1:30.5: I'm seeing boutiques run ads and they're one of two things: They're either targeting me with “Come to our store opening” and they're in Virginia, I'm not in Virginia. Or they’re advertising denim, which I hate.
3:24.3: This is the phenomenon I'm seeing in Facebook ads. It’s a video and two photos the size of your phone screen. In the video the boutique owner or model is pulling on the side of their jeans, basically showing they’re form-fitting but stretchy.
4:43.9: In the past five years, denim has become really saturated in terms of how many boutiques are selling it. The main brand I’m talking about is Judy Blue. Because they're a wholesaler, they distribute to a lot of places.
6:28.7: I'm the one that says, sell what you love. People fight with me all the time about this saying “No, you shouldn't sell what you love.” Yes, you should!
8:13.2: The way Judy Blue has grown in the past four to five years has been phenomenal. What did they do? They realized that people wanted stretchy jeans. They realized women want stretch, and they shifted their assortment to fit that. They also started carrying plus sizes.
8:56.9: What Judy Blue did is partner with at least one, if not several, big boutiques. That made the boutiques the resource for Judy Blue Jeans, almost like a distributor. But what happens when you have that much inventory? You have to advertise it and become an expert in that category to move units.
10:41.0: Judy Blue has given themselves an opportunity to get to more people because they end up having more reach. They basically partner with big influencers and big boutiques.
11:10.5: I would call a big boutique, someone doing over 10 million a year. If you're doing 100, 200, 300 million a year, you're not really a boutique anymore. I think a boutique is really five million and under. Your footprint is small.
12:12.5: The stretchy gene ads. You've seen them, I've seen them. There was a moment when I saw three different boutiques advertising the exact same ad. There's some good stuff about that. One is that this boutique is becoming known for this. That is their thing and they know their customers love it.
13:23.7: Become known for something. That's what's going to make you stand out. Learn from this. Think about how Judy Blue, said, oh my gosh, there's a niche in the market. How can we make better denim and quality products stick at a really nice price where we know our boutiques need to be? And then how do we partner with some really big boutiques to get ourselves out there. Get to their customers, give them exclusive styles, and maybe give them a first look at things. Can you do that with certain customers? Can you do that with certain influencers that you work with? Or even just yourself?
14:05.3: You could create a VIP email list where it's ten of your top customers and you email them first with “We just got new styles in” or “Here's my top five favorite styles”. Maybe you sell $100, $200, or $300 out the gate. That's going to fuel you to be able to launch to more people.
14:33.6: It looks like a coordinated effort to grow your business through partnering with someone bigger than you. Over time, that's going to be more and more strategic for more vendors and more brands.
14:57.8: This is your strategy too. Be good at one thing, be good at one product category. Be really good at knowing your customer.
15:33.4: When you are ready to do ads because you're known for something because this is like your thing and your customers and you know your customer so well when you go to write that ad copy and do the pictures and do the video and create this. You know, again, pulling the stretchy jeans out, but your version of it, that ad writes itself because you already know what's going on.
16:41.7: Let's learn what's working and let's see what the trends are in the industry. If something's working for someone else, it could work for you, but you have to do it in your own way.
17:01.8: Take a stand in a category, be known for something, and, and have fun doing it, and have that be your thing. This is where I want you to start thinking about how to define yourself in 2023 and beyond.
Resources:
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