Stanley adopted the “suburban status symbol” strategy and took it to the bank. Read on to learn how you can adopt the same playbook for your brand.
This content was originally published in the No Best Practices newsletter on 01.30.2024.
What Is A Suburban Status Brand
A Suburban Status Brand bypasses the very top of the taste/status hierarchy and goes right for the mass affluent market. Instead of using high culture nepo-babies like Sofia Coppola or Lily-Rose Depp as the “tip of the spear”, they use mass-culture influencers like Bachelorette cast members or Utah mommy bloggers.
In the traditional luxury strategy, “status” trickles down from “cultural elites” to cultural gatekeepers (ie legacy publications, important retailers, critics) to mass affluents and up-and-coming HENRY consumers.
If you’re running the Suburban Status Brand playbook, you skip the elites and go right for the mass affluents. The status you cultivate this way is less durable, but it delivers much greater cash flow, much faster.
Some suburban status brands you might be familiar with: Stanley, Crocs, Golden Goose, Starbucks (post-2012), Michael Kors, Pandora (pre-2014), Kendra Scott.
Suburban Influencer Lifestyle
A traditional influencer strategy targets global celebrities or macro-influencers. A Suburban Status Brand targets niche macro-influencers and what I call “local celebrities”. These are the members of the community who everyone aspires to emulate.
Local Celebrities aren’t usually professional influencers (although they can be), so you can’t just shoehorn any product into this strategy. You have to make something that appeals to these folks, stock it in places where they shop, and then provide the right contextual marketing (niche influencers) to reinforce the purchase.
Local celebrities are the stereotypical “Joneses”. They aspire to be Turtle Creek Lane or Pink Peonies and have the time/money to invest in lifestyle design. They are local influencers because they are community builders, and invest a lot of time in that.
They drive a lot, because they live in big houses where nothing is within walking distance. If you’re a “coastal elite” looking to cater to this demo, I would suggest driving everywhere (EVERYWHERE–even if your local coffee place is down the block) for two weeks to get into the mindset.
These Local Celebrities have a different relationship to status than your typical HENRY attempting to climb the corporate ladder. A banker or consultant might purchase the same understated designer goods as their peers to signal success, but also that they understand the cultural codes of their “guild”.
On the other hand, a Local Celebrity doesn’t need to signal that they’ve “made it” (everyone already knows). Products that are too obviously “luxury”, or too impractical, will draw negative attention from the community, diminishing status. A Chanel bag here and there is ok. Wearing a head to toe logo-ed look to church is not.
A banker or consultant’s community is made up of other six- and seven-figure earners. No one is judging each other for wearing logos as long as they’re classic and not “flashy”. A Local Celebrity’s community is more diverse in terms of income (but not much more), so more discretion is required.
That’s why products like the Stanley tumbler are perfect: they’re accessible to many, but not to all. They’re a way of creating ingroups and outgroups, but they’re also a way to facilitate connection and conversation.
For a Coastal Elite, you build an identity around the brands you buy, the places you travel, and the neighborhood(s) you choose to live in. You use this identity to assert your cultural dominance (if you have money), or to monetize your taste (if you’re a “creative”).
For a Local Celebrity, consumer choices are closer to entertainment. You identify more with cultural IP vs brand IP (think Disney Adults), your family, your church, etc. Because these decisions are lower stakes and more impulsive, they have less staying power. But they appeal to a broader audience because they are more accessible by design.
Breaking Down The Suburban Status Brand Strategy: The Stanley Case Study
I shared that deep dive because a lot of you reading this probably run in circles where most of what I described is totally alien. You wouldn’t be caught dead in a Michael Kors watch (and neither would I, tbh).
But if you want to leverage this strategy, you have to get into this consumer’s head, because it only works if the product is right. Here are the 7 pillars of the Suburban Status Brand Strategy, and how Stanley leveraged them to hit $750M in sales last year.
#1: Follow The 20/50/200 Rule
This is what The Buy Guide has to say about the Stanley Quencher:
“Why do we LOVE the Stanley 40oz Adventure Quencher SO much? Because it’s the full package. Large enough to keep up with our busy days, a handle to carry it wherever we go, dishwasher safe, fits into our car cupholders, keeps ice cold for 12+ hours, and a straw. It’s everything we want in a daily cup. It comes with us to the Peloton, to work, to carpool, and sits on our bedside tables each night. We love the reliability of Stanley brand and their lifetime warranty.”
