude, courage, creativity, fun, and humor.

"In good times and in not-so-good times, it's important to stay focused on your business mission," said Tanzer, who's been the president of the company since 2016 and was the first board member of the nonprofit that eventually became the Life Is Good Kids Foundation.

Days of intense virtual meetings with a 10-person task force followed. They decided to keep the distribution center open, carefully following public-health recommendations.

Keith Campbell, the vice president of operations who oversees the New Hampshire facility, was in these meetings.

"We had to accept the fact that COVID will come into the building," he said. "When it's asymptomatic, you can't control that."

In addition to imposing strict rules about social distancing, temperature checks, handwashing, wearing masks, and cleaning, leadership instructed employees to behave as though they were both the only infected person in the building and the only person not infected. The point was to understand that every move you make could spread the virus.

Keeping the warehouse open was just the beginning of the company's strategy to stave off bankruptcy. Leadership decided to go all in on a strategy they'd had been testing out for some time, said Tanzer. Rather than manufacture and screen print the bulk of its apparel in Peru and Guatemala, the company had begun stockpiling blank t-shirts in New Hampshire where it could use local screen printers to print limited runs and test out designs. Not only does this shorten a process that typically took months to a matter of days, it helped the company understand what kind of messaging customers wanted in this uncertain time. 

This print-to-order approach is more labor-intensive in the short term. But over a year it helps to increase profit margins, because the company won't lose money on tons of unsold inventory that would normally end up at off-price retailers like TJ Maxx.

"If the factory has that inventory, it hurts their business. If the brand has that inventory, it hurts our business," Jacobs said. "Inventory kills businesses."

Fast-forward to the holiday season, and the company is breaking records every day, Campbell said. It shipped more than 12,000 packages on December 8. "We just had five consecutive days of breaking a record of shipping orders in a day," he said.

Leading a customer-centric brand with 'rational optimism'

The Jacobs brothers started their business on the foundation that the world didn't need another place to buy T-shirts; it needed optimism.

Tees were just the conduit to serve up positive messages, playful graphics, and a mission for change. In fact, Bert Jacobs doesn't consider Life Is Good an apparel company at all. To him, it's a communications company that can make a greater impact than a government or nonprofit.

"Anybody who thinks we can solve the world's problems without business is out to lunch," he said.

During the tumultuous days of the pandemic, Tanzer said, company leaders asked themselves how they could turn the obstacle into a chance to do things better. "We try to find the opportunities to spread optimism in order to help people through a difficult time," she said.

"We're not believers in an optimism that's blind," Jacobs said. "Blind optimism doesn't acknowledge obstacles, but rational optimism does." Life Is Good would acknowledge the hardships of 2020 while still encouraging people to see the joys in life.

This rational optimism comes to life in graphics like a ponytailed Jake in a hammock above the words "zero tasking" or three colorful daisies atop the Life Is Good slogan. Through its speedier supply chain, the company had the power to speak to the sudden changes and daily uncertainties of 2020, reminding people through its apparel that "this too shall pass" and to "stay calm, stay cool, stay home."

When Major League Baseball postponed its season, the company quickly printed T-shirts that said "2020: the longest rain delay in history." It became one of the bestselling shirts of the year. Other bestsellers riffed on quarantine and science themes, like one that said "Science: It's like magic, but real."

The move was controversial internally, Jacobs said. Some employees saw pandemic-related messages as a huge risk. "People said, 'You can't try to be funny with this. It's dangerous. It's not our place to talk about medical things,'" he said.

But skyrocketing sales numbers proved the graphics were a hit and continued to rebuild lost revenue. Not only did the company keep every employee, but it hired more to cover extra shifts, and, according to Jacobs, it plans to give end-of-year bonuses. The company produced 1,250 new graphics this year, compared with 200 last year. "I doubt anybody in this country sold more quarantining T-shirts than we did," Jacobs said.

The zeitgeisty graphics were a smart marketing move and further cemented Life Is Good as a customer-centric brand at a time when people were searching for hope and goodwill, said Rohit Deshpande, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School.

"We are so focused on negative things," he said. "For anybody to have a really positive message means so much more now than it did before February of 2020."

Deshpande uses the term "customer centricity" to describe a brand philosophy that puts the customer's needs and desires first and believes revenue and profit will follow.

"Consumers need reassurance right now," he said. "The companies that are doing that, it's going to pay off in spades after this pandemic is over."

A new generation of mission-driven consumers

Gen Zers — often described as part of a mission-driven generation — hope to make an impact through their wallets, which represent spending power of more than $140 billion. Whether they're saving sea turtles with reusable straws or providing jobs in Costa Rica with bracelets, their purchases are as morally backed as petition signatures and charity donations.

Life Is Good's altruistic approach and obsession with what its customers want mirror the ice-cream brand Ben and Jerry's, Deshpande said. "Their audience knew that these people were in essence tithing, donating a certain portion of their earnings to nonprofit causes," he said. "You sort of felt good paying more for Ben and Jerry's ice cream than you would for Haagen-Dazs."

Plus, the brand is just old enough — 26 years — for teens to consider its older styles verifiably vintage. Young eco-conscious thrifters on Instagram sell styles with the brand's older, more minimal graphics of flip-flops and butterflies. VSCO girls wear oversized Life Is Good tees with a pair of biker shorts and a wrist full of scrunchies.

"There's a lot of consumers and fans that are in the 20-to-30-year-old range that are buying into what we're doing, because they're seeing us in a new light," Jacobs said.

Thon of @thriftediscoverys told Business Insider that young people like the brand's tees because they're of a good quality, motivating, and cute.

"The vintage look in their T-shirts is a lot more intriguing than a plain T-shirt," she said. "The sayings they have on their clothing items, along with cute little pictures, is very inspiring, honestly, and it makes you want to literally be in the picture."

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General Motors unveiled a new logo on Friday as it transitions its century-old car business toward an electric future. 

The logo change — only the fifth update since GM was established in 1908 and the first in more than a decade — comes as part of a new marketing campaign focused on drumming up interest in the brand's upcoming electric vehicles. 

The new logo features the company's initials in lowercase, a departure from the capital letters that have served as GM's logo for decades. The lettering is surrounded by a rounded blue square, and the whole logo is done up in a blue gradient, aimed at "evoking the clean skies of a zero-emissions future," according to GM. 

The logo still has the familiar underline, but only below the "m"— GM says that's a nod to the company's Ultium battery platform that will power its new generation of EVs. The negative space between the underline and the "m" is designed to resemble an electrical plug. 

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The new design debuts alongside an "Everybody In" marketing campaign that GM is embarking on to launch its new EVs. 

GM plans to invest $27 billion in EVs and autonomous technology through 2025 and aims to grow its EV lineup to include 30 vehicles by that year. Its flexible Ultium battery and motor platform will underpin a wide range of new EVs across GM's brands and price points. 

The GMC Hummer EV, the automaker's first battery-powered pickup truck, is set to hit the road this year, while the Cadillac Lyriq SUV should arrive in 2022. A full-size three-row electric SUV is also in the works, as are two new vehicles based on the Chevrolet Bolt. 

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Robinhood spent years crafting a brand that promised to upend investing by making it easier for regular people to trade stocks.

But after a sudden and controversial move to halt trading in certain shares on Thursday, branding and crisis PR experts now say the no-fee app may have managed to destroy all those years of brand equity — and potential customer loyalty — basically overnight. In order to get back on its users' good side, sources say, Robinhood must commit to transparency and open communication.

"Strong financial services products and brands are built on trust and objectivity," said Matt Rizzetta, chairman of North Sixth Group, the parent company of PR firm N6A. "The instant these values are breached it can turn into a crisis that is impossible to recover from."

Robinhood responded to a request for comment with a link to its blog post from Thursday.

Robinhood is living through a branding nightmare

To recap: Robinhood quickly came under fire on Thursday when it decided to limit buying of shares of GameStop and other volatile companies including the theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings. The stocks in question were at the heart of a frenzied rush by retail investors who piled onto the market to try and make money at the expense of short sellers who had bet against them — the now-famous squeeze. 

While the decision has since been reversed, and Robinhood has said that it's allowing limited buys of these shares, the blowback came just as quickly. Customers flooded the Google Play Store with angry, one-star reviews; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Robinhood's move "unacceptable"; and the company now faces a class-action lawsuit from angry users. Further, the SEC said it will review actions by entities that inhibit trading ability, while both the house and senate scheduled hearings on the matter.

