Episode 16: Rethinking the Go-to-Market Strategy for Rainbow Sandals

Episode Transcript

Garrett Mehrguth: Hello, and welcome to the Original Marketing Show. Can we say show instead of podcast? I was thinking about it.

Brady Cramm: I like show, yeah. Because it’s mostly on YouTube.

Garrett Mehrguth: We want it to be a YouTube show, yeah. First and foremost, we’re a YouTube show. Is that fair?

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I would say. There’s a lot of post- production and video editing, so I would-

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, we watch the ads.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, we watch the ads. The production team does overlays. Yeah, I would say we’re YouTube forward.

Garrett Mehrguth: We are YouTube forward or we’re the worst radio of all time.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, we’ll try to explain things. Remember the car commercial where you were just doing car noises or something?

Garrett Mehrguth: It was bad. Bad radio. So, we’re a YouTube show, episode 15? 16.

Brady Cramm: 16.

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh my goodness. Episode 16 now. If you want to time travel, we launched episode seven yesterday.

Brady Cramm: I was actually going to talk about that.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay, let’s talk about that.

Brady Cramm: Because maybe we got to speed things up, but my ad today is very relevant this week. But we are talking from the future right now. Nine weeks ahead to be exact. And it’s a good ad, it’s something that’s releasing in 2024, so it’s not going to lose its relevancy.

Garrett Mehrguth: We’re content creators made for producers. We’re producers’ favorite thing in the world because they have nine weeks.

Brady Cramm: I’m going to Hawaii in November and I’m not too worried about it because we’re a couple months ahead of schedule.

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh my goodness.

Brady Cramm: What cracks me up is-

Garrett Mehrguth: Wait, time out. Where are you going in Hawaii? You can’t just drop a bomb like that.

Brady Cramm: Were going to the Big Island for our birthdays.

Garrett Mehrguth: Which one’s the Big Island? I get them all confused.

Brady Cramm: It’s the biggest one. Hence the name. I don’t know if it’s actually… I’m sure it has a more official name.

Garrett Mehrguth: Is that one called Maui?

Brady Cramm: No. So, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, and the Big Island are the ones for I think travel. Yeah, island of Hawaii.

Garrett Mehrguth: Hawaii. You’re going to the island of Hawaii.

Brady Cramm: It’s the OG I’m guessing.

Garrett Mehrguth: The Hawaiian archipelago.

Brady Cramm: Because it’s the biggest one. Yes.

Garrett Mehrguth: Lego? Lago? Okay, so you’re going to that one.

Brady Cramm: Yes.

Garrett Mehrguth: Thank you for such kindness. So, inaudible Hilo?

Brady Cramm: We are going just north of Kona, who make the coffee.

Garrett Mehrguth: I don’t like that coffee that much.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I don’t really drink it. But, yeah, it’s the biggest island probably because it’s the first one. There’s a lot of lava, but there is some rainforest sections.

Garrett Mehrguth: What’s the itinerary?

Brady Cramm: We’ve never been. Golfing on the sixth, I’m golfing on the eighth.

Garrett Mehrguth: He would have it all mapped.

Brady Cramm: I’m golfing on the eleventh. We technically bought unlimited golf.

Garrett Mehrguth: Time out. Your father- in- law and your father must be going.

Brady Cramm: My father- in- law is going, and he loves golf, and so I sacrifice.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, you do.

Brady Cramm: And make sure that he enjoys his time.

Garrett Mehrguth: He’s like a human shield for you in between your wife.

Brady Cramm: He retired a couple years ago. He’s in his mid to late 60’s.

Garrett Mehrguth: What’s his name?

Brady Cramm: Bruce.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, you’re just going to Lindsay, ” Look, honey, I don’t want to golf.”

Brady Cramm: No, she knows the game.

Garrett Mehrguth: “But Bruce.You know how much family means to me, honey. I just want to make sure Bruce and I have a deep relationship. I’d say no, but it’s totally… If you want me to say no, honey, just let me know.”

Brady Cramm: That’s exactly what the play is. No, he loves it. I drive everywhere, rent the car, I schedule all the golf. Just wakes up in the morning and we go to the course. We did this in Oahu last year.

Garrett Mehrguth: Sounds like the dream.

Brady Cramm: It’s fun.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, is your family going at all?

Brady Cramm: No. Just Lindsay, myself, and her parents. But both of our birthdays are happening during this trip. So, mine’s on the sixth, and then hers is on the tenth. And it’s just going to be hikes, golf, and food. That’s usually the game plan when we go to Hawaii.

Garrett Mehrguth: Do you ever relax?

Brady Cramm: Yeah. You relax the entire time.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay, okay.

Brady Cramm: I’m the driver, so there’s that piece of it.

Garrett Mehrguth: How about the piña coladas? Are you a piña colada guy when you go?

Brady Cramm: I’d say I’m more a Mai Tai. Yeah, but usually just beer. I’ll get one Mai Tai, but I would have rather had a beer. But I’m in Hawaii, so.

Garrett Mehrguth: I got you.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, we’re excited. We’ve never been to this island, and I have family on Oahu and Maui, so growing up I’ve been to Hawaii a lot. So, it’s fun to do a new island. We did Kauai for a honeymoon. That was the first time and that was really cool.

Garrett Mehrguth: Only one I’ve ever been to. I went one time. It was awesome.

Brady Cramm: I would say maybe Big Island’s the opposite in terms of Kauai is very rainforest heavy, raining a lot, and this is a lot of lava.

Garrett Mehrguth: Is there any deserts in Hawaii?

Brady Cramm: So, I’d say the Big Island might be closest to the desert. There’s this one private course that looked like it was just surrounded by… Probably more lava field than desert.

Garrett Mehrguth: It looks still pretty tropical like Kauai, bro. It still looks kind of rainforest.

Brady Cramm: It is. Yeah, so there’s a lot of-

Garrett Mehrguth: Are you going to go to that one with the boat tour? Are you going to see the Big Island lava boat tour?

Brady Cramm: Where’s the boat tour?

Garrett Mehrguth: Right there with the lava coming down. There’s a inaudible.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I was looking for a boat. I thought-

Garrett Mehrguth: That one looks sweet.

Brady Cramm: I’m a robot. I did not see the boat and click on it. No, so we’re not doing any lava- centric things. That’d be sick though. That’s cool.

Garrett Mehrguth: For photos that could be a crazy… You know how you sometimes frame them?

Brady Cramm: Yeah, we did a Nepali coast on our honeymoon boat tour because you could 15 mile hike to see it. No, we took a catamaran dinner sunset thing. It was fun. But the waves were big.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, how long you gone for? How many podcasts are we going to miss?

Brady Cramm: I’m just going from Monday to Friday.

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh, that’s not bad. We could do a double the week before like always.

Brady Cramm: The reason why I brought up the timeline is because this is, for everyone listening or watching, it’s Friday morning, and we recorded on Monday.

Garrett Mehrguth: October what again?

Brady Cramm: It’s the 21st today. So, we recorded Monday and then you have something next week, so we’re like, ” Okay, we got to record Friday.” And I was like, ” We’re nine weeks ahead of schedule.”

Garrett Mehrguth: This is the craziest show.

Brady Cramm: But we’re just like, ” No, we got to get it in every week.” Which is good.

Garrett Mehrguth: You know me, I’m a grinder.

Brady Cramm: It’s good discipline.

Garrett Mehrguth: I just go. I’m a very disciplined human. If I say we’re going to do a show every week, we got to do a show every week.

Brady Cramm: I will not be doing a show in Hawaii, I’ll tell you that.

Garrett Mehrguth: No, but I’m not going to do a show in Big Bear next week. So, this is kind of … But you’re right, we are nine weeks ahead of schedule.

Brady Cramm: We’re like, ” No, Friday morning, let’s make it work.” Moving meetings around.

Garrett Mehrguth: This pace, I didn’t get here on accident, Brady.

Brady Cramm: I know. It’s good.

Garrett Mehrguth: This level of commitment.

Brady Cramm: Once you drop that consistency-

Garrett Mehrguth: It’s hard.

Brady Cramm: Oh yeah, we did it once. Let’s do it twice. We’re nine weeks ahead, we’re five weeks ahead, and then once we get to two weeks ahead it’s going to be like, ” Oh shit.”

Garrett Mehrguth: We’re scrambling a little. This is that German-

Brady Cramm: I like it.

Garrett Mehrguth: Forward consistency discipline, you keep going.

Brady Cramm: My last name originates from inaudible, so there you go.

Garrett Mehrguth: I love it.

Brady Cramm: We got the German in the blood.

Garrett Mehrguth: We do.

Brady Cramm: That’s what it is.

Garrett Mehrguth: We have so… I’m excited the show went live though. Are you excited to finally have it… We’ve been doing this for how many months?

Brady Cramm: Yeah, well, the YouTube specifically, right? We dropped one through six on Spotify, on Apple. But to see the YouTube live and to see all the work the production team post- production did on the video was really cool.

