The Best Way to Unlock $917.7M in Profit is to Steal It

In 1953, a refrigeration company headquartered in Sydney introduced a revolutionary product called the "portable Esky Auto Box." Constructed from durable steel and embellished with enamel and chrome, this new device came with a dense cork lining, guaranteeing its contents would stay cold for hours.

The Esky Auto Box swiftly dominated the market, becoming the very first mass-produced beverage cooler of its time. Its revolutionary status persisted for 71 years until another brand disrupted the landscape, dethroning not only the Esky, but every other cooler brand on the market...

What was this massively successful brand's strategy?

They harnessed a completely unique approach which yielded a staggering $917.7 million in profit from their direct-to-consumer channels alone in 2022, and I'm going to show you how they did it. Let's get into it...

How to Catch a Yeti

In the world of coolers, few names evoke the same reverence and admiration as Yeti. Born from humble beginnings in 2006 in Austin, Texas, Yeti set out to revolutionize the way people think about keeping their beverages cold.

And revolutionize it did.

At its core, Yeti understood something that many brands on the market struggled to grasp:

People don't just buy products. People buy products that promise to fulfill an identity that fits with their current life story.

In essence, people buy products that align with how they see themselves on the inside...even if it doesn't yet correlate to what's on the outside.

Yeti set out to position itself not just as a cooler manufacturer but as a symbol of ruggedness, durability, and adventurous spirit. They tapped into the primal human desire for exploration and conquest, aligning their products with the idea of pushing boundaries and conquering the great outdoors. 🧠

It's how they easily stole all the attention from their backyard-BBQ competitors. It's also how they became a 9-figure business.

But to truly grasp the unparalleled success of Yeti, it's essential to unravel why this worked psychologically...and how they were able to steal so much of the market so easily.

How Yeti Stole the (Psychological) Show

You might think Yeti crafted a complex strategy to steal attention away from their established competitors, but in reality their strategy was quite simple.

Here's the breakdown:

1. First, they used Emotional Resonance to steal attention. As a new brand attempting to fish in the same pool with brands that had been around for decades, Yeti worked to stand out by selling more than just functionality...they sold adventure.
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   ​How they did it: By positioning their products as the center of everything their customers wanted to become and experience. Every marketing message they produced put their products directly in the center of an adventure, making it easy for them to steal attention from their competitors who weren't achieving the same emotional connection.
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2. Next, they reduced Cognitive Dissonance to lower buyer friction: Yeti needed to reduce their customer's need to be persuaded into purchasing, so they aligned their brand with the personality traits their customers desired most. This made it easy for customers to see themselves owning a Yeti before they even owned it.​
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   ​How they did it: In the first few years on the market, Yeti spent a great deal of time marketing their core traits (like durability and ruggedness). This made customers feel like buying a Yeti was the same thing as buying a trip to the lake (or cabin, or backwoods). Competitors who were still marketing the backyard BBQ angle couldn't compete.
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3. They used their customer's Social Identity to tap into longing: Finally, Yeti leveraged something that was massively influential: social identity. Positioning their products as symbols of adventure would only go so far in a market that had hundreds of different avatars, but helping their customers feel as if they belonged to the social group they craved put their brand at the forefront of their customer's mind every time they shopped.
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   How they did it: Yeti knew their customers were already a part of a proud group of adventures, so they baked that identity into every marketing message they sent. Consistent messaging around the people who were already a Yeti fan helped them steal a massive amount of attention...and win them the customers they needed to grow.

How to Steal Attention Like Yeti

1. Discover which identity your customers already own. Dive into the depths of your customers' self-perception and uncover the traits and values they already embody, or want to embody. You can do this by discovering which hobbies they're currently involved in, where they go and what they do on the weekends, and which friends they usually do these things with. Dig deeper until you've got a holistic view of who your customers truly are (or want to be).
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2. Put your product in the center of that identity. Position your product as the natural center of your customers' identity, making it an essential element that enhances and complements who they already are. In other words, put your product in the center of the frame, then build an experience around it. Show your product at the center of multiple experiences if possible -- the more places your product can go, the more people you'll reach.
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3. Leverage your customer's social needs. Tap into the innate human desire for connection and belonging, then position your product as a means of fulfilling those social needs. This is especially powerful if you can get an influencer on board, but if not, just create an idealistic character for your customer to latch onto and roll with that.

And when you get stuck, go back and study what Yeti did. They're a solid example of what you can achieve when you market to the mind.

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