Robinhood may not have had a choice in the matter. A blog post published on Robinhood's website Friday explained that clearinghouses, which "act as the central depositories for securities," can raise their deposit requirements based on a firm's customer holdings and the volatility of certain stocks.

In the Friday blog post, Robinhood said that the deposits its clearinghouse required increased 10-fold last week, which is why the company temporarily halted trading on certain stocks that the clearinghouse had raised deposit requirements on.

It's also why Robinhood raised another $1 billion between Thursday and Friday. 

And yet: What is there to do regarding brand damage done?

Robinhood once had a reputation for protecting the 'little guys'

Rizzetta has seen this story before, he says. 

"Robinhood is a textbook example of years of goodwill and brand equity disappearing instantly," he told Insider. This is largely due to Robinhood "violating the cardinal sin of using poor discretion against the interests of [its] customers."

That violation cuts straight to Robinhood's identity as a friend of the "little guys," says Erich Joachimsthaler, founder and CEO at brand strategy firm Vivaldi Group. (The legendary Robin Hood, of English folklore, stole money from the rich and gave it to the poor.) In this case, those "little guys" were investors on Reddit who banded together to drive up the stocks of GameStop and others — both to turn a quick profit and apparently to send a message to Wall Street.

In the end, however, Robinhood's decision to limit trades because of "financial requirements, including SEC net capital obligations and clearinghouse deposits,'' according to a Twitter thread by cofounder Vlad Tenev, signaled to consumers that it wasn't capable of handling their money — its avowed reason for being.

That disappointment could hurt not only its reputation but also its long-term business, Joachimsthaler said.

"If you lose trust, love, and respect, then you lose the business," he said. "Many of its competitors also offer zero-fee trading now, and they are a safer choice."

Robinhood may have also lost consumer confidence because of how it explained its decision to halt trading of certain stocks, in Tenev's Twitter thread and in two blogposts.

The best way for the company to rehabilitate its brand — and to mitigate the risk of users jumping ship — is "to educate their clients or their future clients about why they took the actions that they did," said Tim Derdenger, an associate professor of marketing and strategy at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. Honesty, with a dose of clarity, is the best policy.

Robinhood also needs to communicate to users, Derdenger added, that "we're still on your side."

That's because Robinhood in some ways failed to live up to its name and reputation of being the friend of the little- guy retail investors. 

The crisis is exacerbated by the current climate, where anxieties are high, consumer trust is low, and cynicism reigns supreme, said North Sixth Group's Rizzetta. 

The Friday blog post was a step in the right direction. It said Robinhood halted trading of certain stocks because they weren't immediately able to meet its clearinghouse's deposit requirements, and "not because we wanted to stop people from buying these stocks." The blog post went on: "This is a dynamic, volatile market, and we have and may continue to take action to make sure we meet our requirements as a broker so we can continue to serve our customers for the long term."

How Robinhood can rehabilitate its image

It remains to be seen whether the company will be able to overcome the crisis, experts said.

Andy Gilman, president and CEO of CommCore Consulting, stressed the need for being proactive, saying that the company needed to hire a team of seasoned crisis communications experts and develop an orchestrated communications strategy to combat the negative press. About a month ago, Robinhood posted a job opening for a corporate communications manager.

The company must also continue to act fast, as it did by tackling its liquidity problem and raising money overnight to be able to at least offer limited trading, said Joachimsthaler. 

"If social conversations reinforce the narrative that they are not really the friend of the little guys, but are in cahoots with the big hedge funds," he said," the harm will be difficult to overcome."

Nick Lichtenberg contributed editing.

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Burger King announced its first total rebrand in over 20 years in January, including a return to a logo with a classic look and an emphasis on the whopper. 

The new logo is a modern version of the classic BK look, putting the restaurant name between two buns. All the branding was redesigned in colors inspired by the whopper, too, including yellow, brown, red, and orange with a new "Flame" font.

The chain is slowly rolling out aspects of the design that take longer to change, like employee uniforms in new brand colors, and logos and signage that emphasize the flame-grilled whopper and open kitchens that show off the broiler.

So far, the rebrand has gotten positive attention from industry experts in Ad Age and consumers who appreciate the simple, pleasing look.

Insider asked two designers to share their thoughts. 

Debbie Millman, cofounder of the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts and host of the Design Matters podcast, was part of the team that designed the 1999 logo. She told insider she's huge fan of JKR Global's work with Burger King. The new branding has a "warm, retro vibe," she said and is reminiscent of the brand's roots.

Around the time of the 1999 logo design, the Burger King brand was suffering. Sales were declining and the chain was trying gimmicks to bring in customers, from adding new menu items to briefly hosting an internet cafe in dining rooms.

"Swooshes and gradients were all the rage back then," Millman told Insider, and the former logo showed that Burger King was "modern and a bit sharper around the edges."

Steven Heller, who has written and edited more than 100 books on design and popular culture and cofounded the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts, was more critical of the former design. Heller called the design "kind of awful" because of "color combinations that don't work" and "that swirl or swoosh made it look more like a sports logo than a food emporium."

"Blue isn't a color that food companies use as a rule," Heller said. Burger King's chief marketing officer Fernando Machado agreed. "There's no blue food," he told Insider about the rebrand.

"The redesigned logo reflects a new era for Burger King and its commitment to fresher, cleaner ingredients is best represented by looking back to simpler, less processed times," Millman said about the rebrand. 

Heller felt similarly, noting that the new design nods back to the original concept. The new logo is "suggestive of real meat," and "much more tasteful and tasty than that more corporatized old logo."

Millman, who was around for the last redesign, told Insider that the culture and what kind of branding people like is different now than it was 20 years ago.

"I think people are craving less manufactured shine in the construction of logos and experiences, and prefer more straightforward honest identities now," she said.

"A good logo is a refined logo. Refinement is everything. If the concept isn't rendered well, if nuances aren't there, it won't work" Heller told Insider.

Do you have a story to share about a retail or restaurant chain? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com.

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In 2020, clothing brand Faherty had a standout year, according to its twin cofounders Alex and Mike Faherty. 

Alex credits one thing that helped keep his company afloat during this time: having a diversified business model and supply chain. 

When the company first launched in 2013, the founders made it a priority to have a diverse business, which saw the brand sold in retailers throughout the United States. Its supply chain stretches from South American to Asia, and the company has stores in various geographic locations, such as the Soho neighborhood in Manhattan and Martha's Vineyard. 

The eight-year-old brand's women's clothing business is up about 100% year-over-year, and its annual compounded growth for the company these past four years has been 64% according to documents viewed by Insider. The men's side of the business isn't doing too bad, either — it counts actors Neil Patrick Harris and Matthew McConaughey, in addition to country star Thomas Rhett Atkins, as fans.

The brand is sold in over 250 stores throughout the world and currently has 16 locations of its own. It's planning to open another 15 this year, and most recently launched in the new markets including West Palm Beach, Rosemary Beach, San Jose, and on Abbot Kinney in Venice, CA.

In an interview with Insider, Alex talks about how a diversified business model and supply chain worked for his company during the virus.

Alex made it a priority early on to build a business model that didn't depend on one channel for revenue 

Early on, Alex said, he focused on diversifying the company's business model, so that it did not depend too much on revenue from one medium. 

The company started off by establishing an online presence, then built a mobile beach house that traveled throughout the country. In 2014, the company expanded into wholesale by launching into retailers such as Nordstrom and Barney's New York. By 2020, the brand was sold in 250 retailers throughout the world.

Alex said the company made sure to carefully select locations that varied geographically and in population size, to both sell and manufacture Faherty clothes. It was this diversified supply chain that helped the company survive the pandemic, he continued. 

The company's supply chain spans Europe, South America, North America, and Asia. When Asia saw the first shockwave of the coronavirus in early 2020, the company was able to lean on its European, South, and North American channels. 

When the Asian markets opened back up, the company was able to shift back to its manufacturing over there, as its supply chain was taking a hit in the European and American markets in mid-March. 

Even domestically, Alex said, the team was keeping a close eye on migration patterns. 

For example, when physical retailers began to close last year, the company shifted to e-commerce. As people fled New York City, their Soho store emptied out but their locations in the Hamptons and Martha's Vineyard saw an increase in sales. 

"It's been a challenging keeping up with the calendars, keeping up with the factories," Alex said, giving the same advice another small business told Insider about how it was able to whether the pandemic:  "It's about being nimble and flexible, and having a diversified supply chain." 