Garrett Mehrguth: Very cool.

Brady Cramm: Especially for episode one.

Garrett Mehrguth: We got to refine it. I think we’ll get better.

Brady Cramm: inaudible post- production.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, there’s obviously areas I think of improvement for us, primarily us. I think we can just be less boring sometimes.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I’m afraid my energy is just dropping over time. I thought about that in the car this morning.

Garrett Mehrguth: I don’t.

Brady Cramm: I don’t think it is. I don’t know. I just watched episode seven, and I was like, ” Man, have I been keeping that up this whole time?”

Garrett Mehrguth: Were you able to watch it through though?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s a good sign. Because if you can watch your own show, maybe it’s not too horrible.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I was laughing at moments and I was thinking, ” Oh well, is this because we did it?” And I don’t think it was. I thought there were some funny moments.

Garrett Mehrguth: I thought the fart was kind of funny.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, the fart was a good intro. First episode, fart intro.

Garrett Mehrguth: Welcome to us.

Brady Cramm: That’s why I like this podcast is if we were suited up trying to do corporate marketing the whole time, we’d be like…

Garrett Mehrguth: We wouldn’t even want to do it. We’d be bored.

Brady Cramm: Oh my gosh, Brady, look at that big sticker on your mug. You need something more professional than that.

Garrett Mehrguth: The producers told me not to hit my coffee thing. I did that and I whacked the chair. Just the show is really just us just talking about whatever we want to talk about. And I think that part’s fun. I think that part is fun. And I’m glad you’re going to Hawaii.

Brady Cramm: Yup, I’m excited. It’s coming up quick.

Garrett Mehrguth: I want to go again very soon. Multiple times a year. I want to be a Hawaii guy. I like being the Hawaii guy. I show up, I wear different clothes. I’m very casual, got my flip flops, just vibing.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, we try to go once a year, I think, since we’ve been dating we’ve only skipped one year.

Garrett Mehrguth: Wow, that’s really cool. Well, today we got some good ads, Brady.

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: Some very good ads. I have one that has always been a favorite of mine, and then you’ve got one that’s already kind of pulled up. Let’s start with yours actually. The car ad. Because we’re car guys.

Brady Cramm: I’m on a car train.

Garrett Mehrguth: You are.

Brady Cramm: Don’t get it twisted though. I’m not in the market for a new car. I know it might be seeming that way.

Garrett Mehrguth: Time out. Are you not at all in the market for a new car?

Brady Cramm: Not at all.

Garrett Mehrguth: How many miles are you going to put on that thing before you are?

Brady Cramm: I’m at 115 right now. I’m looking to get three more years out of it, four.

Garrett Mehrguth: Do you have Carplay? Because Carplay to me is a non- negotiable now.

Brady Cramm: I got Bluetooth.

Garrett Mehrguth: You don’t have the GPS though on the-

Brady Cramm: It has GPS actually. I need to get a new magnet, but I just got the wireless charger.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s what I do on my other car. Yeah, my old one.

Brady Cramm: It’s great, it’s perfect.

Garrett Mehrguth: I love it. All right, break it down for us, Brady.

Brady Cramm: All right, so, this is the new GMC Sierra EV Denali ad.

Garrett Mehrguth: I like me some Denali.

Brady Cramm: It doesn’t release until 2024. This all dropped this week, so-

Garrett Mehrguth: I haven’t seen it actually then.

Brady Cramm: Really?

Garrett Mehrguth: No, and I have a GMC Sierra Denali.

Brady Cramm: So, you’ve had a Tesla and you have a diesel Denali, so I’m very curious…

Garrett Mehrguth: 2500 big boy.

Brady Cramm: What you think about the birth of those two cars together.

Garrett Mehrguth: To EV? It’s probably going to make me want to puke, but let’s do this. I’m a diesel boy.

Brady Cramm: Oh my gosh. You’re using the 16 million barrels of reserve.

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh yeah, I’m paying 6. 30 a gallon. Filling it up for 20 minutes no problem.

Brady Cramm: Oh my gosh.

Garrett Mehrguth: All right, show this thing to me. Let’s see it.

Speaker 3: To name yourself after the highest peak in North America maybe that’s audacity. But at GMC, we strive to make trucks that set themselves apart and set themselves above. And make no mistake, towering above is exactly what the first ever all electric GMC Sierra EV Denali edition one is built to do. Powered by LG and battery technology, it delivers 754 horsepower. With up to a GM estimated 400 miles of range on a full charge and fast charging of 100 miles in approximately 10 minutes. Available super cruise driver assistance technology delivers one of the most advanced driving experiences hands down. Precision driving is leveled up with four wheel steer to improve turning radius and maneuverability. If you want the versatility to experience more and haul more, GMC continues to lead in innovation with our available new multipro midgate offering more than 10 feet of bed length inside a re- imagined cabin marks the dawn of a new era in luxury. When properly equipped, the ultium battery can power your home’s essential devices for up to 21 days. Introducing the first ever all electric GMC Sierra EV Denali. It is the Denali of EVs.

Brady Cramm: So, that’s the new Denali. And what stands out to me is 400 miles because that’s Vegas easily. I think the Ford Lightning starts at 250, 280 in range. You mentioned you didn’t like the front end. It’s just an EV front end.

Garrett Mehrguth: It shows advertising jealousy. What about this ad makes you jealous from an advertising perspective? I have to at least call you out on this. Because this looks like the most stereotypical car ad I’ve ever seen, and the car is cool and different, but why do you like it as an ad? Break that down.

Brady Cramm: So, I like it as an ad. They had actually teaser ads leading up to these commercials. And so they had very dark background, 15- second ads just showing the grill for a couple weeks leading up to this.

Garrett Mehrguth: The grill is my favorite inaudible. It’s my favorite part of the car, okay? Will you pull up Scarlet 2500-

Brady Cramm: But we can see kind of in the thumbnail, right?

Garrett Mehrguth: GMC Denali HD. This is my car.

Brady Cramm: But EVs just don’t need the ventilation, so all of them have… Not to say they couldn’t do a fake one.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, like that. That to me is a truck.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, but it’s the ventilation. And so I think that with the flat plate wouldn’t look as good at that size.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s true.

Brady Cramm: But it’s not to say you can’t mock that. But I think as a first EV you have to own the fact that you don’t need ventilation.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, they try to make the EVs EVs, which is fair. I think that’s kind of what they’re doing because they’re still going to have… You can’t tell a boat with that EV. A big old-

Brady Cramm: Yeah, so they don’t show that, but on the website they show… What are those silver?

Garrett Mehrguth: They showed a Gulf stream.

Brady Cramm: It was a Gulf stream, right? Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay, so, but what about the ad did you love, Brady? Because I thought the interest thing was kind of cool where they kind of tied it back into the mountain.

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: And I liked the tagline at the end.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I like the balance of the cinematography. I like the narrator.

Garrett Mehrguth: He was good.

Brady Cramm: I liked his confidence, but it wasn’t over the top.

Garrett Mehrguth: I agree with that.

Brady Cramm: I like the spacing between features, right? It really let the range soak in. It let the horsepower soak in. There were some subtle moments, like the guy… Oh yeah, it is in the ad. That was in the ad?

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, yeah, it was.

Brady Cramm: I didn’t even remember that for some reason. I think because I went to the site, so I definitely remember inaudible. Yeah, the screen is massive. Even that guy’s smirk when they showed the guy in the city scene. The way he smirked. I don’t know. For someone who’s not in the market right now, it put this truck on my radar, and I think that’s why I liked it. Which is my pure reaction.

Garrett Mehrguth: Brady wants to be a truck guy inaudible.

Brady Cramm: It wasn’t as much breaking down the psychology of it.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay, I get it now. So, it was an ad that you didn’t like out of-

Brady Cramm: Dissecting it like this isn’t for me, but I see how it’s for other people. Even though I see how it’s for other people. I think with the Lightning now in production, people buying them. I thought the timing was good. Because I was like, ” Really? Do you lean in this heavy when it doesn’t release until 2024?” I was kind of debating that in my head. But it planted a seed.

Garrett Mehrguth: The ad did not engage your ad brain. It engaged your consumer brain, and that’s why you liked it so much.

Brady Cramm: Yes, and that is rare.

Garrett Mehrguth: I know it is.

Brady Cramm: Because I struggle with this segment just to be completely honest because… And I’m probably wrong in many ways. I’m sure I’m manipulated by my advertisement all day every day.

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh no, do you think you’re better than the ads?

Brady Cramm: Yes.

Garrett Mehrguth: Brady inaudible thinks he’s better than the ads.

Brady Cramm: When it comes to being a consumer-

Garrett Mehrguth: They got you right here.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I’m not on the waitlist or anything, but-

Garrett Mehrguth: I’m not on the waitlist. I like that. Yeah.

