How Columbia Gets Customers to Buy A Basic T-Shirt for $45

My mother-in-law is a serious gardener. She's a plant whisperer, the walking embodiment of a "green thumb". She's constantly outside digging in the dirt (which our kids love), but being out in the sun as much as she is, the girl has to wear sunscreen like it's her job. Which she hates.

Last week she came home wearing something I've never seen before - an "Omni-Shade UPV Sun Protective Shirt" from Columbia, which she bought for $45 from our local REI.

Being a marketer, I immediately thought, "Pfft. Please. That's just good marketing, this can't be real. Poor woman just wasted $45 on good marketing."

But as it turns out...UPV protective clothing is a real thing. 🤯

According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, "Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) indicates how much UV radiation (both UVB and UVA) a fabric allows to reach your skin. For example, a UPF 50 fabric blocks 98% of the sun’s rays and allows two percent (1/50th) to penetrate, thus reducing your exposure risk significantly."

I was intrigued, so I decided to dig further. What I found might have you rethinking everything you know about marketing...

How to Get People to Think You're Cooler Than Everyone Else

Columbia has been synonymous with exceptional outdoor gear for decades. They're a heavy hitter in the outdoor clothing market, pocketing $3.5B in revenue in 2022. But just like any successful brand in a rapidly growing, highly competitive market, they need the same thing we all do: cheap attention - and lots of it.

Recognizing the need to differentiate their products and generate a unique perception in the minds of their customers, Columbia embarked on a journey to create an elevated, exclusive image specifically for their UPV apparel.

The challenge was to help customers feel like they were getting more than what was currently available on the market. Their competition already had several options available to customers:

• Walmart sold a generic UPV shirt at $15.99
• Target sold a generic UPV shirt at $22.99
• Even REI sold a generic UPV shirt for $29.95

Columbia knew they had the brand equity to charge elevated prices, but they wanted to ensure their brand would never be compared to any other brand on the market...

So they carved an incredible niche through a clever use of one very powerful heuristic (mental shortcut) called the Framing Effect.

The 'Framing Effect' is a psychological concept that explores how the presentation of information can significantly impact whether we decide to buy, or decide to bounce.‍

I's not what you say that draws people in. It's how you're saying it.

And Columbia knew just what to say.

The Birth of the Omni-Shade™ Brand

Instead of using a generic name for their UPV products that would restrict their USP to just sun protection, they created their own unique selling proposition by choosing a name that changed how their product felt in the mind of their customers.

"Omni-Shade™" quickly became synonymous with excellence, superiority, and the ultimate choice in sun protection. The name alone evoked feelings of trust, reliability, and superiority, giving customers the confidence that they were investing in the best the industry had to offer. It provided them with the reassurance that they were making an informed and superior choice by selecting Omni-Shade™ products over other UPV offerings in the market.

It also allowed them to charge $45.99 for a product that was already being generically sold at $15.99. 🤯

This is a brilliant move for Columbia:

• Using Framing allowed them to increase prices, which boosts AOV.
• Using Framing allowed them to differentiate, which boosts LTV.
• Using Framing allowed them to elevate, which builds brand loyalty.

(The brilliance of this seemingly small branding decision cannot be overstated, especially if you're a brand with a product that solves a lot of different problems for a lot of different people!)

Columbia's strategic use of the Framing Effect created an entirely different perception of their product, which drew in an entirely different customer - one who had deep pockets and an immediate need to buy.

At the time of this article, no other brand has invested in a name that helps customers experience superiority before ever purchasing the product.

That's psychology for the win.

How to Use the Framing Effect for Your Brand:

If you want to test the Framing Effect on your current product names, here's a quick step-by-step:

1. Identify words your customers already associate with the benefits your product provides. Choose words that cover not just the functional benefits, but also the environmental or situational ones.
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2. Combine or arrange words in an interesting way using a word combination generator. I usually use ChatGPT for this, but you can find some good word combiners on line as well.
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3. Test, test, test. As always, I like to test things in ad format before pushing them onto the entire ecosystem since not all of us have the solid budget/brand Columbia has. Test your new name in a few statics, then run with the winner.

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