Faherty has been rapidly expanding into the digital marketplace 

Despite the fact Alex prepared for a diversified physical business model, he said the company is still playing a bit of catch-up when it comes to the digital market pace. "Fortunately, e-commerce really accelerated for us," he said. "So once the shut down happened, we were able to scale our customer acquisition and introduce ourselves to a lot of new people." 

Alex's wife, Kerry, who is in charge of social media, is helping the company expand its presence on the digital marketplace. "I'm always thinking about how we are showing up as a brand in the world, and that means both in the physical space, the tactile space, and the digital space," she told Insider. "When people think about Faherty, we want them to feel a sense of warmth, trust, and inclusion, and we will keep making strides to do that across all avenues."

The company currently has over 100,000 followers on Instagram and doesn't use any Instagram influencers. Instead, the company depends on organic interactions with customers, some of whom become unofficial brand ambassadors. Alex said the team started to increase the amount of content it was producing and went on a hiring spree during the pandemic to bring on content copywriters on the marketing side to further develop the storytelling of the brand. 

Before the pandemic, the company used to host live concerts and events, and it took that virtually, hosting "sun sessions" on Instagram which highlights different artists such as musicians and chefs each week. The company has also partnered with a few podcasts to help expand its reach.

Its expansion into the digital marketplace is only set to continue, even as vaccinations continue. 

"At the same time, you know, we have some retail stores right now that are performing incredibly well," Alex said, adding that the pandemic's impact on real estate provides them with an opportunity to open more stores throughout the US. 

"In the right areas, where people are still safe, they're still shopping in physical retail," he continued.  "We're looking at lots of different opportunities in the next couple of years to really grow our retail cards as well. And take advantage of an attractive real estate market."

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Every startup needs a branding strategy. Your brand strategy gives you an outline and a plan to work through, making sure that your company hits all the goals along the way. 

But choosing which strategy will work for your startup depends on the details.

What is a branding strategy?

In the most simple terms, a branding strategy boils down to the plan you make for actions that will grow your business. It includes your brand personality, how you interact with your customers, what you offer to consumers, and brand identity design elements including your logo and print materials.

A good branding strategy utilizes your brand as a cohesive whole so that each aspect of your brand will work with the others, creating growth synergistically.

Obviously, the exact strategy you choose will depend on your company and what has the greatest chance of success. And your strategy may change as your company grows and develops.

Key branding strategies for startups

A branding strategy for an established business will differ greatly from startup strategies.

For example, a business that is already running may choose to branch out in a line extension strategy, creating new products to capture a further audience or to fill a need that their current audience has. That could be a strategy that you choose later down the line.

For a startup, however, it's a matter of getting the brand launched and building a core before you start branching out too much.

Here are some important startup branding strategies that could potentially work for your own new business:

1. New brand strategy. This strategy creates a brand around a central product. It enables you to launch with your product at the center of the brand, connecting your brand with that product in the minds of your audience. This strategy also works for companies that are already established but which want to create new products and garner new audiences.
2. Flanker brand strategy. If you're looking to gather the widest audience possible, this is a good possibility. To establish this strategy, create product variants that appeal to different consumer groups. For example, you may create a tech product that is higher end, with a stripped-down lower-end variant to appeal to those who may want something more affordable  and don't need all the bells and whistles. The high and low end products can be launched under the same basic brand, but should be differentiated by name or designation, ie. iPhone 8 versus iPhone X.
3. Attitude branding strategy. For a startup, it's less about leveraging brand loyalty and more about projecting a personality. Attitude branding pushes attention to marketing a lifestyle, feeling, or emotional connection, rather than just a product or service. Nike is a great example of this; their branding promotes a healthy, athletic lifestyle, which is represented by their individual products.
4. Competitor brand strategy. At times, a company already enjoys a share in a niche market, but wants to pull above against their competitors. If that's the case for your startup, you may want to focus on a competitor brand strategy, which means going after an existing audience rather than seeking a new one. Ultimately, the advantage of a competitor brand strategy is that you already know there's an audience for your product. You just need to determine how you can rise above the existing competition and secure a bigger market share.

How to choose a branding strategy

Before you make a decision on which branding strategy you're going to adopt, it's important to identify the core concepts, values, and promises that make your brand unique.

Take the time to pinpoint these details:

• What is your target audience?
• What promises does your brand make to this audience?
• What values is your brand built on, and how do they play into the messaging?
• How do you tell your brand story?
• Who in your business is involved in implementing your branding strategy?

The last question, ideally, should be answered with, "Everyone!" Even hourly employees should be aware of the branding strategy and willing to whole-heartedly support it. Remember that customer service is also deeply involved in effective branding — everyone involved in the startup needs to be a team player, and remember how their actions and words reflect on the brand.

Along with these, the visual aspect of your branding, such as your logo, color palette, and website design, should all be taken into consideration. 

Ultimately, the goal is to choose a branding strategy that matches your brand to better  reach your customers and communicate with them on a meaningful level. Align your branding strategy with your brand personality, and you'll create a plan that will help you to reach each and every goal.

Zaheer Dodhia is a serial entrepreneur and creator of DIY logo design tool Logo Design. He works with small businesses and startups on affordable branding solutions. Connect with him onLinkedIn orTwitter.  

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As a business consultant, I often have to remind small-business owners that their marketing needs to be more interactive, versus the traditional "push" model, where you broadcast your message to as many people as possible.

New generations of customers respond better to the "participative" approach, where they get to provide input via social media and the internet.

It started a few years ago with email satisfaction surveys after an online purchase, but now includes interactive internet ads, as well as custom requests for input on the design of future products and influencers on social media. It seems that everyone these days wants an experience and a relationship, and is willing to become your best advocate via word of mouth.

Some call it a move from always "hunting" for new customers in the wild to "gardening," or nurturing loyalty and value from the ones you already have.

In any case, the new approach is important to all businesses, and embodies some new marketing rules that you need to focus on and learn:

1. Make your marketing exploratory and dynamic

The days of big-bang long-term campaigns that never change are over. You should be constantly trying new approaches via social media and online, and asking for feedback and input from influencers and customers. Scale quickly on good feedback, and move on if you get little engagement.

A step in the right direction is to take advantage of the new tools available at very low cost, including sponsored podcasts, blogs, visibility in online communities, and Twitter influencer support. Sometimes it's as simple as updating your website format and videos.

2. Use experiments versus designing the ideal ad

Trends and customer interests change quickly, so use small experiments to find something that works today, and use innovation to push the envelope, before your competitors can copy and overrun you. The key is to be able to measure your return, adapt quickly, and learn from your efforts.

According to the Harvard Business Review, e-commerce companies that conducted ad experiments saw 2-3% better performance per experiment run. An advertiser that ran 15 experiments in a given year saw a 30% higher ad performance.

3. Motivate customers to participate and engage

Reward customers for their advocacy and engagement with discounts and coupons, keep the interaction dynamic, and encourage their return. This requires a sense of urgency on the part of your team, and a culture of accountability and focus on the customer. Marketing must be everyone's top priority.

For example, Dunkin' Donuts did this through a photo contest, rewarding discounts to those who submitted a photo with the brand's handle and hashtag. Other companies highlight live experience and happy videos, submitted by customers, on their website and promotions.

4. Partner with others to create blended offerings

A very successful marketing effort created by a restaurant near me during the pandemic offered a carryout from multiple sources — to combine flowers with food and drinks, all from different establishments, packaged creatively together. Everybody wins, and it spread quickly on social media.

People remember and endorse you as the primary brand that created the blended offering, as well as the other "endorsed" brands. The hybrid approach is also effective as an experiment if you are exploring ways to expand your own brand into new segments.

5. Market solutions as an experience or an event

Advertising more features, or even a lower price, is not as memorable to customers today as a great experience or a unique event. These may be live or immersive online experiences. Use social media to build anticipation and highlight successes, to get people talking and coming back for more. 
 
The message here is that big blockbuster campaigns and big marketing budgets are no longer the key to results in the new customer environment, where participation and relationships are key.

Now is the time to ask your customers and partners for participative ideas, do some experiments, and scale up the ones that work. Be prepared to make frequent updates as trends change.

Marketing is no longer a one-way conversation, whether you are a startup or a legacy business. How long has it been since you changed your marketing strategy? Are your costs going up and the returns going down?
Try listening and learning, more than talking and pushing.