Brady Cramm: It put the truck on my radar, but the first thing I do is I go to the site, and I really look into it. I look into what the pricing is. That’s kind of how I shop.

Garrett Mehrguth: What is the price on this?

Brady Cramm: It starts at 108.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, don’t act like you didn’t look. I love it.

Brady Cramm: No, I did.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay.

Brady Cramm: That’s why I just said I did.

Garrett Mehrguth: It works.

Brady Cramm: It definitely got me to. But honestly I would know not through this ad that this truck was coming out, and I would do my research.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, are you going to join the GMC Denali family with me? Because it’s a good family.

Brady Cramm: I don’t know. I like Toyota. And so I’m kind of waiting for…

Garrett Mehrguth: The Tundra feels a little played out though lately. It’s been that same truck.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I like the Tacoma. Or are you talking about the Tacoma?

Garrett Mehrguth: I’m talking about the Tundra. I think both of the trucks, I think they would run in that same body type for what, 10 years now?

Brady Cramm: Yeah. Tacomas have. I think the new ones look really clean and subtle.

Garrett Mehrguth: They’re a little beefier inaudible. My father- in- law just got one.

Brady Cramm: Nice.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, and you know a lot of guys put the covers on the back.

Brady Cramm: Yup.

Garrett Mehrguth: And he kind of got the full thing up. It’s a pretty good looking truck.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, my cousin on my wife’s side has the craziest desert. He’s got the metal bars with gas tanks and…

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, the Baja setup stick.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, the Baja setup. I grew up with Chevy. My dad always bought Chevy cars. I think his dad got a military discount on Chevy and GMC, so he always bought those cars. I think the guy’s going to get a new Suburban. God knows why. He drives to LA every day.

Garrett Mehrguth: Your dad doesn’t have any more… Does he have a ton of grandchildren? Two, one?

Brady Cramm: He has one.

Garrett Mehrguth: And then no more kids in the house?

Brady Cramm: No.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, he’s got the largest… I love it. I love your dad. So, what does he do with it? Time out. Is it to tow the boat? Because I know he likes to…

Brady Cramm: We have a boat at Lake Mead. It’s an early 90s Mastercraft. When we went to the baby shower this last weekend, Lake Mead is a desert, but he pulled it out of storage, he made sure it fired up. He has a tough time getting me out of the water on a single ski these days, but we make it work.

Garrett Mehrguth: Really? Okay, so it’s not much less than this thing.

Brady Cramm: We’ll see. My uncle had a 1970s jet boat for-

Garrett Mehrguth: I just love that your dad’s buying a Suburban as his inaudible new phase of life.

Brady Cramm: No, he still has his’02 Suburban. I went with him to pick it up from the mechanic, and he turns on the AC and the AC fan is just like… So, he slams his fist on it. I’m like, ” Dude, if you fire this air bag off in my face right now.” So, to him there’s always a moment for a Suburban. Which is true when I inaudible-

Garrett Mehrguth: My thing is I have phases. I’ve got pre- kids, kids, post- kids. And I think my post- kid phase is a lot more me and my lady on a two- seater than… I love it. I love it.

Brady Cramm: There’s always that time.

Garrett Mehrguth: There is always that time.

Brady Cramm: You gained a dresser this weekend? You need the Sub?

Garrett Mehrguth: Yes, I love it.

Brady Cramm: You want more of the Sub?

Garrett Mehrguth: I love it. All right, I got to show you mine because I think you’re going to… This is too much for me. I love that he’s got the Suburban still. It’s awesome.

Brady Cramm: Oh, the new one came in, he checked it out early this week. I’m still thinking about… I’m like, ” You’re not thinking about it.”

Garrett Mehrguth: You’re getting it.

Brady Cramm: You’re just playing the game, so it seems like you really thought about the purchase.

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh, I might have found a hack for us. Campaigns of the World. Okay, so I discovered this because I knew the ad, and I just clicked on the top result. I might have a little cheat code for how I get content for this. Because some weeks I have it. Some weeks I’m watching TV, I’m on my phone, I’m driving down the road, and I see an ad and I’m like, ” That’s it. That’s dope. They crushed that. That’s going on the show.” Other weeks, I’m not going to lie to you, Brady, most marketing these days is just not inspiring. It doesn’t get me going. I see it and I’m just like, ” No.”

Brady Cramm: You google best TV ads of 2022, all right, this is going to be it. No.

Garrett Mehrguth: Is that what you do, Brady?

Brady Cramm: Well, I try it. But I watch a lot and it needs to actually stick for me, and it doesn’t happen.

Garrett Mehrguth: I’m not going to lie to the viewers. The vast majority of the time I’ve got a swipe file of ads I experience in the wild and I save. I would say if I do a segment like this segment, seven out of ten are kind of in my ad piggy bank. Now, obviously they’re on the 16th episode. I’m running out of inaudible a little low, but this is from my piggy bank. I just realized Campaigns of the World might be a future resource for me. But so this is why I love this ad. I love any ad that does a world class job of integrating the product creatively into the ad. Now, in this case, what is so awesome to me, is the length they went to do something truly dynamic, something truly different in my opinion. And in this case, they created a font out of sofas. And to me that’s just the dopest thing ever. You can run all your campaigns for that quarter, that month or whatever using your sofa font, and that’s just… I don’t know, it’s just completely… And I love the line, the line Sofa Sans. I’ll just read it to everybody. ” Sofa Sans is the world’s comfiest font inspired by our customers’ use of the Valentura Planner. Its modular form and relaxed letter spacing make it one of the most versatile. Also available in life size.” Chef’s kiss. It’s beautiful. That is why I love this industry. That’s what keeps me going. Work like that.

Brady Cramm: Especially because you could do this with sofas, but the fact that it is their modular sofa, where you could technically build this.

Garrett Mehrguth: Go off.

Brady Cramm: In real life. It’s that connection that makes it magical.

Garrett Mehrguth: Truly magical.

Brady Cramm: Sofa Sans, very creative, right? You took a font, you made the font out of sofas, you called it Sofa Sans. Tons of creativity there.

Garrett Mehrguth: Jeromes could do that, but it’s not the same.

Brady Cramm: It’s their modular sofa, and that’s where it just clicks.

Garrett Mehrguth: So good. Scroll a little too because it gets better, Brady. They didn’t just fake it.

Brady Cramm: Oh stop.

Garrett Mehrguth: No, they didn’t just fake it. They did it real. And I mean they did it. They actually built the whole font out. Keep going down. Like a true, yes. And they broke down how to use it. If you’ve ever worked with a creative team, and when they actually do a font, this is how you create your own font. And they went all the way through with Sofa. And check it out, you can download the font. Will you click on that real quick for me, Scarlet? I want to inaudible.

Brady Cramm: Let me try to throw this in Photoshop.

Garrett Mehrguth: Check this out. You can actually build out the full font. I don’t know if she has the right program to open it if that makes sense.

Brady Cramm: I’m trying to think how it’s not just your normal font kit.

Garrett Mehrguth: No, no, it’s running OTF. She has to convert it. I forget what that is because I’m not a designer inaudible.

Brady Cramm: My wife has a Cricut. I wonder if that work, an OTF font.

Garrett Mehrguth: Can you go back for a second, Scarlet? But okay, here’s what I also love. It worked. So, I’m going to read the success of this campaign and shout out Proximity London, who did it. I got to give it up for you. So, in 48 hours, Sofa Sans generated 84.2 million impressions, over 13, 000 references on social, organic traffic to the tool increased by 6600, and the average time spent within the planning tool increased by 1, 000%.

Brady Cramm: How many people bought the sofas?

Garrett Mehrguth: Let’s go to the tool too. Can we go up? Because it looks like there is a tool for this that we didn’t even see. Can we go to Valen- … Is there?

Brady Cramm: That may have been the font kit?

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, maybe we can click on it. No, go up. Click on that, yeah. No. Go to Valentuna Planner for us, Scarlet.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I’m sure these ads linked out to the site.

Garrett Mehrguth: There it is. I just want to see this too because this is the full execution. That was just the PR, right? They had to build the landing page too as an ad agency. So, start from scratch. That’s sick. So, they didn’t necessarily totally game it. This is the real product they built so you can design your modular sofa, but to get you actually interested in a modular sofa they designed a font. That is sick. That is sick. You can go design your modular sofa, but yeah, this is creative. But think about it, if Ikea just launched a modular sofa, it wouldn’t get 84 million impressions and a ton of media. When you launch it with a custom font, game over.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, and I’m curious what their targeting was. This hits even broad, but four people who are maybe graphic designers who actually spend time in this builder after being interested in the font, I see that persona.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s such a weird way of looking at it, but you’re right. Because it is such a generically widely spread anyone could like this campaign. But you know who could like the campaign the most? Designers. That’s a nice little angle you have there.

Brady Cramm: Because a lot of people probably know Arial font. Yeah, that’s the main font out there.

Garrett Mehrguth: That I use on Google Drive.

