Your customers don’t buy a product; they buy a story. If they like the product, they’ll share the story with a wider audience. The two entrepreneurs behind the fashion retailer UNTUCKit understand the power of story to sell a brand. And they know the power of simplicity in telling that story.
This week UNTUCKit announced its first overseas expansion. With more than 80 locations in North America, the New York-based creator of the original untucked shirt is expanding to London. When customers walk into the London stores, they’ll find the same story that greets customers in the U.S. You can’t miss it. The writing is on the wall, literally. The story is consistent across all of the company’s platforms: physical locations, website, television and radio ads.
It starts with one short sentence which has remained consistent since the company’s launch in June 2011. In six words, UNTUCKit sells: Shirts designed to be worn untucked.
This is the sentence you see on the website and the one you hear in all of the brand’s television commercials and radio ads. Founder Chris Riccobono designed the sentence on purpose. “If you can’t say in one sentence what makes you different from your competition, then you’re wasting your time,” he says. “You need to differentiate yourself.”
The story goes on, but not much longer. In just 47 words, the ‘longer’ story goes like this:
“We started UNTUCKit because we couldn’t find shirts that looked good untucked. It’s a tough style to get right. That’s why we created the perfect untucked shirt. It has that just-right length, fits all shapes and sizes, and helps you look sharp—even at your most casual.”
Let’s take a closer look at why the story works especially well for a startup or a growing brand.
Inciting incident.A good story—in books and movies—all have an inciting incident. It’s the event that triggers the journey. UNTUCKit founders Chris Riccobono and CEO, Aaron Sanandres, spend all of one sentence explaining the inciting incident that started it all—they couldn’t find shirts that look good untucked.
The problem. A good story has conflict. The hero faces hurdles and obstacles on the way to fulfilling their vision. In one sentence UNTUCKit briefly explains the hurdle in such plain language, anyone can understand it—it’s a tough style to get right. If you’d like to learn more about why it’s harder than it looks to design such a shirt, you can visit the company’s website. For most customers, however, knowing that it’s hard to make the shirt look good is all the information they need.
The solution. Once your audience learns why a product was created and the problem it seeks to solve, then—and only then—should the story sell the benefits. The UNTUCKit story contains three benefits: the shirt is the right length, fits all shapes and sizes, and looks sharp. Regular readers of my column know that I’m a big advocate of the rule of three in communication—give your audience three benefits about your product. More than three or four points is simply too much information to get across in a short pitch. Three is memorable.
We all know that the full story behind any brand or product story requires more than 47 words. But your customers, investors and stakeholders don’t always want to hear every detail. A short story can be effective if it includes the elements that great stories are built on.
Source: Carmine Gallo | https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2019/10/31/how-untuckit-differentiates-itself-in-47-words/#5d1cc4a515f6
"I attended your story telling course some time back. And I've enjoyed keeping up my knowledge with your blog. You may not have realised however, that the Whole of Government is implementing Internet Seperation. Hence I'm not able to access the links to read your articles. Could I suggest including a QR code in your emails so that I can use my mobile to scan it and gain immediate access to the article? It would be most helpful"
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