Trending ♨️| Personal news & how brands persuade you to spend more
Awesome new brands pop up online every day. It's hard to keep track. Nexttbrand keeps a close eye on brand engagement metrics and lets you know what's taking off.
Every brand is objectively scored based on site traffic data. When you buy through links, I may earn a small commission.
Trending now
The Ridge
The Ridge Wallet is an expanding minimalist wallet that protects your cards and cash.
See more brands under miscellaneous.
Sensibo
Sensibo works with any remote controlled air conditioner & heater and saves energy.
See more brands under miscellaneous.
Vacation
Sunscreen that takes leisure as seriously as it takes protection. Hawaii reef friendly, dermatologist approved, “world’s best smelling scents” and more.
See more brands under skin care.
Frenchie Bulldog Pet Supply
Custom designed for french bulldogs! Harness, collar, leash, hoodie, bandana.
See more brands under pets.
Son of a Tailor
Custom tailored T-Shirts with Free Remake Guarantee. We use only the highest quality materials.
See more brands under men’s custom clothing.
Trending category: Cooking
Gozney: Premium home and commercial stone bake ovens.
MEATER: The smartest cooking thermometer for your BBQ and Kitchen. The MEATER app will notify you when your food is ready.
Blackstone Products: Outdoor cooking without the compromise. Tackle any great outdoor event with the Blackstone family of griddles & cookware.
Great Jones: Stylish pans and pots, cast-iron dutch oven, premium cookware. Smart, multifunctional designs.
BALMUDA: Tokyo-based creativity and technology company. Compact & easy-to-use toaster+oven combo and beautifully-designed kettle.
Fun extras
Life update from me: Back to school 📚
I just moved to the Chicago area and started the full-time MBA program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. If you’re in Chicago and interested in connecting, please let me know! I’d love to do an in-person meetup.
While at Kellogg, I’m planning on taking a lot of the entrepreneurship classes and accelerating some of the nexttbrand-related ventures I’ve been working on (stay tuned to hear more). I’m also looking forward to sharing interesting things we cover in classes in this newsletter.
As I’m starting school, I’ll be switching this newsletter to every other week. Thanks for your patience to-date as I’ve been testing different cadences.
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Notes from business school: Persuasion 101✏️
In one of my classes, we recently covered the topic of persuasion. If you want to make a message more persuasive, you should leverage these three tactics (note: these tactics are applicable to everything but I’ll use marketing examples here to bring them to life):
Social proof — people do what they believe the majority does (e.g., showcase news coverage and customers’ social media posts, highlight bestselling products, add a recent sales popup)
Path of least resistance — make the behavior you want easier to perform (e.g., enable one-click add-ons in the shopping cart, check-out with Apple / Google Pay)
Relativity — create favorable comparisons (e.g., add a more extreme but reasonable option or highlight a less desirable option)
I’m going to expand on relativity because 1) it’s quite powerful and 2) I think it’s underutilized in comparison to the other two tactics in direct-to-consumer marketing. Relatively is a great tactic for anyone hoping to get consumers to switch to a more expensive or profitable product.
Here is how it works — Imagine you are shopping for a Manscaped trimmer. You see two options. The cheaper option, at $84.99, includes just the flagship trimmer. The more expensive option, at $119.99, includes two types of trimmers, some skin care products, boxers, and more.
The more expensive option seems like a good deal but you’re probably struggling to justify why you need all those extra things. It may feel like a splurge.
Now compare that to the three options below.
All of a sudden, just getting the trimmer for $84.99 seems like a bad deal. For just $15 more, you can also get skin care products, boxers, and a travel bag. For an additional $20, you can get another type of trimmer on top of all that. By showing all three of these options, Manscaped just nudged you away from only getting the trimmer.
If you’re interested, you can learn more about applying relativity to marketing here.
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What I’m following in the news: Instagram testing native affiliate tools 📰
Last month, Instagram announced that it’ll be testing a new native affiliate tool. Influencers / creators accepted into the new affiliate program will be able to automatically earn a commission on purchases they drive to certain Instagram Shops. The influencer / creator doesn’t need to negotiate individually with the brand for a promo code or affiliate link and the user doesn’t need to navigate away from Instagram to make a purchase.
I was excited to hear about Instagram’s announcement because Douyin (TikTok in China) already offers a native affiliate tool. With the two leading social media players embracing affiliate marketing, the influence of micro-influencers will only expand.
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