Brady Cramm: Right? But I don’t think a lot of people can appreciate that ad as much as you and I do, right? But graphic designers, I think, can appreciate it, or just designers in general, more than even you and I do. And I see that persona being a good market for Ikea furniture.

Garrett Mehrguth: What are you trying to say, designers have no money, Brady?

Brady Cramm: No. Ikea’s a monster. Ikea is very trendy. Ikea is high end furniture you can afford these days. Half my house is Ikea.

Garrett Mehrguth: I love when I get you like that.

Brady Cramm: Fire me up a little bit. It’s not a safe space I guess. Shoot. Every week. Just go into this not safe space. Scarlet, can you build out Original Marketing Podcast in the builder?

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh, that would be sick.

Brady Cramm: Also I think not just Ikea, but the design side of them would probably want to get a little custom and might have some frustration having the right couch fit and I know they’re not going to commit to the L or the ottoman being on the wrong side of the couch.

Garrett Mehrguth: I could see you spending hours in this tool trying to get the perfect layout.

Brady Cramm: Oh yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: You’re their type. Because you’re the guy that’s like eight hours on Light Room, right?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, so this is an eight-hour-

Brady Cramm: Well, just in furniture in general I’m very, very picky.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, I could see it.

Brady Cramm: We got a new bench for the end of our bed from Target.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s why I love you though, Brady. You’re a very consistent human, kind of like myself but in your own way. And I know how you’re going to react to certain types of purchases.

Brady Cramm: Yes.

Garrett Mehrguth: Do you know what I mean by that? You’re going to want it Brady Cramm way.

Brady Cramm: Perfect, yeah. Even this week, I need a new backpack because my zipper just… I can’t connect it and it broke at the bottom. And so I think Lindsay was at Nordstrom Rack or Marshall’s or something, and there was a backpack that color was great, had a little fox logo that I thought was cool, it’s my mom’s maiden name, Fox, I was like, ” That’s kind of cool.” It was waterproof. You enter from the top, it had a pull string-

Garrett Mehrguth: What did it not have, Brady?

Brady Cramm: It didn’t have an external pocket. It was a crazy discount, so many pieces were right, but that one thing. And I think that’s where I have a hard time even with ads sometimes is they’ll get awareness for me, but if it’s not sound-

Garrett Mehrguth: Do you like then … Remember when Nike did this? It was this big. You could make your own custom shoes with Nike on their website. And that was I feel like, what, 15 years ago? Because I was a little kid designing my soccer cleats on there. But I always had a hard time making my designs better than theirs, if that makes sense. I don’t know if I ever bought one of my design shoes because I couldn’t make it better than theirs. To me, these couches, no offense, Scarlet, I think most of these couches kind of stink. I know you’re kind of on the fly here. See that brown one? I would never pay for that one in the middle. And so my point being is…

Brady Cramm: I don’t know if that’s an actual setup. I think they may give too much freedom in this builder.

Garrett Mehrguth: But she could make it. Look at the sofas she’s making. I don’t know who’s buying those sofas. They’re terrible. That’s my point here is when you do custom builders like this, does it actually… Look at her sofa. Where are you going to sit on this thing? She got the back rest, but then your legs are going over the hump.

Brady Cramm: You should be able to… They should have preset layouts that you drag and drop the textures and the colors you want.

Garrett Mehrguth: Scarlet’s really good with interior design stuff. She did the studio, I think it’s great. But-

Brady Cramm: She’s just playing with it.

Garrett Mehrguth: I know. I know. But my point being is it’s hard to build a really great sofa on here.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, it’s just popping up in random places. So, they definitely could have improved the UX, but I don’t know, even for me I know I’m curious what an actual sofa, a nice L, would look like. But price is already going up. So, when I got my sofa, we drove a couple hours a couple times out to the West Elm outlet, and we found the perfect one for less than this.

Garrett Mehrguth: See? Well, yeah, but she’s got four sofas in here, bro.

Brady Cramm: Yeah. That’s where I’m curious what a nice L would look like. You don’t have to build it.

Garrett Mehrguth: But I think the big takeaway on this campaign is, for me, any time you can get your product creatively integrated, any time you can make, frankly, something that’s been played out, hey, design your own sofa, custom modular sofa, isn’t really that innovative now. I think this was launched in 2019. However, turning the sofas into a font is viral. And so I think any time you can make something cool but not remarkable remarkable, even if it’s gimmicky, I think that’s the thing. I think so many times we have unremarkable products and then we settle with… The ad agency didn’t promote the modular builder. They promoted a font designed on a sofa, so that’s remarkable. My point being is a lot of times we as marketers and as advertisers have non- remarkable products or services that we try to make remarkable via the products or services instead of kind of creating, let’s say, a bridge between the product and service to the remarkability of it. And that’s what this is. The font is what makes it remarkable. Not this. We’re all watching this. This is not remarkable. The font is. And I think sometimes for directive it inspires me because professional services, demand gen, customer gen, pipeline for software companies isn’t really remarkable. So, if you just say, ” We lower cost per SQL for your company,” you’re not going to get 84 million impressions and 13,000 shares. But if you created a font that was built out of a funnel, I’m just completely spitballing here, then all of the sudden-

Brady Cramm: I get the point. I get the point.

Garrett Mehrguth: It would get reshares. So, I think sometimes we need to layer on remarkability to things that are cool but maybe” not quite magical.”

Brady Cramm: And they did this through, I think, mostly display ads.

Garrett Mehrguth: It would work in anything.

Brady Cramm: Which is probably the most challenging placement in terms of ad fatigue.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, but if it’s creative like this, it’s creative like this. Some things are just so good that it works no matter where you put it.

Brady Cramm: That’s what I’m saying. I think they really did well just even that placement in general.

Garrett Mehrguth: The distribution, yeah.

Brady Cramm: Yeah. Because that’s a tough placement to get that type of engagement and people to actually experience it.

Garrett Mehrguth: I think it was social though. 13, 000 shares makes me think it had to have been on social too.

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: But that’s a crazy ad. They crushed it. And it inspires me to wonder how I can layer something on top of my customer’s products or services to make them get to that moment of remarkability. All right, we’re on market this now. We’re excited. I want to talk to you about a local brand, Rainbow Sandals, Brady.

Brady Cramm: Should have let me know. I would have worn mine. It’s freezing in here, so I wouldn’t have. But maybe socks and sandals.

Garrett Mehrguth: By the way, I need new sandals. And I’ll tell you why I don’t buy Rainbows.

Brady Cramm: All right.

Garrett Mehrguth: You got to break them in.

Brady Cramm: This is true.

Garrett Mehrguth: You have to break them in. And if you know what I’m talking about, and you’re like… I grew up wearing Rainbows.

Brady Cramm: If they don’t look gross, they’re not comfortable.

Garrett Mehrguth: Correct. These sandals, I think you earn them becoming your favorite sandals. But you got to grind through the nasty stuff to get there. But we’re going to talk about Rainbow Sandals. We’re going to talk about how we’re going to market them. It’s a little challenging, I think, for us because this is now back- to- back family businesses. We did In- N- Out last week, another So Cal brand.

Brady Cramm: I had In-N-Out for dinner this week. Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: And now we’re doing the OG true local, local Orange County, California, brand. Now, for everyone who doesn’t know Rainbow Sandals, let’s watch a quick video to introduce them to you, and then we’re going to walk through how we’re going to make Rainbow Sandals the largest sandals brand in the world.

Sparky: We were here in 1974. We were the first ones to make a sandal for the surf market. So, I think that’s just stuck. And we made the functional item just like the Levi’s did. Levi’s is a functional item that became a fashion statement just because it was so functional.

Garrett Mehrguth: Like Levi’s.

Sparky: And wore well, and that’s what I feel I am. I’m a Levi’s of the sandal business. I’m making functional item, a brown leather sandal that everybody wears because it feels good and it molds to their foot. And it doesn’t look bad after 10 years.

Speaker 5: People that buy Rainbow Sandals are people that like the lifestyle, like to travel, like to go to the beach, like to have fun, like to be active. And they like a pair of sandals that are on their feet and they’re going to go with them to do all these kind of things. And it’s interesting just to put that in perspective.

Sparky: Well, the frame sandal in the front, that’s fun for us. People started sending their sandals in with these letters. Hi, you don’t know me. I was in the South Pole, I walked all… I walked up here. And their sandals are just shot, they’re worn out. And it’s just fun to see that people are happy wearing the stuff. So, we frame them and then other people send theirs in because they’re stoked that they had these things and they had a good feeling from them. I think that people like Rainbow Sandals because they last a long time and they get a good value and they feel good. And I think that’s important. It’s important to me. I try to make that. And for 26 years we’ve never really changed our fashion too much.

Speaker 6: Sparky, I don’t think he know how to slow down. He’s very active. When he’s not working, he’s active. He snowboards and does all the various things he does.

Garrett Mehrguth: They still make them all by hand.

