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Has anyone else checked out this fascinating start up @italic. It’s luxury clothes, bags, homewares at cost, claiming “from the same manufacturing as..” and listing high end designer.
They are positioning for “smart people” and ask users to do the math
It’s $100 membership like prime, they release products monthly. And they talk to users directly about brands
So for a smart audience who thinks the reason luxury clothes are expensive is the “brand cost” and the “retail cost” (ok whatever) and nod to the design team who creates the sweaters or bags.
And unlike brandless, it has a brand, a good, clean, smart and not so meta one. With a brilliant name.
It’s a genuinely disruptive business model. One built on a thorough application of cognitive biases that assumes beyond people only want simple.
*note I did have to go look up and refresh my knowledge of some of these biases, because I am not fronting as some sort of genius dictionary of biases.
Here are some of the biases this brand is built on...
Pro innovation bias = an excessive optimism towards an invention or innovation& #39;s usefulness throughout society, while often failing to identify its limitations and weaknesses.
Italic uses this feeling of getting a deal because of an innovation.
Illusion of control. = overestimating how much control you have over a situation. Italic makes you feel like you are responsible for cutting out middle men and choosing manufacturing. Good job smart you!
Priming = readily identify a concept based on previously held belief. Italic is built on your existing concept that luxury products are made w a higher quality, and even borrows this brand names. Hello high quality rag&bone white t-shirt you already know, for less.
Egocentric fairness bias = tendency to rely too heavily on one& #39;s own perspective and/or have a higher opinion of oneself than reality. Look at me saving money w italic. I’m so smart and such a savvy shopper!
Curse of knowledge = When better-informed people find it extremely difficult to think fell less informed. Now I know these items are available for less, am I a chump for overpaying for a Le Crueset pan?
Sunk cost fallacy (the $100 membership) = people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment. With italic membership you can’t help but feel I might as well buy more now that is spent for a memebership.
For this shopping experience to work and be worth it you need to buy multiple things, otherwise the less expensive $100 bag suddenly cost $200 w membership. So ppl will justify buying more...thanks to sunk cost.
Anyway, into the concept. Would love to watch this scale. Waiting until then to join/ shop.