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Move fast, buy fast, sell fast, decide fast, talk fast, think fast — most of the entrepreneurs and CEOs I work with function in worlds where everything is moving at top velocity. Speed is sacrosanct. Success comes from being the fastest thinker or mover in the room. Slowing down means risking someone passing you.

But I want to throw an old idea out there. When it comes to building a corporate brand, or even a personal one, slow down. Do it right and don't cut corners. On the surface, it seems like an old-fashioned approach. We all function in a modern economy where nearly everything is instantly available, and where things change, or move, faster every day. Here I am suggesting: Take it slow enough to build a solid brand. 

I get it: putting time into building a brand feels boring and slow. It's not as fun as just going for it, which many people, entrepreneurs in particular, love doing. 

But here's why doing a brand right matters. 

If the blueprint is weak, the foundation will fall 

A brand is a blueprint for every decision you're going to make about your business. It touches everything. With a solid brand, you waste less time. You don't need to figure out what works for your audience or customers at each junction, because you already know. You can tackle every business decision from a place of knowing, not guessing. 

Which means you can move faster, and more effectively, than your competitors when real word opportunities or changes come up unexpectedly.

I have a client that can spin up a national ad campaign in less than 48 hours because they already know what messages work, and what ad platforms best reach their audience. The ad content, key messages, and visuals have internal buy-in, and have been tested in the market. When the market changes, they  take advantage of PR opportunities and start making (or taking) media calls because the team is locked down on messaging, goals, and brand. There's no time wasted on approvals, thinking, or guessing. They know. And they act.

While their competitors falter and look for their footing, my client takes advantage of every opportunity that arises in stride. It results in a huge lift in brand awareness and customer acquisition. 

Part of the reason companies, investors, or entrepreneurs put off brand building is an incomplete understanding of what a brand is. Launching a platform, critical service, or product? Slap a logo on it, maybe one your nephew did as a favour, or one you got from a discount provider. Done. Branded. 

Not so fast.

Your brand is more than a logo 

Let's be clear: your brand is not a logo. When I talk to clients about their brand, colour palette and fonts are almost the last things on my mind. I want to hear a story. What are you about? Why did you start this company? What does this company value? What's your company doing that no one else is? What problem have you solved? What are your goals now, and 1, 5, 10 years from now? How do your customers talk about you?

Questions like these help set the foundation of a brand — the blueprint. And blueprints aren't meant to be rolled up and left on a shelf in someone's office. They're meant to be used as a strategy for building something great. They spur action and instructions that a company, or a person, can follow. 

Logos, websites, messaging, social media platforms, PR, C-suite thought leadership, SEO, paid and earned media, marketing tactics, customer service approaches, sales tactics, and yes, even colour palettes, grow out of the blueprint. Not the other way around. Otherwise all you have is a bunch of useless tools or elements that don't have a clear, effective purpose. And your brand flounders in a sea of competitors, who may not have built their brands either. 

During tough times, a solid brand foundation can hold everything together and keep teams focused on what matters. A brand with depth and integrity can even withstand a few mistakes — as long as everyone comes back to the blueprint and refocuses. 

Personal brands are not exempt 

Well thought out brands are important for individuals too — especially entrepreneurs banking on their personal brand to drive their service or company, or for highly charismatic leaders who are symbiotically linked with organizations (think Sara Blakely and Spanx). The same rules apply: know your brand, know what it means, and know how to use it. 

There are, of course, some major distinctions between a corporate brand and a personal brand. A personal brand has to be something you can live with. It's you — or at least a version of yourself you can apply to your professional life, consistently and authentically. 

Building a personal brand can be incredibly challenging because it requires brutal honesty and an openness about who you are, what you can handle, what you feel comfortable sharing with your audience, and how you're going to present yourself. I advocate for authenticity because personal brands built on anything else fall apart under pressure. 

If you're not a funny person, don't make humour part of your brand. If you publish content about how much community means to you, don't ignore your community. Your audience will see through it and drift away.

Recently, I've noticed experts in the coaching industry chipping away at their brand foundation. On their platforms, some of these high-profile coaches encourage people to message them or to connect — to share their goals, or their story, or what they're struggling with. And people do! But these coaches, whose brand equity is built in community, caring, and communication, never respond.

It's damaging to their personal brands, because would-be audiences (and potentially paying customers) become disillusioned. Rightfully so. Remember: audiences don't just talk to brands. They talk to each other, and they have the power to dismantle and ditch brands that don't meet their expectations or don't act as promised. Maintaining brand reputation is just as important as building it.

All brands, from corporate identities to transformational leaders, need to live up to the brand they've built. Brands need to check in on their promises — their blueprint — and keep delivering accordingly. If the foundation was wobbly in the first place, maintaining integrity becomes impossible. Everything comes tumbling down. 

Take the time to build a brand that will last — one that will outshine and outpace its competitors. You can go fast. Just slow down a little first.

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Entrepreneurs already understand that getting media attention helps with user acquisition, customer traction, making a mark in the space where you play, and attracting investors. If an angel or VC sees that you're already getting getting press mentions, they'll be more likely to think you're in demand, because reporters are true trend hunters and understand what consumers want in an intuitive way. 

This is the obvious benefit of talking to media: It's social proof. Sure, investors want to be able to say that they were responsible for discovering the next great startup founder, and so you may think getting press would work against that perspective. But highlighting media attention up front on your deck shows VCs and angels that you have been already vetted by influencers and trendsetters. If a journalist is interested enough in your story and product to want to write about you — particularly an influential one — you're already way ahead of the game.

But there's another secret benefit you get when you talk to media, and entrepreneurs often find out accidentally, when they're in the middle of fundraising.

It's the fact that when you start finding the angles that work with reporters — those pitches that actually get them to respond to your email, and to write articles about you — you are actually learning how to talk about your product with your target audience and also to investors, who need to know your value up front. 

Here's how pitching to media will help you pitch to investors.

You'll find your narrative arc

An arc is the sequence of events in a plot, with peaks and plateaus in the narrative.  A PR campaign is really just a fight to figure out what arc works for your audience. It's almost like finding the missing puzzle piece — what's the one angle that writers will love?

For example, let's say you are trying to get press for your beauty brand. If you find out that editors are responding really well to the story that is all about one particular ingredient that no one else uses in their formulations, you know that's a winning strategy, so you expand that storyline as far as you can take it. Or you realize that your founder storyline is getting the most attention — so you want to use that narrative to death. 

Understanding what narrative arcs or storylines work best with media — the ones that have them beating down your door — should be an aha moment for you, because this is also the angle that investors will be drawn to. If you can take your VC's and angel investors through that same narrative arc, they'll connect the dots more quickly and have the same aha moment themselves. Painting this picture is very important.

You'll learn more about your competition

Investors like to say that when a founder says they have no competition, that's a giant red flag. That's because there's always a competitor not too far behind — or at least someone who is doing something similar. But the flip side is that if there truly is no competition, it means that there is likely no market for your product. If no one is solving the problem you're solving, then how do you know it's an important problem to solve? Overall, a founder should find at least some form of competition to talk about in their pitch to investors. 

There are two ways that getting media will help you understand your competition. For one, the more you dig around the web for information about how to pitch your brand to press, the more you'll find articles about competitor's stories. You'll learn how reporters are talking about them — what they're highlighting, what talking points they may have crafted, and what stories are most important to them.

Second, when reporters ask you the hard questions about your competition, you'll have to dig deep and come up with thoughtful answers — how do you truly differ from them? You'll come out of these interviews with a better idea of who your competition is, how to differentiate yourself from them — and most importantly, how to talk about this with investors. Because, trust me,  investors will ask you about competitors. Make sure you don't say the wrong thing. 

You'll stress test your central thesis

Reporters will at some point in your career start asking you tough questions, not because they want to see you squirm, but because they want to write a really great story that their readers will love. There's nothing wrong with that. As a result, they will likely be the first person to see gaps in the central thesis of your value proposition. They are on the outside looking in — whereas you're on the inside, and have been living and breathing and creating your product for many months, maybe even years. Reporters and bloggers will see things you don't.

The beauty of this is that the questions they'll ask will likely be the questions an investor will ask you during an email exchange, a Q&A or an actual pitch. Even better, if you proactively answer these hard questions in your deck or pitch you will stand head and shoulders above other founders. The VC will see you as someone who is extremely thoughtful around the market and the problem you are trying to solve.