Speaker 6: People have offered him a lot of money for this company. I don’t think he’d ever take it because he wouldn’t know what to do. He’s worked so hard here for so long.

Sparky: I never, when I started, had the money or the time to help anybody else. I was trying to help myself. So, now I’m in a position and really like giving back and helping. I believe that education for children is really important. So, we give to really a lot of different charities that help kids. It’s my most important thing. My vision for Rainbow Sandals, I just want to… If I can keep doing what I’m doing and if they still like my sandals, I’ll keep doing it forever. Because it’s fun to give and that’s what I’m really doing is giving people something of value that feels good to them. That’s very cool. If you can do that, that’s a wonderful thing I think.

Garrett Mehrguth: Don’t you just love him?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, let’s go to the main website. Let’s go to the homepage real quick. Just click on the logo top left.

Brady Cramm: I was actually curious if they had eComm, and they have shop.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay, so let’s go to shop. Put leather because those are kind of the OGs. So, you could go here. Single layer, one strap, it’s that one, top left, it’s the OG. So, we got$ 55 product. Great reviews. OG Rainbows, that logo is iconic. We got to blow them up, Brady.

Brady Cramm: So, I’m actually surprised they have eComm, right? Which shows that they want to blow up.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, because if you’ve ever been to their San Clemente HQ-

Brady Cramm: That’s what I’m thinking because we live so close. I’ve always seen them as, oh yeah, this weird industrial area of San Clemente, you drive in, you scrap your bumper up the steep driveway, and you get your sandals once every five years.

Garrett Mehrguth: If you take a true OG of Orange County, California, nine out of ten of them have Rainbow Sandals. Yet you got to go all the way to San Clemente a lot of times into this warehouse to buy them. But looks like we’re a little bit in the modern age.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, no, that’s cool. Because to me that means they want to grow outside of Orange County. Because I was curious about that. There are some of these businesses where… That guy’s doing a lot. He is living his purpose in a sense where he’s able to give back. He’s gotten himself in that position to where I think some people are like, ” Hey, this is the ceiling and this is where I’m comfortable. I don’t feel guilty, I don’t feel the need about getting bigger. This is it.” And it seems like, no, they’re still willing to keep pushing.

Garrett Mehrguth: And I actually really like that. I think for how cool they are, if you go back to that homepage for a second, nobody cares about this surfer. They care about that old man, Sparky, and his story.

Brady Cramm: For the long ride they last a long time, but-

Garrett Mehrguth: It’s not really it. So, let’s get to the next image on there, because they got three photos. I want to see if they get one. Okay, that’s closer. That’s what I want to see. But you got to get the image sized correctly.

Brady Cramm: That’s a dirty bucket.

Garrett Mehrguth: And then mileage plus is great. Now, I have a question for you, how durable do you want your sandals to be, Brady?

Brady Cramm: In the sense of the durability and comfort scale getting-

Garrett Mehrguth: Because the reason is yes. Because he makes them so… Shipping inaudible tell everybody about that in a second too because I found that. How do I explain this? You don’t know if you haven’t bought Rainbow Sandals. But if you’ve bought Rainbow Sandals, they are hell to wear at first. You get blisters. Your feet are just destroyed. But then they will last you until you die. So, I guess my question to you is, and I don’t want to mess with the formula too much, but is there any way… I actually stopped buying Rainbow Sandals because I discovered Reef and what are the ones that come from Hawaii? inaudible

Brady Cramm: Big fish hook on it?

Garrett Mehrguth: Olukai or something like that? Those are great.

Brady Cramm: I don’t know.

Garrett Mehrguth: But I’ve had two pairs and both of them have started to fall apart. And same with my Reef. All my sandals other than Rainbow fall apart in their defense. But they all, when you put them on and you’re at the store, your foot, the arch support, the leather, you feel so comfortable and you just walk out of the store and you’re like, ” Oh these sandals, I can’t wait to wear them.” My Rainbows, I’m like, ” It’s time to grind. You got to earn these shoes.”

Brady Cramm: Yup, one step at a time.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, what’s your take on if we made them slightly… Maybe instead of lasting 20 years, they only last 17. But the first year doesn’t suck.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I’m trying. So, I come from a different experience.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay, so you think they’re comfy right when you get them.

Brady Cramm: My aunt before I think maybe a Hawaii trip, she gifted us the sandals with the big fish hook.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, they’re amazing.

Brady Cramm: So, I brought them to Hawaii and I started getting a blister between my big toe and whatever the second inaudible. Fun fact-

Garrett Mehrguth: Your pointer toe.

Brady Cramm: My pointer toe is longer than my big toe.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s how everyone’s is I think.

Brady Cramm: So, I guess big toe is more thickness.

Garrett Mehrguth: I don’t think that’s fun fact. I think everybody’s.

Brady Cramm: I guess the fun fact is it’s as long as my pinky. That’s the fun fact.

Garrett Mehrguth: Wait, wait, time out.

Brady Cramm: I’m not going to take my shoes off.

Garrett Mehrguth: I’m not asking you to. Time out. Can I just see your pinky real quick? Your pointer toe is that-

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: From the joint?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s so cool.

Brady Cramm: They’ll go joint to joint.

Garrett Mehrguth: Because you have big feet, right? What size are you?

Brady Cramm: 13.

Garrett Mehrguth: You’re really a size nine. You’re all toes.

Brady Cramm: Oh yeah. If my toes got cut off, I’d be falling over on my face.

Garrett Mehrguth: Like my size feet.

Brady Cramm: There was just no support. I have very flat feet, which is why I think they’re so long. Because the arch takes away.

Garrett Mehrguth: Those types of sandals hurt you.

Brady Cramm: So, just we’re talking about comfort, right? I totally agree. You got to break in Rainbows. I’m not saying inaudible Rainbows, you’re wrong, they’re comfy when you put them on. You have to break them in.

Garrett Mehrguth: You do have to break them in.

Brady Cramm: But I got blisters from the other material. So, I’m not too concerned with the Rainbow material between your toes, which I think-

Garrett Mehrguth: That is a good point.

Brady Cramm: A lot of people get wrong. But, to your point, they are very firm to start.

Garrett Mehrguth: But in Rainbow’s defense, they essentially… The other sandal brands, theoretically what they’re doing is pre- forming it. They’re pre- forming it. Rainbow, you earn that form.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, they come as a memory foam mattress. The first time you lay on it, you just soak in.

Garrett Mehrguth: 85% of humans who wear this size sandal have feet structured like this, and we are going to make it fit your foot when you put it on the first time. Rainbow’s like, ” We’re going to give you three layers of rubber, leather, gum, leather, whatever that is at the top, and you’re going to wear your foot’s impression into it,” essentially, right?

Brady Cramm: Yeah. I think they could tell that story. Breaking in your Rainbows is a thing.

Garrett Mehrguth: It is, but they didn’t mention it once. I watched a whole video. I only did the two minutes and 21 seconds.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, they don’t really own up to that being a part of the comfort, which-

Garrett Mehrguth: Maybe they do. So, let’s go back. Scarlet, go forward technically to the shoe again. Oh, those are nice.

Brady Cramm: Christmas is coming.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yes, sir. Those look comfy. Okay, so go here. Let’s see if they talk about this part. Because we know it, but if you were in Atlanta and you bought these shoes and you put them on, I do not know how … We all kind of go through it almost like a rite of passage because we’re from Orange County and it’s just what you do. By the way, this is such a crazy company to say. A whole entire region of the country just wears their sandals and deals with it. But I don’t know if you can just go to Atlanta and some person in Atlanta who buys these online is not freaking out. They also do not make a big deal about that lifetime guarantee. That’s crazy to me.

Brady Cramm: Not making a big deal probably saves some money.

Garrett Mehrguth: New in 1974, what does that mean? What is that line? No, go down. At the top.

Brady Cramm: I think that’s when they started.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay. Let’s go down. I want to see if they talk about wearing them, breaking them in. Okay, let’s do the reviews. There it is, the first one. Okay, I did not have this planned.

Brady Cramm: Power through the first two weeks of pain-

Garrett Mehrguth: Then enjoy years of glory. Each pair tends to last-

Brady Cramm: That’s the ad right there.

Garrett Mehrguth: That is.

Brady Cramm: That’s a great headline.

Garrett Mehrguth: Someone had to tell the truth.

Brady Cramm: That is the first review.

Garrett Mehrguth: The very first review. Power through the first two weeks of pain.

Brady Cramm: I don’t personally think pain, but it’s not comfort.

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh, I do. No, no, no.

Brady Cramm: So, you actually-

Garrett Mehrguth: Yes. I stopped wearing them.

Brady Cramm: It’s tough. It’s tough.

Garrett Mehrguth: Well, I stopped wearing them because I wore a hole through mine. I got one pair when I was-

Brady Cramm: Congrats.

Garrett Mehrguth: Thanks.

