Johnny Cupcakes is Genius
August 27, 2008
A few months ago I was watching CNBC and they were interviewing Johnny about his t-shirt company. The first thing that attracted me to this interview was the logo of his company. Who doesn’t love Cupcakes? Another thing that grabbed my attention was that all of his t-shirts were exclusive. On the show he mentioned that he only makes a thousand shirts and then never makes them again. Who has ever seen someone wear the same thing you either own or have worn before? Not cool. I loved the whole concept so much I went to his website and bought my first t-shirt.
My life hasn’t been the same since. There are three things I love:
- The logo (Design)
- The Experience
- Scarcity
Every time I wear the shirt I have to tell his story. Someone always comments about the shirt, without fail. The logo is brilliant. It gets people talking because it because it is so different and so simple.
It doesn’t stop there. His attention to detail is amazing. He must have read the Design book by Tom Peters (highly recommended by the way). Everything matters!. It’s all part of the Experience. The packaging he sent the shirt in is so much different then anything else I have ever received in the mail. In the box he sent me a button with the logo, a johnny cupcakes mint, and a Save by the Bell college years trading card. He talks about how he likes to do little things like this to make people smile . . . it worked. The tag on the shirt is an oven mitt. All of this matters. It is all part of the experience.
His stores in Boston and his new one in LA are set up as bakeries that don’t sell pastry’s. They sell a t-shirt, they sell an experience. How many times have you camped out at a retail store for the release of the new design of your favorite t-shirt company? Over 600 people camped out this summer for his Summer Freshly Baked goods. If you are stunned you should be. There are only a few companies that come to mind that have this kind of effect. Apple, Nike . . . that’s all I could think of.