You'll stress test yourself

There is nothing more nail biting than talking to media for the first time. That first interview is challenging because you don't know what to expect, what questions will be asked, or the kind of impression you will make on the reporter. When you are thrown into the Zoom or Skype call, you'll have to think quickly on your feet and know how to respond to difficult questions, as well as how to create good rapport with the person you are speaking with. When you have several interviews under your belt, you'll feel more comfortable meeting with investors and answering questions succinctly and effectively. 

There are the obvious benefits to sharing your story with media but there are also those that will make your investor pitch stronger, more thoughtful, and more effective. Treat it like a crash course on learning how to talk to angel investors and VC's, and show them your value.

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The malls we knew as kids are gone. 

The teenagers of the '20s might hang out in a new generation of "pop-up villages" and department stores stocked with a rotation of small brands. Instead of Hollister cologne wafting through the mall, they might smell the sandalwood of a hand-poured, American-made soy candle. Between stores, they grab a cup of ethically sourced coffee at a local cafe. Instead of window shopping at Express or J. Crew, they might discover a pop-up shop featuring the jewelry startup they saw on Instagram last night. 

That's the scene at places like The Current in Boston and Platform in Los Angeles, shopping centers lending space to smaller brands in exchange for lower rent and selfie-worthy experiences. New department stores like Showfields and Brik + Clik, modern versions of Macy's or JC Penney that curate smaller brands, are taking a similar approach on a smaller scale in New York City, Miami, and San Francisco.

These companies are betting on the return of in-person shopping while helping new brands enter retail. Mall stores could prove to be big business for small brands — the 20 most-valuable malls in America bring in $21 billion in annual sales, according to the research firm Boenning & Scattergood. One square foot of mall space, of which small brands need only rent a few, brought in as much as $1,624 in revenue in 2017.

"The face of retail is changing," said the Roote founder Michael Mcpolin, who sells his candles in Brik + Clik and likes the store's experiential nature. "You're gonna probably see less Macy's and things like that, and more independent retailers because they focus more on the customer experience."

Malls and their mainstay stores have been struggling to attract shoppers for years. By the turn of the decade, major clothing brands of the 2010s like Delia's and Wet Seal had closed all locations, and several department stores disappeared; dozens more filed for bankruptcy last year.

Now, new pop-up and department-store models are cropping up, people are returning to in-person shopping, and customer desire is shifting toward supporting independent brands. America's smallest businesses are taking their places on the shelves, giving them another way to reach new customers and grow their brands.

People want the in-person experience

On a Friday afternoon in April, the Brooklyn resident Sarah Galanis, 45, visited the mall located at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan. It's a good time to shop, she said — not too crowded. 

"I was doing all online shopping during the pandemic and even as things started opening, but now there are just certain things that you can't buy online," she said. "It's also nice to get out a little bit and see things in person and be around people." 

With more than 100 million Americans fully vaccinated and comfort with in-person shopping on the rise, foot traffic at some malls in March was up 86% compared to the year prior, The Wall Street Journal reported. Half of the 4,885 people surveyed by the firm 451 Research said they planned to shop as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, and about 23% said they'd start shopping within three months after restrictions are lifted.

Emily Huggard, an assistant professor of fashion communication at Parsons School of Design, said people still want to tangibly connect with brands, even if they discover them online. "I don't think physical retail will ever be dead," she said. "I don't think anybody wants to sit at their computer ordering things up to their door all day."

The Salt and Stone founder Nima Jalali sells his natural deodorant at Brik + Clik and at Platform, among hundreds of other retail stores and online. "The retail experience is not always about actually purchasing something. A lot of times it's about getting out and doing something."

Online only is no longer enough

Over the past decade, direct-to-consumer brands have cut out the brick-and-mortar middleman, shipping suitcases, razors, and beauty products straight to our front doors.

Now, Huggard said, "the DTC model is no longer innovative." Anyone with internet access and an idea can start a Shopify store, place ads on Facebook, and find a supplier. The hard part is keeping customers loyal, especially Gen Zers who has been inundated with online branded content their whole lives. In-person experiences can help with that.

Hemant Chavan, a cofounder of Brik + Clik department stores, said the DTC brands he's talked to are clamoring to get into retail so they can work a strategy that includes both online and offline sales. 

"Facebook ads are not landing anymore. Instagram ads are not landing. So a lot of these brands, which have that marketing budget, they're redirecting to what they call showcase fees," he said, referring to the investment required to stock products in store.

Leila Kashani is the founder of Alleyoop, one of the makeup brands stocked at Brik + Clik. Since launching her DTC company in 2019, in-person sales have been a part of her plan. Customers told her they like to touch the products or pop into a store when they need a last-minute gift. "It would be like we weren't listening to our customers if we only made it DTC," she said. 

Kashani, who studied marketing in college, recalls the old-school idea that it takes seven points of contact — such as an ad, an in-person experience, a phone call, or a social-media post — for someone to take an action like buying or subscribing. Today, people are flooded with so much competing content that it might take them more than seven impressions to trust a brand enough to purchase, she said. "You have to hit that a lot more times and in many more places for them to remember you."

Fading mall brands, new department-store models, and pop-up shops have created space that small businesses can actually afford

Allbirds shoes, Away luggage, and Bonobos clothing — brands founded to cater to the digital generations — have set up shop in malls over the past few years. Even newer are the smaller businesses popping up to fill spaces left by companies like The Gap that have pulled out of in-person shopping or that have gone bankrupt and closed hundreds of stores, like Sears. 

Shopping centers are desperate to fill these empty spaces, and with Brik + Clik, Chavan seeks to do this while offering affordable and temporary sales channels for small brands — whether they're getting into retail for the first time or have products in hundreds of stores.

Temporary spaces like Brik + Clik and Culver City's outdoor mall Platform can provide the data to test markets and locations for a more permanent retail approach in the future. 

To be sure, a big swath of the population will rarely, if ever, go back to in-person shopping. The pandemic, as well as business models like Amazon's, have changed the culture around buying online. By 2022, the number of customers shopping DTC is expected to hit an all-time high of 103 million, according to eMarketer.

But that's even more reason why a "light" in-person event, like a pop-up or department-store display can be useful for brands. Carina Donoso, the senior director of retail experience and incubation at WS Development, which owns the Current in Boston, told Glossy that data gathered from a temporary retail experience helps brands plan marketing and future demand. "Retail is a huge investment, but a pop-up can help you test the market. You get so much data from it about who your customer is and how they shop," she said. 

Shopping small is in

The pandemic has cemented small brands as the conduit for mission-driven shopping. Last holiday season, 70% of shoppers found it more important to support small businesses than to get a good deal, according to a survey by Union Bank and the research firm Edelman Intelligence.

"There's a sort of gratitude and desire to be part of your local community of small businesses, much more than there was before because we see how fragile the whole ecosystem can be," said Joey Miller, the cofounder of Platform. He reported foot traffic has rebounded as much as 25% above pre-pandemic levels, and brands using the space include national companies like Sweetgreen and Blue Bottle Coffee as well as local, one-person food trucks. 

Small businesses are seeing the biggest shift in how we shop since the Great Depression— Americans are using their dollars to reflect their social and economic values. Customers want to know what's behind the brand: Where and how are the products manufactured, and what impact will my purchase have on the environment? Does the brand donate to charity or cut down on global emissions? Is it Black-owned or led by women? Is it a small business?

Yelp reported searches for Black-owned businesses increased 7,000% in May 25 to July 10, 2020, the weeks following George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police, from that same time in 2019. Though much of that support came as a result of protests and heightened awareness of racial issues in the US, it's had a lasting effect. In April, Target pledged to spend $2 billion by 2025 adding products from more than 500 Black-owned businesses.

"A lot of people are worried that retail is dying, but I see the exact opposite," Mcpolin said. "The consumer is just leaning more toward independent retailers where they can get that one-on-one experience. They're being more innovative than some of these bigger companies."

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Last year, my internet went down for three weeks. I chatted with customer service agents from Cox Communications, a cable and internet provider which earned more than $12 billion in revenue in 2020, about a dozen times. Each time, a customer service representative told me that they "felt my frustration and anger." One said, "I hate when this happens, I totally get it." 

The problem is, they did not get it. The reason Cox could take their sweet time fixing my internet was not because life is frustrating and hard, but because they are a monopoly — the only option for broadband service in vast swaths of the United States, and thus have no one competing with them for my money. My internet access was dependent on them, and instead of addressing that problem, they told me they empathized with it. 

I thought the experience was a particularly bizarre, but isolated customer service strategy. Until one day I was on the phone with T-Mobile, and the customer service agent said, "You sound sad today, is everything okay?"