Brady Cramm: I think that’s a big milestone is when you get that hole in the heel.

Garrett Mehrguth: My dad and I used to take a lot of pride in this.

Brady Cramm: It’s like a challenge.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, yeah. But then him and I, I don’t know if he did too. He might still actually have some. I went to get my second pair and I gave up. It was the winter. I don’t think I timed it right. I wasn’t wearing them that often. So, I didn’t go… In the summer you can grind them out because you’re going to the beach, you’re fishing or whatever, you’re always in your sandals. You kind of grind it out. It was the winter, and I never got through. And I eventually just didn’t wear them. I couldn’t wear them. So, I think you have to mention that. Also the sizing. Can we go to the sizing charts? Because remember this, they don’t fit like everything else. So, watch this. If you go to men’s sizes. This is weird, I’m not going to lie. To me this is weird. Everyone still does this. Because I’m a 9. I’m not really a medium, and I’m not really a large. What do you do here?

Brady Cramm: So, you’re saying, oh, this isn’t for me, I would get-

Garrett Mehrguth: Because you’ve got a big range. You have a size- and- a- half range.

Brady Cramm: I would probably-

Garrett Mehrguth: You see where I’m going with this?

Brady Cramm: Try to lock in to the extra large.

Garrett Mehrguth: Exactly. Because leather stretches too. People got to remember leather stretches.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I wouldn’t want… I think the XX large would be too much extra space.

Garrett Mehrguth: But if you start with them too tight, bro, I don’t know if you’re going to be able to get through those two weeks.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I’d have to try them on. Because running shoes I’m supposed to be a 14, which doesn’t make sense.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay, but these are some of our problems. The reasons I’m pointing this out is you and I are going to have to overcome this if we’re going to bring Rainbow to other people. People do need to know that you have to grind them out, and they got to be able to get accurate sizes. Because it’s hard to buy a leather product. Do you get what I’m saying?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: What do we do about that?

Brady Cramm: The first ad I see is a time lapse. It starts out with a fresh shoe and it’s one of those time lapse where you would see the comfort break in over time. And it would say, I don’t know what term you’d use.

Garrett Mehrguth: No, I got it. Good things come to those who wait.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, that could be the title of it, and then I see it showing something like it’s not the most comfortable when it’s just a brand new shoe. But then within week two, when you start to see it break in, then it says, ” Ultra comfort.” And it just says, ” Ultra comfort for the next four years.” In the time lapse.

Garrett Mehrguth: Comfort for those who earn it.

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, we just have a campaign called Earned Not Given. And it’s all these people who have… Because I think if you play into it… If you ignore it, it ruins you. If you embrace it, it becomes something lovable and special and you know those people in your life, probably me, who are just a little rough around the edges at first? But maybe they kind of wear on you.

Brady Cramm: When’s that happening? I’m just kidding.

Garrett Mehrguth: You kind of get what I’m saying? I feel like there’s something about that that people do actually enjoy. And I think you could lean into the first they’re tough, then… Earned not given, good things come to those who wait, things like that.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, and to your point of you have to own it, I think a good signal is, I mean we’re one for one, the fact that it’s the first thing someone says in a review of your company, that is a marketer signal that you have to address it. Because eCommerce fashion is probably one of the most reviewed… Sandals, shoes, that you want them to be comfortable. I would say review engagement is flirty Brady-

Garrett Mehrguth: I can’t stop looking at it, bro. That’s why I can’t listen to you right now. I’m like, ” They have your name.”

Brady Cramm: I don’t have an I on my name, but yeah, I’m stopped too. Forget what I’m saying. Search flirty Brady in the bar.

Garrett Mehrguth: Sorry, because I’ve seen flirty Brady.

Brady Cramm: I’ve proved my point. Read reviews, people read reviews, address what people say in your marketing. Oh, that’s cute.

Garrett Mehrguth: That is flirty Brady.

Brady Cramm: A keychain. Could use some of that. I only have two keys. How am I supposed to represent my Southern California- ist?

Garrett Mehrguth: Sorry, you were talking and all of the sudden I-

Brady Cramm: No, I’m with you. She highlighted it. I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Flirty Brady. Wow. I know what’s on my Christmas list. If that’s not a stocking stuffer this year, going to be a concern.

Garrett Mehrguth: I think we lean into the fact that you got to break the shoes in.

Brady Cramm: Yeah. This is for any industry, if that is a trend within your own reviews, you have to address it.

Garrett Mehrguth: With five stars. By the way, it was a five star review.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, so it’s not like it’s a terrible thing, but it’s what people are thinking. So, if you own it and address it and just find that balance on almost making someone excited about… I think we can achieve that. I think we can get someone excited about that journey.

Garrett Mehrguth: You know how you can? By showing the end of the journey with the framed photo. What I loved about going to the factory, and I still love, it’s like I’m a little kid and I go read all the stories. Because I think someone’s brought their Rainbows to Everest, and you can see the Rainbows. You can see Rainbows being around the world.

Brady Cramm: I think I talked about this on the In-N- Out episode. My sister brought them to the East coast for college, and I think she wore them probably not in the snow.

Garrett Mehrguth: You did. That’s why I brought this one up because, yeah, you sparked me on that.

Brady Cramm: I see, I see. But yeah, I think she wore them on days where people from the East coast were just like, ” Who is this person?” But she loved her Rainbows and it may have been 40 degrees outside. There may still be snow on the ground, and she was walking around campus in her Rainbow Sandals.

Garrett Mehrguth: There’s a romantic connection with Rainbow, but we get the romance from the store. So, we have to take the experience of the store because the store is as old school Orange County as old school Orange County gets. It’s 1970’s San Clemente to a T. All right, pull it up, Scarlet, so we can show everybody.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I think they might call it their outlet.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, this is their factory outlet. But this is old school Orange County. San Clemente is not the wealthiest city in America when it was San Clemente, if that makes sense. Now it’s becoming that. But this is a true surf beach town in every sense of the word. There’s only one high school for years in San Clemente High, everybody knows each other. Everybody knows this spot. Keep going down. I want to see a little more.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, and now really rich surfers.

Garrett Mehrguth: Things like this, right? Exactly. It’s becoming that.

Brady Cramm: Still a surf town but…

Garrett Mehrguth: Wait, keep going down. This is what it looks like. So, we’ve got to somehow bring this surf shack… I don’t think we make them sexy like we try to normally do. I think we make them more of this. And we bring this energy into the ads. And we use Sparky, because Sparky’s the GOAT. Sparky never went to school.

Brady Cramm: That’s the owner, Sparky.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, Sparky makes them all by hand. Never went to school. And he’s the OG of this. You saw the photos. It’s like he’s in some type of sweatshop in Southeast Asia. He’s got 40 fans in there, he’s just grinding it out old school style. And I don’t know. I think there’s something super respectable about you could say about made in the U.S.A. This is old school made in the U.S.A. I don’t know, coming from a family of my dad and my grandpa, they built stuff with their hands and stuff. I think there’s a lot of old school 1970’s thing that we can bring into new school buying experience, but not a new school brand. If that makes sense.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I do think it’s interesting once you get a pair, I think you know your size, but the in store experience and just making sure it’s the fit is important.

Garrett Mehrguth: What if we did a VR- type experience or you know those 3D walkthroughs? Okay, so remember when you and I, this is a little blast from the past for everybody who doesn’t realize how long Brady and I have been friends.

Brady Cramm: These are the scary stories. Let’s go.

Garrett Mehrguth: Freshman year of college is where we met. But we’re not going to go that far back. Let’s go-

Brady Cramm: I don’t know if we even knew each other freshman year.

Garrett Mehrguth: I think we were aware of each other if that makes sense.

Brady Cramm: It was a small school.

Garrett Mehrguth: It was. But you know what I’m saying?

Brady Cramm: Yeah. I think the latter half of college where it was more… We went to a private school, but it was more of our off- campus living life and there were get- togethers at households.

Garrett Mehrguth: Celebrations.

Brady Cramm: I think we’ve celebrated together.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, just celebrated life and enjoyed each other’s company. And then we went to Boston.

Brady Cramm: Oh yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: And Boston has Harper Brewing, which the beer is okay. But you and I fell in love with them because we did the factory tour.

Brady Cramm: Yes.

Garrett Mehrguth: And what I am curious about is if you could do a D2C factory tour? In other words, could you bring a factory tour to digital and create the same emotional connection with a brand? See where I’m going with that?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: Because that, to me, could be really dope. Bringing the Rainbows factory tour. We’re only seeing the store. I want to see the actual how Rainbows are made, like walking through with a headset. Even if you had VR or if you just did a digital walkthrough. That to me is really special.

Brady Cramm: Yeah. I think they kind of need it because I think even local people in San Clemente, maybe people who moved to San Clemente within the past decade, there are those Reefs that have built up a ton of brand in the sandal category to where I think Rainbows almost needs to re- tell their story often.

Garrett Mehrguth: I agree.

