Two things inspired this topic:
- A series of viral TikToks that contend "your business idea doesn't have to be groundbreaking to work"
- A thread on X from a brand founder who bought Facebook Ads For Fashion Brands and then proceeded to live tweet the results
#2 basically disproves the thesis of #1–there are some founders who make brand positioning look easy, but in practice...it's complicated.
If your positioning is solid, my course will help you unlock profitable demand. But if your brand positioning is off, seeking out media buying resources is solving the wrong problem.
So, in this week's newsletter I am going to break down the issues with HIGHR's positioning, along with options for improving it.
What Is HIGHR?
HIGHR is a men's "premium basics" brand started by two cofounders with deep roots in the apparel manufacturing business.
The brand's stated value proposition: their tees stand up to multiple washes without losing shape, shrinking, becoming transparent or falling apart.
All of the brand's products are made in Los Angeles. The founders are committed to quality in every step of production, from fabric sourcing to cutting & sewing.
Based on the discussion that took place in this X thread, the brand has tried running Meta ads using traditional direct response problem/solution formats with limited success.
The founder tried applying the principles in my course to take a more fashion-focused approach, but the results were inconclusive.
Seeing that, I dug in to the brand's overall strategy to see if there were issues outside the ad account preventing HIGHR from scaling. And there were...
Issue #1: Picking The Wrong Problem
HIGHR's main differentiator is "quality". Not quality for the price. Not quality x aesthetic. Just...quality.
That is not a strong differentiator. In fashion, you almost always need to stack two or more differentiators and aim them at a specific audience to get initial traction.
"Quality" on its own is especially fraught for several reasons:
- Ever consumer defines quality differently
- The inherent promise of every clothing brand is that it's not going to fall apart after one wash, even if that isn't true.
- The higher you price above mass market, the stronger the implication of quality, and the more that "spelling it out" becomes almost insulting to the audience. You don't see Hermes talking about "durability" (they let the market do that for them). Instead, they talk about "savoir faire".
Quality is a weak angle for direct response marketing because it's a feature, not a benefit.
So your tee shirt lasts twice as long and holds up better–what is the tangible, emotional benefit of that? You...look better?
Is anyone going to notice? Is it really that painful to trash the $30 tee after a few months and buy another one? Are you (the average dude) even going to keep that tee stain-free for long enough to realize the benefit we're promising?
This is a common pitfall for founders who come to the table with deep manufacturing expertise–they don't think about these decisions in terms of how the consumer perceives value. More on that here.
Issue #2: Undefined Market Positioning
HIGHR can't quite decide if it's a fashion brand (aesthetics are the selling point) or a problem/solution brand.
When founders try to develop a problem/solution product without experience in the world of direct response, they often make a fatal error: picking a long term solution instead of a quick one.
The key difference: a quick solution "works" in less than two minutes, so you can demo a before and after on video. This makes it easy to create Meta ads that convert and scale.
But a long term solution takes at least a few weeks to work, so you can't do the same type of demo. You can show before and after pictures...but those can be faked (and often are). So you need to invest more in building trust and/or dissolving skepticism.
For a supplement brand, that's a tradeoff that makes sense because recurring subscription revenue can be very powerful. But for a tee shirt brand (especially one where the USP is "it lasts longer")? Not so much.
That's the core problem here: HIGHR has decided to focus on a problem that few in the market truly define as a "burning problem", and by picking a long term solution, they're playing the ads game on hard mode.
The way that the product is priced amplifies the confusion. At $48 for a basic tee, the price sits above brands like True Classic and Elwood, but below brands like Vince and Buck Mason.
But the price increases in $5-10 increments for different fabrications and washes. You can't really do this, for the same reason that Old Navy can't charge more for plus size jeans (even though they use more fabric)–it confuses and sometimes angers the consumer.
You're making it obvious how the sausage is made, and that does not reinforce "premium" positioning. Hermes doesn't shoot their fashion films live on the factory floor, they have an attractive actor stitching bags in a well-lit studio.
Issue #3: Confused Aesthetic Cues
When a fashion brand wants to use premium or fashion positioning as one of its differentiators, visual identity is an important part of the package.
This is why Zara started working with Steven Meisel to shoot its campaign imagery when the brand wanted to go upmarket (as well as making the website editorial and almost totally impossible to navigate).
These visual codes become short hand for "premium", "luxury", etc.–violate them, and the consumer won't buy in to your positioning.
HIGHR's visuals are very muddled. If you look at the imagery on the homepage, there is a lot going on:
- Soft, feminine setting–looks like it was shot on the set of a Jenni Kayne catalog
- Four models, four different ages and dispositions–I don't really buy that these guys would hang out together IRL
- You've got all four models doing the "blue steel" look, and some of them striking poses that feel like they belong in a women's fashion shoot...overall impression is just really weird
- Lighting and composition don't look "basic" like a catalog brand, but these things don't feel directional or purposeful either
- The website layout is mass market and direct response-coded
Compare the PDPs of HIGHR and Elwood to see what I mean. Elwood is not dropping six figures on high budget shoots, but they use art direction to make a relatively CRO-optimized website look elevated and clean, as well as making it clear who the product is for.
Potential Solutions
The most important question HIGHR needs to solve for is positioning: do they want to lean into problem/solution, or refine their aesthetic lens and become a pure fashion brand.
No matter which path they choose, this is probably going to require the brand to update its pricing and product offering.
If HIGHR chooses the problem/solution path, they'll need to make their art direction more accessible and focus on offer testing and nailing direct response creative.
If they choose the fashion path, they'll need to develop more directional photography and product with more of a fashion sensibility. Then they'll be able to apply the material in Facebook Ads For Fashion Brands more successfully.