Then hits kept coming. Late last year, the athleisure behemoth Lululemon tweeted out "It's okay to not be okay," to which hundreds of internet users replied with variations on the theme of "aren't you the company that was caught under-paying and beating your factory workers?" 

Last week, I woke up to an alert from my Chipotle app (sometimes I have a craving for their burritos, don't judge me) telling me that I should "check in on someone today." 

And the official account for the government of Israel, which recently engaged in a bombing campaign that killed hundreds of Palestinians, tweeted on May 12 that they were having a "difficult night" but appreciated the "messages of support from you guys." The tweet ended with a heart emoji. 

It's no coincidence that these uber-powerful entities have all settled on language that makes them seem like "healthy living" Instagram influencers. The language of therapy and self help has been co-opted by institutions to distract from their power and sell us on the idea that they're just like us. 

This is not only an attempt to try and get us to forget their misdeeds, it also ruins the language of care built to actually help people, reducing what were once radical tools for survival to a hollow branding strategy. 

Emotional branding sells

Corporations use the language of self care and mental health because it makes them money. There's an entire field of advertising called "emotional marketing" dedicated to helping brands establish personal bonds with consumers. Ads with "emotional pull" are more likely to create loyalty among consumers, and encourage them to buy more. 

Emotional manipulation for profit is nothing new. The work of Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, is often considered the blueprint for using psychology to manipulate consumers. He believed that by harnessing psychoanalytic theories of the mind and human behavior, he could subconsciously influence people to do just about anything. 

In 1929 he employed his thesis after being hired by the American Tobacco Company with a campaign to break the taboo of women smoking cigarettes by linking the idea of smoking with women's freedom. It worked — women bought more cigarettes, and the media began associating cigarettes with the very idea of independence and freedom.

The present-day marketing shift to focus on self care is just a new facet of the emotional branding manipulation corporations use to win over consumer's hearts — one that matches our era of increased fear, anxiety, and depression. 

It makes sense that at a time when depression rates, especially among young people, march steadily higher, and anxiety is present in everything that companies and other powerful institutions would attempt to capture our minds and dollars not through vague concepts of freedom or empowerment, but through the idea of life feeling survivable. 

The kids are not alright

Cox and T-Mobile's faux-empathetic customer service, Chipotle's "check in on your friends" push notification, and Lululemon insistence that it's ok not to feel okay hint at the predominant mental problems currently ailing our society: a feeling of constant dread, a sense of isolation and disconnection, and persistent anhedonia — a feeling that, no matter what, even if life feels good on the surface, we do not, in fact, feel okay.

In 2014, the European leftist collective Plan C published a treatise on capitalism and our feelings. They posited that the predominant affect, or feeling, of the mid-1900s was boredom. The hippie and free love movements were a response to this boredom, but so was the advertising created by people like Bernays — exploiting people's dissatisfaction with a stifling suburban life to sell them the idea of excitement and freedom. Post-2008 financial crisis, according to Plan C, the predominant affect switched to anxiety as jobs disappeared and housing grew precarious. 

We are now likely in a new age, one of disconnection and dissociation, spurred by the isolation and overwhelming nature of the internet and the pandemic. We have yet to see what the social response will be to this, but we can already see what advertising's response has been: to sell us the idea that in an age where we all feel alone, scared, and unable to connect to each other, perhaps our friends at Lululemon, or Cox, or Chipotle can help.

"An act of political warfare"

Beyond the cynicism that this corporate cooptation of care inevitably breeds, it also erases the radical roots of the language. In the 1960s, the concept of care was used by radical Black activists like the Black Panther Party (BPP) to center the wellbeing of people of color in a world that was, and still is, actively hostile to their bodies and minds. The BPP thought taking care of one's own body, mind, and self image was a necessary response to living in a racist country. In 1988, the Black feminist Audre Lorde wrote that, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."

A company — or country engaged in warfare — taking these concepts and using them to their own end disenables us from using this language in any kind of productive way. The phrase "it's okay to not be okay" might be a good way to view mental health recovery — I had to learn how to apply it to my own life after PTSD wrecked my productivity a few years ago — but now it's also forever associated with a leggings company, diluting its power. 

Corporations tell us it's okay to not be okay when they are, in large part, the reason we are not okay. 

Unfortunately, this corporate version of care has trickled down into how we speak to each other on a daily basis. When the Black Panthers and other radicals preached self care, they did so as part of a toolkit to fight against the material realities of racism and capitalism. Now, concepts of care and empathy float around with no root: Instagram influencers preach self care as they sell us beauty products; Twitter memes tell us that the problem with men is that they simply do not go to therapy, that it's okay to break plans, and that it's encouraged to deny people your time and energy when they need help. 

We tell each other to take care of ourselves without acknowledging the reasons we need so much care in the first place — the isolation, anxiety, and depression caused by living in 21st-century America. 

All of this does not make the very concept of care meaningless, but we must purposefully work to return material meaning to it. And I have no doubt we eventually will. 

Bernays realized that people in the mid-1900s were craving freedom and used that realization to sell cigarettes. But then people realized that they needed to truly escape the boredom of the 1950s, and that purchasing things was not the way out. A real movement for Civil Rights — a movement against the white stasis of mid-20th-century America — blossomed. Today, corporations realize people are craving care and connection. They've tapped into a real need; but I have to believe it's only a matter of time before we all see that real need and build a solution to it with our own hands. 

I can already see it happening on social media: The language of self care has been re-radicalized, positioned against corporations and capitalism. Accounts like The Nap Ministry are teaching people that their own care is not politically neutral, but a necessary bulwark against productivity-culture burnout. But we now need to take this rhetoric and turn it into action. That could mean forming free-therapy collectives, doing teach-ins about mental healthcare, or providing free meals like the Black Panthers did so families feel less isolated from each other. 

At a small scale, these things already exist, but we need to make them a more central part of any radical practice. Otherwise, we risk repeating a daunting cycle of being exhausted, overworked, and made to feel like automatons, leaving the solutions to the corporations and institutions least interested in actually solving them. 

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The global pandemic was devastating for several businesses, namely retail, restaurants, hospitality, and in-person entertainment. While many businesses closed their doors permanently, others surfaced and even thrived.

Some businesses were forced to pivot to an online ecosystem that they were not familiar with, as retailers had to move inventory online to remain above water and some restaurants were forced to rely solely on delivery to keep their doors open.

The e-commerce industry grew at exponential rates, with established brands gaining incredible growth and newcomers setting a blistering pace. Rather than focus on the negative impact COVID-19 had on businesses, let's focus on the lessons brands can learn from what the pandemic caused within the retail and e-commerce industries.

1. Consumers will always be willing to spend money

While there was a lot of doom and gloom talk going on during the pandemic, many retailers were reporting record online sales. Just to paint the picture for you, Best Buy reported that its online sales shot up by more than 240% during the second quarter. Many people stocked up on electronics to keep themselves and their families occupied while inside since there was no clear indication of when "normal" would return.

Even with so much uncertainty regarding employment, income, and the economy, consumers were still spending money. While "save it for a rainy day" would have been the smartest financial move, consumers are naturally inclined to spend.

Faced with boredom and redundancy during the lockdown, many consumers turned to online shopping as a form of entertainment.

2. Commerce has shifted heavily online

Even as states begin to open up and retail stores follow suit, the pandemic has introduced an entirely new demographic to the convenience of online shopping. From buying common household items on Amazon and having them arrive within days to ordering groceries online and having them on one's doorstep within hours, many of these consumers will continue to shop online simply because it's more convenient.

E-commerce brands shouldn't fear retail opening back up and taking market share back. Instead, focus on driving that convenience message in all marketing and advertising. Instead, think of ways to provide even more value to your customers.

Is there a subscription option you can roll out to make repeat fulfillment more convenient for the customer while also creating a consistent and reliable revenue stream for your brand? Now is a prime time to introduce convenience upsells.

3. Social media can launch a brand literally overnight

One of the most interesting things I noticed during the pandemic was just how many one-person operations popped up and flourished thanks to social media. From handmade clothing and accessories to arts and crafts, I saw so many creatives launch successful brands with nothing more than a TikTok or Instagram platform.

It was real-world social proof that a brand could gain insane momentum without spending $20,000 on a custom Shopify build or six figures on Facebook ads. When you have a truly special product, your customers will be more than willing to share and support your efforts.