Brady Cramm: Because that video you found was probably you knew you were talking about Rainbows, so you YouTubed it.

Garrett Mehrguth: No, I went to their history.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, you went to the site, you went to the history. They didn’t push that to you.

Garrett Mehrguth: No, they didn’t.

Brady Cramm: And I think they do need to push their story to the market. It’s a good time for it.

Garrett Mehrguth: I was disappointed with the homepage because I thought they would kind of create that romantic connection, and then I saw this guy, and I was like, ” Nobody likes old surfers.” And no offense to that guy. There’s not that connection that you get from that.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, and surfing is one of the shorter experiences, right? So, they’re tying surfing to lasting long, yet riding a wave is one of the shortest rare experiences you could get.

Garrett Mehrguth: And it’s not a longboarder, it’s a shortboarder. So, if you did a true old school surfer on one of those planks, you know what I’m talking about? And then-

Brady Cramm: I guess because he’s still surfing inaudible. Normal shipping day. This is a local business, baby. This is part makes the brand is this calendar.

Garrett Mehrguth: I love this part. It’s awesome in the sense that someone could totally be complaining. It’s from last year, yeah. But we’ll get it updated. But I love the fact that it’s just like, yeah, we’re closed. Deal with it.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, so it looks like they’re not necessarily prepped well for the holiday season if they threw this up December 2021.

Garrett Mehrguth: Their most profitable largest time of sales during the year, they’re just…

Brady Cramm: So, that’s kind of that mindset I had where I was surprised they had eComm because they’re doing this stuff.

Garrett Mehrguth: They are.

Brady Cramm: They’re not doing merchandise planning, logistics for the holiday season. They’re just like, ” It is what it is.” It’s like a barbecue place, when we’re out of meat, we’re out of meat. Go home. Sorry you drove all the way here.

Garrett Mehrguth: It is like a barbecue spot. On Friday, the 17, is that a normal shipping day or am I just screwed? They just left that one out. They have every other box filled out, and then this Friday and the 23rd. I don’t know what the 23rd is.

Brady Cramm: Not working on the weekends. It’s half- day Friday.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, do they not ship… Because you can ship weekends now, right?

Brady Cramm: Well, I think they have people in the store doing the ship preparation is how they work, and they don’t want their employees working that on weekends. But the outlet. Is the outlet open on weekends? Just maybe those workers aren’t…

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, let’s see their hours. I bet you they got some funny hours.

Brady Cramm: Whenever the door is unlocked.

Garrett Mehrguth: Saturday and Sunday. I like that. You know why they do 10:00 AM? Probably back in the day they’d be surfing all morning, they show up at 10. I love that.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, that’s honestly probably why it is, surfing in the morning.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, the surfing in the morning. They’re down at inaudible or something. So, we have all this. Now, we’re going to tell the brand story. We’re going to bring the factory kind of manufacturing experience to life, so you can go through a factory tour. By the way, can you schedule a factory tour? Because that’s the first thing I’m going to change too. Because people would fly in for a factory tour of Rainbows. They would. Okay, so I think we can sell a factory tour, have a lady with a hard hat, and everybody gets a hard hat and glasses, and you walk through the factory tour. That would be pretty special.

Brady Cramm: I think they could probably source local talent. The videographer space-

Garrett Mehrguth: Oh, go to TripAdvisor first real quick. See that?

Brady Cramm: TripAdvisor?

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, see, this is where I’m going with it. See what I mean? I want to bring the-

Brady Cramm: Yeah, this is tourism. So, this could be in person factory, bring your kids, kind of a fun San Clemente take a tour, get 10% off your sandals after the tour.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yes, yes. Number six of 24 things to do in San Clemente. It is that popular.

Brady Cramm: Yeah. Local business marketing, I would make sure all the elementary schools have tours of the factory, talk about local business, tell the story that he didn’t go to school inaudible.

Garrett Mehrguth: And I want everybody to visit too. You know what I’m saying? I want people to come. I would want someone who was online on our store, bought the sandals in Atlanta, and next time they were in California, they made a point of doing two things: Eating In- N- Out and going to the Rainbows outlet. I feel like if they built that cult… Because In- N- Out’s done it. In- N- Out’s become to the country an icon of California. I don’t even think Rainbows are an icon of California yet, let alone an icon to the country.

Brady Cramm: I think just through social, people, going to college on the East coast, moving, bringing their Rainbows.

Garrett Mehrguth: Migration.

Brady Cramm: That word of mouth, dark social kind of thing.

Garrett Mehrguth: Just had to do that.

Brady Cramm: I had to. Yeah, I’m thinking technical stuff, but I’m curious in terms of the data they’re collecting from people who went to the outlet. A lot of Southern Californians are moving to other places. I’m sure they have a lot of emails. What if you just reverse geofence Southern California, take your first party data, and advertise Rainbows? Knowing okay, these people moved out, but they’ve bought from my outlet before, they know their sizing, they know Rainbows. Let’s make sure they know we have eComm. They can ship sandals.

Garrett Mehrguth: We could do even simpler though. We could just take all the people who follow Reef, Olukai.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, as long as there’s that story built for them, I think we can build up. We just have to build that story without them ever living here, going to the outlet. But I do think… I’m thinking they can source local talent because there’s probably really, really talented videographers, and there’s probably 12- year- old, 13- year- olds that can make insane commercials these days.

Garrett Mehrguth: I bet, yeah. I’m jealous.

Brady Cramm: And so I’m seeing almost a low cost, high production ad. I’m seeing the flap sound of the sandals consistent throughout the ad, and then just showing people walking a trail in Hawaii, walking down with their surfboard-

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s an accidentally viral ad. It’s going to sound like sex.

Brady Cramm: I’ve thought about how I even… I have processed this preparing for this statement. I made sure I didn’t do this as I was explaining it, okay? I went through that in my head. I tried my hardest for your mind not to go there.

Garrett Mehrguth: It went there immediately because inaudible.

Brady Cramm: Like you said, boom.

Garrett Mehrguth: I know. You could have accidentally designed it to be viral. Because imagine…

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I think hacking that TikTok leggings episode. That was planned viralness.

Garrett Mehrguth: And those sandals at the end. You know the ad?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: It could just be speeding up, and at the end it’s just a guy running in his sandals.

Brady Cramm: Well, I think it could be that sound on a dark screen, and then people’s minds are going there, and then it cuts to clips of inaudible the beat stays consistent but you see people walking. And the frame would be if it’s someone with a surfboard, you see their hand and maybe this much surfboard. So, there’s still attention on the feet, but it’s not too close to just showing feet. And then someone hiking you see their carabiner with whatever on it. Just enough in frame to know this is a legit hiker. I can almost see the rest of their outfit. So, it starts with that beat, and it just continues that beat with people walking, but it’s Rainbow Sandals they’re wearing the whole time and they’re in all these different terrains.

Garrett Mehrguth: I like that. I have this shot. I actually have the whole scene in my head too. You know the walk down to Trestles?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, imagine if you were riding one of the bikes and then behind you was a guy on another bike or on a skateboard with the camera, and it was just showing the sandals. And then you know how San O also has the OG shades they’ve build over the last 50 years?

Brady Cramm: Yeah, the almost tiki things.

Garrett Mehrguth: I think you could take that kind of San Clemente culture and make that kind of the brand vibe, and do a ton of… You know all the artist ads I’ve been showing lately of more artists doing it instead of ad agencies? I think you could get a lot of local artists like you’re saying to really bring that San Clemente lifestyle to life. And I think that would resonate with people in New Hampshire that are freezing. I just think it would work. It would be a raw, more authentic version of the Corona branding. I think you can make people really authentically feel like they were a part of that San Clemente beach culture.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, it reminds me of the puka shell necklace, right? I feel like a lot of people on the East coast wore the puka shells to represent West coast surf.

Garrett Mehrguth: They’ve been to Hawaii once.

Brady Cramm: Yeah. Hawaii, West coast surf culture. They bring that to their vibe on the East coast through puka shell necklaces. I think this was the 90’s, maybe early 2000’s.

Garrett Mehrguth: That was big, yeah. It was alternative rock and puka shells. The emo scene, right? It was Hawthorn Heights and puka shells.

Brady Cramm: Hawthorn Heights.

Garrett Mehrguth: Do we have any concerns about people just not… I still am worried about the returns. Can you go back to their website for a second? I am a little concerned.

Brady Cramm: The lifetime guarantee thing?

Garrett Mehrguth: Not the lifetime guarantee. So, go to the top right. Is that repair, reuse… What’s the repair, reuse, recycle? Okay, I want to see this. So, there’s Sparky. See, this is what I mean. Sparky’s got to be the cornerstone.

Brady Cramm: So, is it him or is the little cute dog? Sparky’s a good dog name inaudible this is just his worker. Sparky owns this business.

Garrett Mehrguth: CEO/ repairman, I love that. Just got his hands dirty still doing it right. See, that. Right there. Creating a strap with 2, 000- pound inaudible nylon webbing. Imagine if we hung a piano while… See, there’s some shock marketing. You get where I’m going with this? Where we could start…

Brady Cramm: You actually have a weight.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yes.

Brady Cramm: When I went to Durango, our friend is an optometrist and he had this crazy durable pair of sunglasses, and it had a weight hanging from it, like a 20- pound…

Garrett Mehrguth: This is 2, 000 pounds. If you could hang a piano with… And I don’t know how much pianos weigh. But if you could hang something big like that with a sandal strap, and then it says, ” Comfortable eventually, durable always.” You see, you start writing these ads, you start bringing it to life. I think people will get they’ll wear it with a badge of honor. I earned these imprints in my sandal. And they’re never going to break. There is this blue collar- type persona that’s made in America, I like to buy valuable, durable, old school kind of product. I think we could crush it with these guys.

Brady Cramm: What are other products where there’s beauty in the scars kind of thing?

Garrett Mehrguth: That you earn it kind of thing?

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I’m trying to… Because they have it.

Garrett Mehrguth: Cowboy boots.

Brady Cramm: We talked about this.

Garrett Mehrguth: Go Tecova boots.

Brady Cramm: I see what you’re saying.

Garrett Mehrguth: This was a D2C brand that does…

Brady Cramm: You have your nice leather dress shoes and you get a scuff on those, and you’re like, ” Damn it.”

Garrett Mehrguth: So, this is it.

Brady Cramm: Cowboy shoes get a little scuffed up, it’s like yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: So, this is a new version of Rainbows, if that makes sense. If you can scroll up a little bit. Handmade, high quality boots. We work with the best bootmaker in the world, Leon, a city steeped in shoemaking, what the locals are saying. But don’t think you put these on and you’re like, ” Wow, don’t need to break these in. I’m going to go wear these for eight hours at a country festival.”

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: Or while I ride a horse.

Brady Cramm: But so cowboy boots, it depends who you are, but would you say battle scars on them is a good thing, a bad thing?

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, well, because you don’t want them too shiny.

Brady Cramm: You don’t want them fresh or else it’s like, “Oh, that guy.”

Garrett Mehrguth: Fake cowboy.

Brady Cramm: First pair of shoes.

Garrett Mehrguth: Fake cowboy.

Brady Cramm: Bought them for this type kind of thing.

Garrett Mehrguth: Correct. You want them to feel like they’re worn. Now, if you go up a little bit more, there’s a couple things that are a little interesting about what they do. Go up. Right there, true sizing. I think true sizing is important for Rainbows because if you’re going to have to wear them and break them in, you got to make sure we get the sizing right. I know we talked about it earlier, but I think sizing is important for being an eCommerce first brand and us going, let’s say, global. And if you go down a little bit more, there’s another thing I think, just learning from them. They don’t use cheap materials. We don’t really talk about our materials at all. If you look at… I didn’t feel like they talked about…

Brady Cramm: Yeah, they talked about the arch support being a single layer arch support.

Garrett Mehrguth: Correct.

Brady Cramm: Which I think maybe adds comfort to it versus it being multiple stacked might be too firm. That was the one thing I really saw. And then it’s in the dropdown, right? Leather versus hemp.

Garrett Mehrguth: Do they say bovine leather though? This is kind of my point. So, you see how-

Brady Cramm: Yeah, where is it sourced and…

Garrett Mehrguth: Pigskin. So, they get low cost outer leather pigskin or artificial lining. We don’t use that, right? And if you keep going down. So, they show they’re handmade, which is nice, and then the Tecovas way, handmade bootmaking. So, I think we could do a better job. This is their homepage, right?

Brady Cramm: Yeah. We got to be a little careful. We got to make the vegans happy.

Garrett Mehrguth: She clicked on an ad. That’s the landing page. Go back to Tecovas.

Brady Cramm: Scarlet, you got to buy now.

Garrett Mehrguth: Okay, go there. I want to see if this is their homepage. See? That’s different. That’s cool. So, it also shows the importance of a landing page for introducing people to the brand while going down, this is going to be more transactional. I don’t like the transactional landing page on the homepage as much as the brand one. What do you guys think?

Brady Cramm: Yeah. And you could do new user visits, get this page kind of thing.

Garrett Mehrguth: These boots are awesome.

Brady Cramm: There’s no flirty Brady, so.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s true. This is them. Now go back. Let’s see real quick to the other one.

Brady Cramm: They sell that bag?

Garrett Mehrguth: No, to Rainbows homepage. So, we got a little work to do because that’s it for us. I think we got to tell the story on the homepage.

Brady Cramm: Wait, how-

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s it. That’s why they’re Rainbow. That’s why, I think, we love them.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, but they can still be Rainbow by adding top products under a hero section that makes a bit more sense. Even an evolution of Rainbows, a fresh pair and a 10- year- old pair…

Garrett Mehrguth: Next to each other.

Brady Cramm: Just 10 pairs of shoes every year.

Garrett Mehrguth: What else gets better with time? Wine?

Brady Cramm: Yeah, but I’m trying to think the battle scars. Like I said, a gross looking pair of Rainbows are the most comfortable. They turn dark. You don’t have the comfortable pair that’s the same color as your original.

Garrett Mehrguth: Same pair of jeans. When you finally break your jeans in. Breaking in some whitewashed jeans. They’re starting to get holes, but you still love them.

Brady Cramm: Okay, yeah. I think something with holes in them.

Garrett Mehrguth: Leather jacket.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, I think leather.

Garrett Mehrguth: Leather just in general. Except sofas.

Brady Cramm: So, it just becomes floppy as it’s got kind of almost the stretch mark look to it.

Garrett Mehrguth: Yeah, yeah. I’m trying to think, that’s why I said boots. That’s why I went to boots. I’m trying to think what else is worn in. Producers, y’all got anything? Leather jackets.

Brady Cramm: I’m excited for my ring to get scuffed up for some reason. We can get them polished and clean for free every six months, but I’m like, ” No. I kind of want the nicks.”

Garrett Mehrguth: Glasses don’t work like that because you get the scrapes.

Brady Cramm: No, you want those fresh.

Garrett Mehrguth: See, I’m trying to think. Anything else like this? Suburbans.

Brady Cramm: Oh gosh, I don’t know.

Garrett Mehrguth: Just getting into an’02 Suburban and just feel… You feel all the parts of the road. It’s nostalgic, like a classic car.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, it’s like breaking in your car. But I don’t know. When your armrest cracks a little bit…

Garrett Mehrguth: An old truck.

Brady Cramm: I don’t know if I like that.

Garrett Mehrguth: An old truck sometimes does feel like you’re just back in an old truck. Rides more like a tractor.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, the chair kind of has a little give to it.

Garrett Mehrguth: Squeaks a little bit. I’m trying to think, man.

Brady Cramm: I don’t know why inaudible.

Garrett Mehrguth: Half our viewers are like, ” Why aren’t they saying this?”

Brady Cramm: That’s where my head is at.

Garrett Mehrguth: We’re on a bad episode of Family Feud.

Brady Cramm: Super obvious … I love Family Feud. Don’t get me going.

Garrett Mehrguth: You know what I mean though when you watch Family Feud and you’re like, ” How have they not thought of this?”

Brady Cramm: Just say this, and then you’re wrong.

Garrett Mehrguth: Or Wheel of Fortune. Have you ever seen the Wheel of Fortune where you are 1, 000% sure you know what the answer is and you’re wrong?

Brady Cramm: Yeah.

Garrett Mehrguth: That’s how we are right now. Cheese, whiskey, blue jeans, leather boots. I did hit most of them. Thank you, Scarlet.

Brady Cramm: Antiques, friendships, that’s deep. Episode done.

Garrett Mehrguth: Wow.

Brady Cramm: That’s where it’s at.

Garrett Mehrguth: You know what else gets better with time? Original Marketing.

Brady Cramm: Podcasts.

Garrett Mehrguth: I think that’s the episode. Thanks everyone for tuning in.

Brady Cramm: Yeah, that was fun.

Garrett Mehrguth: Rainbows, hopefully you run with this because y’all are awesome. We love you and we wish more people around the world had it. You know what I’m going to genuinely do now, Brady?

Brady Cramm: Break them in?

Garrett Mehrguth: I’m going to buy some Rainbows. I have to. I need new sandals. Literally I’m searching for them right now. I’m going to go buy me some Rainbows. I’m going to earn them. And that’s the show.

Brady Cramm: That’s it. Keep growing and keep giving. That’s the message of Rainbows.

Garrett Mehrguth: Like, subscribe, five stars, comment, unsubscribe, resubscribe, share with your friends, family.

Brady Cramm: Watch new browser, watch incognito window, watch…

Garrett Mehrguth: Send your enemies, whatever you want to do. Thank you everybody.

Brady Cramm: We’ll see you next week.

Garrett Mehrguth: Later.