While many will ride the wave as is, I've seen some reinvest heavily in their brand, creating a nice website and running paid ads to further grow. Those that reinvest intelligently with a focus on building a long-term brand will succeed wildly.

4. Consumers love D2C brands with a thriving community

Why would a consumer spend $30 for a gummy supplement when there are knock-off products on Amazon for $8? The simple answer is the more expensive brand has built a thriving community, and the consumer is willing to pay a premium to be part of that community.

Creative brands that have successfully built a community encourage their customers to share on social media using designated hashtags. This creates UGC (user-generated content) that the brands share on their own social profiles.

Consumers love the idea of being highlighted by the brands they feel a part of and will pay a premium price to feel like they belong. UGC is also one of the most effective pieces of content you can leverage, and it's much more effective than content that looks like a traditional advertisement.

5. Never be afraid to pivot to unlock new opportunities

The pandemic caused many brands to pivot. Some apparel manufacturers shifted to making facemasks and PPE, and by doing so they grew at alarming rates. While many businesses were closing their doors and laying off staff, those that pivoted to new opportunities couldn't hire fast enough to meet new demands.

A brand needs to always be looking for and open to pivoting. There is nothing wrong with shifting directions if a new opportunity presents itself. Many brands are stubborn and laser-focused on one thing, whereas if they were always open to new opportunities, it would lead to additional successful and profitable ventures.

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Tori Gerbig started selling clothes on eBay in 2011 as a side hustle to pay off student loans while she and her husband, Chris, worked their corporate jobs.

When their son arrived in the fall of 2013, Tori went on maternity leave and started a Facebook group to ramp up her selling. "We had people coming over shopping from the trunk of my car, in our house and our dining room," she told Insider.

On January 1, 2014, the couple rang in the new year with the launch of their e-commerce site, Pink Lily, and set a goal to reach $50,000 in sales that year. They continued working their full-time jobs, and on nights and weekends they packed and shipped orders, bought inventory, handled customer service, and marketed their brand.

Four months in, the couple surpassed their $50,000 goal. The company was already more successful than they had expected. Tori quit her job, and Chris followed a couple of months later. They moved their operations from their dining table to their first "warehouse," an old 1,200-square-foot hair salon. They outgrew the space within three months, recruited their sisters and Tori's mom, and hired their first non-family employee in August. By the year's end, they'd hit $4 million in sales.

"The sheer amount of work that goes into it was not expected," said Chris, who was also studying for his MBA when they launched the site. "It was just crazy. We were up at 2, 3 o'clock in the morning packing orders and doing homework."

As the Gerbigs grew their company for the first year and a half, they worked 40- to 60-hour weeks and holidays, reinvesting profits in the business. "We used all of it just to grow the business," Chris said. "And we were able to really grow that inventory collection in a very short period of time, which in turn increased sales, revenue, and customer retention."

Today their company, based in Bowling Green, Kentucky, employs 300 people, operates a retail store, and has 200,000 square feet of warehouse space, and the founders say they expect to exceed $100 million in sales this year. Last year, the brand made $65 million in revenue, nearly double the previous year's revenue, according to documentation viewed by Insider.

Wider variety, broader demographic

Often the most effective way to nail down the right products for your customers is to sell what you would wear yourself. "The easiest way that we've built up the brand is because I am a customer of the brand," Tori said.

When she started Pink Lily at age 27, she wanted stylish clothes that were also affordable. "I didn't really love the stores in our local mall," she said. "I liked some local boutiques, but their prices were just a little bit too high."

As the brand grew, so did the age range of its demographic, which Tori said is 50% 25- to 34-year-olds and 40% 18- to 25-year-olds. Adding a variety of styles, from leggings and cocktail dresses to swimwear and mommy-and-me sets, provides more opportunities for customers to keep coming back instead of purchasing once or twice a year for special occasions.

"Competitors we have out in the market, they only focus on events and wedding-guest dresses," Tori said. "But then, especially during COVID times when things got canceled, you're limiting your customers."

Don't put all your eggs in one social-media basket

When the Gerbigs started out, they said, they didn't have to pay for Facebook ads to get clicks. But today, algorithms that determine how often people will see a post or ad seem to change more frequently than fashion trends. Tori advised brands to spread their marketing strategies across as many platforms and channels as possible.

Pinterest has been an incredible source of Pink Lily's growth — the brand's account gets more than 10 million monthly views, according to its profile page. Plus, she said, the brand has 1 million people signed up for text alerts and 2 million email subscribers. More recently, Pink Lily has benefitted from viral moments on TikTok with styling tips and influencer content.

Pink Lily dabbled in working with marketing agencies but found more success through its in-house marketing team, now 10 people. "We're very specific with the people that we bring on to the team," Chris said. Some employees didn't have decades of marketing experience but have high energy and understand the brand, he said.

Buying out a style makes it a Pink Lily exclusive

In May 2021, Pink Lily averaged 11,000 products sold on its site a day, which Insider confirmed through documentation. Tori said the brand carried 800 to 1,000 styles a month and was consistently adding new ones. About 70% of the inventory comes from manufacturers that produce exclusive designs for the brand, and 30% is premade and purchased wholesale.

When she or her team of seven buyers finds a premade style they think will do well, they'll buy up all the vendor's inventory. This way, the style can be purchased only on Pink Lily, even though it wasn't made exclusively for the brand.

Tori surveys her customers to know what they want

Pink Lily uses Facebook and Instagram's livestream capabilities to survey customers in real time and give sneak peeks at new inventory. Sometimes Tori goes live while visiting a vendor to ask viewers what they think about the styles as she goes through them.

"We don't show them every style, because there's no way to show them a thousand different styles every single month," she said, "but we feel out what the trends are going to be ahead of time." Tried-and-true styles like animal prints can skip the survey and go straight to the yes pile. "We pretty much know that anything we carry in animal print they're going to love," she added.

Tori said she'd noticed a slight age difference between Facebook users, who lean older, and Instagram users, who lean younger. This can be an advantage to further understand how to cater styles to those age groups.

A 620-member ambassador program is the brand's secret sauce

Pink Lily has more than 1 million followers on Instagram. Part of its large fan base is thanks to a powerful ambassador program giving  commissions to women who promote the brand on social media. Ambassadors earn 10% commission on every sale made through their personal link. The program has 620 members and has generated $7.4 million in sales in the past year, according to a company representative.

Though thousands of people apply to be a Pink Lily ambassador, the program is selective. The team vets every applicant, looking for positive, supportive women with trusted followings and who typically already wear the brand. Engagement rate is more important than follower count, because that's the most effective way to tell whether someone has meaningful interactions with their audience that would translate to sales. Tori said ambassadors could earn up to $40,000 in commissions a month.

A brick-and-mortar shop is nice to have but not necessary

In 2017, the Gerbigs opened their store in Bowling Green. Though it's been a good add-on to the business for brand awareness and last-minute shoppers, e-commerce traffic far outpaces in-store traffic, they said.

E-commerce "has grown so fast and just changed so rapidly over the last few years, but in-store shopping has not," Tori said, adding that they didn't plan to expand retail operations because their time and energy is better spent on e-commerce, especially as more people turned to online shopping during the pandemic.

"When an online website is receiving literally millions of hits a month of happy customers," Chris added, "there's no way that a retail store in a small Kentucky town is going to be able to compete with that."

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Robinhood has taken an unconventional route in terms of not only how it lets people trade but also compared with the way companies typically tend to market themselves ahead of going public.

While companies like Peloton and Uber amped up their paid marketing spends on their way to going public, the popular retail-investing app's digital and paid marketing expenses actually declined 14% year-over-year to $77.7 million in 2020 from $90.3 million in 2019, according to its S-1 filed last week.

The company has instead relied on word-of-mouth marketing to grow its user base, pumping most of its marketing dollars into its referral program leading up to filing to go public.

The Robinhood Referral Program awards both existing users and the new users they refer with a stock reward. This has proved to be a reliable vehicle for Robinhood to grow its customer base because it generally has lower direct expense rates compared with other marketing methods, the company said in the filing.

Eighty percent of new people who joined Robinhood in the three months that ended March 31 joined either organically or through its referral program, according to its S-1 filing.

Further, the company also said it reduced its revenue payback period, or the time it takes for new customers to become profitable, with the total revenue they generate equaling or exceeding the marketing expenses incurred to acquire them.

According to its filing, Robinhood's average revenue payback period improved from 12 months in 2019 to less than five months in the 2020 fiscal year. It attributed this to more efficient marketing, including changing up the criteria of its referral program to award shares to people when they linked their bank accounts, as opposed to giving them the shares when their accounts were approved.

The company also said it made its paid customer-acquisition channels more effective, without giving more details, reducing the average cost to acquire a new customer by more than 60%, to $20 in fiscal 2020 from $53 in fiscal 2019.

That's not to say the company has pulled back on its marketing spend.

To be sure, Robinhood's overall marketing spend increased, with the company spending $185.7 million in 2020, up 49% from $124.6 million in 2019 — and $32.3 million in the three months that ended March 31, up 46% compared with the year prior.

Overall, Robinhood has also benefited from the coronavirus pandemic, with analysts saying lockdowns and government stimulus checks have helped it attract legions of new users over the past year. That surge has continued with the frenzied trading around so-called meme stocks in 2021, even as it faces regulatory risk and its brand equity was threatened in January amid the short squeeze in GameStop.

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When it comes to mission-driven companies, sometimes customers care more about the mission than the company itself — which is why a strong mission can carry a business a long way.

That's according to Shark Tank investor and serial founder Daymond John, who learned this lesson after investing in cult favorite sock company Bombas, which donates clothing to homeless shelters for every pair of socks sold. Simply put, John realized that customers care about companies that give back and have a clear mission people feel good about.

Read more: BARBARA CORCORAN: Here's what I'm doing to keep my team and my Shark Tank businesses alive during this recession

It's a lesson that factors prominently in John's new course on entrepreneurship for kids ages 10 to 17. He shared with Inc. a process he teaches these young students and adult entrepreneurs alike about creating a mission statement that's clear and easy to digest for customers.

The first step is reaching out to your customers to share the first draft of your mission statement for feedback. If you don't have customers yet, John suggests querying family and friends who fit the target audience for your idea. Gather your small group, share your thoughts, and have your audience repeat back to you, in their own words, what they understand your mission to be. Pay special attention to words that get repeated. You want to make sure how you're phrasing your mission truly communicates what you're intending.

"There are gonna be so many different things to understand the identity and the DNA of your product, service, or brand," he said. "You've got to come up with your two to five words of what you represent. Is there a social cause behind it? Is it price competitive? Is it luxury?"

He also suggests creating a separate value statement by asking yourself the following questions:

• What do you want to solve?
• What do you love?
• What would you do for free every single day and why do you do it?
• What joy does your business bring?
• What about your business will create unity?

Once you have your value statement and two to five words that your group agrees clearly communicate your values, center your brand messaging on those words, according to John. What makes sense to your customer will give your marketing the strongest impact.

And while the initial steps of building a business can be tough, John says to look at it as an opportunity to lay the framework for something great. "The beginning part of the story is the best part," he said.

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There's a certain quilted, paisley tote bag you can't miss when you walk into almost any US airport or women's Main Street boutique. One of my high-school friends claimed a specific java brown and turquoise blue pattern was her colorway and added another duffle bag, purse, or wallet to her collection every birthday or Christmas. 

Vera Bradley bags are easy to recognize by their loud, cheery, and often mismatched prints. They have nostalgic charm — some resemble a classic paisley bandana, others a Southern floral quilted throw on your grandma's chair. They are not high-fashion, nor do they try to be. Prices are attainable, from $30 for a cellphone bag to $330 for a suitcase.

Cofounder and former president, Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, invested $500 to launch the business, now a $468 million publicly-traded company, and she is one of the 100 richest self-made women in the US with a net-worth of $210 million, according to Forbes. She explained how the brand gained popularity on college campuses and grew an ever-expanding network of fans.

Customers often tell Baekgaard that their first Vera Bradley bag was a gift from their godmother or grandmother. "You could really say we start at birth because so often maybe their first bag might be a Vera Bradley baby bag," she told Insider. 

Vera Bradley is a case study in "brand love," a term used to describe the emotional connection customers have to a brand as described by three University of Michigan professors Rajeev Batra, Aaron Ahuvia, and Richard Bagozzi in a 2012 Journal of Marketing article. This kind of loyalty and pride is earmarked by ten traits customers associate with a brand, including a link to strongly held values, using the brand to express current and desired self-identity, an emotional bond, frequent thought and use of the product, and using the product over an extended period of time. 

The sisterhood of the traveling Vera bag 

In 1982, Baekgaard and her co-founder Patricia Miller started their business when they noticed how drab all the luggage in airports was. The duo named the company after Baekgaard's mother who worked for them as a sales associate until her death in the 1990s. 

But their bags really took off on the American college campus. Baekgaard's daughters wanted fun, colorful bags for school, so they brought Vera Bradley to their campuses, becoming accidental brand ambassadors before social media and influencer marketing existed. "They'd call home and say everybody loved them," Baekgaard said.

Women bought Vera Bradley bags in their sorority colors. Teachers, mothers, and nurses loved them. When Baekgaard was working on her book, she said editors would inevitably pull a Vera Bradley eyeglass case or cosmetic bag out of their purse.

Mom, if you ever want to get out of jury duty, do not carry a Vera Bradley bag.

As they grew in popularity, every bag became a walking advertisement. "They're so visible," she said. "We could have designed nightgowns, but you wouldn't see people walking around with them."

They became a wink in an airport or coffee shop that signaled "we're the same kind of person," Baekgaard said, who has received many letters and emails about how her bags started friendships and helped people get through difficult times. One man told her a Vera Bradley backpack helped him feel less alone when he came out as gay, finding community in other people who loved the bags. Another man whose wife passed had a quilt made from all of her Vera Bradley bags.

"It was almost like a sisterhood," she said. "You'd see someone else with a Vera Bradley bag and you'd connect."

Baekgaard is proud of who the Vera Bradley customer is. They aren't fashionistas, but someone who wants to put a smile on your face. When her daughter had jury duty, she told her mother she spotted at least three jurors with Vera Bradley bags. "It's almost like a little sense of they're a good person," she told her. "Mom, if you ever want to get out of jury duty, do not carry a Vera Bradley bag."

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Lexi Cherizol worked as a hospital phlebotomist in Orlando, Florida, until she joined the millions of Americans who lost their jobs during the pandemic. She took it as an opportunity to find a new career.

After researching many different side hustles and professions, she landed on social-media marketing and branding. "I don't think I need a job to feel important," Cherizol, 22, told Insider. "I can create something from my own two hands."

She launched Pro Luxe Marketing at the beginning of this year and saw her business take off once she posted marketing tips and advice on TikTok. In her most popular video, which has more than 31,000 likes, Cherizol shared how she planned 30 days' worth of content in under an hour.

"I just threw myself on the platform and shared my ideas," she said, adding that she received about eight calls a week from prospective clients. "Every time I've put out a new video"— she made the "ping" sound of incoming messages — "I've got four more calls."

Cherizol offers services like social-media management for Instagram (she charges $549 to $1,049 a month), branding ($350), social-media strategy ($200), and website design ($85 an hour). She has three clients and takes up to five at a time. Last month, she earned about $3,000; Insider verified this by reviewing documentation.

"I finally now found my voice within this industry," Cherizol said.

Here's how she uses her template to plan 30 Instagram posts in under an hour.

Step 1: Identify 3 content pillars

Content pillars are the main topics of your business.

Cherizol was managing social media for a soap brand when she made her video, so she wrote down "self-care,""eco-friendly," and "soap" as the pillars she would focus on for the month.

Each topic relates to the brand and its products as well as broader interests that people on social media are searching for.

Step 2: Brainstorm 10 content ideas under each pillar

Next, write 10 content ideas under each pillar that relate to that topic.

For example, Cherizol wrote "wellness tips" under the self-care pillar and "greenwashing" under the eco-friendly pillar. These are relevant subtopics that can tell the story behind your brand or start a conversation with your followers.

Cherizol researches Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok to get ideas, but most of the time, she said, her ideas just flow out of her. "My mind is always racing," she said. "It kind of comes from a mix of research and what I've seen, what I've experienced."

Step 3: Relate the content to each idea

The final step is to create the content you'll be sharing, making sure each post relates to the subtopic. "Sometimes even if it doesn't really, I'll try to find a way to make it relate," Cherizol said.

Cherizol creates her graphics on Canva and makes bulleted notes to remember what she wants to write in the captions.

Her top tip for effective social-media posts is to add value to the viewer's experience, whether that's through teaching them something new or making them laugh.

"I don't really follow TikTok video formulas," she said. "I just make what I feel like resonates with myself and what I feel like would be good for somebody watching out there."

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