How do you generate this level of enthusiasm with your product? Make it 20% higher quality than the competition, 50% more expensive, and then price it under $200. (20/50/200)
This makes the product stand out, and the pricing positions it at the top of the category without alienating the majority of your potential customers. The purchase should hurt a little in terms of price, but it shouldn’t break the skin.
The Stanley Quencher is expensive enough to achieve “accessible luxury” positioning, without being so expensive that it’s seen as a flex. And, as evidenced by the Buy Guide review, it really does fill whitespace in the market.
#2 Yassify It
It needs to be femme-coded. It needs to be cute. Maybe even sparkly. I don’t care if you don’t like “live, laugh, love” kitchen signs in “that” handwriting font. That’s what the mass affluent consumer likes.
That said, the product still needs to be practical. It shouldn’t be ostentatious or devoid of function. The consumer shouldn’t have to alter her behavior. You do not want to be the soccer mom trying to cross the field in stiletto boots.
Stanley’s flagship product (before the Quencher) was an olive-green thermos that would look at home in that iconic photo of workers eating lunch on an unfinished skyscraper.
On the other hand, the Quencher has a cute handle, sports a feminine tapered silhouette, and comes in lots of cute colors and patterns, including several variations of pink.
Stanley’s core audience pre-Quencher was blue collar. There is a reason the Quencher was almost discontinued before it found its audience with the mass affluents: it was not masculine or utilitarian.
#3: Get The Right “High Status” Influencers On Board
You need to find the Local Celebrities who have professionalized their niche influence: glam mommy bloggers, accessible fashion influencers and former cast members of popular reality shows.
You can also create buzz by developing a product seeding/gifting program for micro-influencers who have engaged audiences and an aspirational but accessible vibe. But always think suburban–home, not apartment. Car, not Uber. Target, not EREWHON.
The Stanley Quencher initially blew up because The Buy Guide (founded by Utah “local celebs”) sent the product to a former Bachelor contestant, who posted about it organically.
Stanley’s marketing team got wind of this and let The Buy Guide act as a small scale wholesaler, selling the Quencher directly to its audience. When that pilot sold out almost immediately, Stanley realized the validity of this new niche and leaned into influencer gifting.
#4: Put It Where She Shops (Malls, “Power Centers”)
Distribution is the key to getting your product into the hands of “local celebrities”. They may be doing some shopping online, but they’re primarily shopping in stores.
In this consumer’s mind, seeing something in the right big box retailer (or hearing about it from a friend) gives it legitimacy. “Instagram brands” might be scams, and are quickly forgotten.
It’s not just about getting your product into big box stores. It’s about getting the right distribution in the higher status chains. Think Target and Whole Foods, not Walmart or Winn Dixie.
Stanley had these relationships before the brand launched the Quencher, but they were wise to pick Target as the distributor of a limited edition collaboration with Starbucks (another suburban status brand).
#5: Use Collabs To Connect With Her Other Emotional Touch Points
As mentioned, the target audience identifies more with cultural IP than brand IP, although there are certain brands that “cross the chasm”. Smart Suburban Status Brands leverage this passion via collaborations and licensing deals.
This audience is almost universally in love with Disney, Starbucks and Taylor Swift. There is other cultural IP that has relevance to some regional and taste-based niches. For example: Some might be really into Harry Potter while others are really into romance novels and #BookTok.
Stanley has released a number of smart collaborations: the Stanley x Starbucks Quencher sold out almost instantly and is now listed for thousands of dollars on eBay. A collaboration with country star Lainey Wilson sold out quickly, but is only going for around $100 on eBay.
#6: Make It Collectable
Outside of collabs, you should drop multiple new colors/styles of the product per year. This gives her more reasons to purchase, increasing customer lifetime value. But is also allows your customer to turn your product/brand into a hobby, maybe even an obsession. And it enhances the “cute factor” of the product (see point #2). Different colors mean she can match it with different outfits, or coordinate it with different seasonal decor.
Another important way to make it collectable: release a limited edition holiday version of the product each year. Tie this into holidays with strong emotional resonance: Christmas, Halloween or the start of summer. This is a strategy that has been successfully employed by brands from Lenox to Starbucks.
#7: Speak Her Language
Your target customer is probably spending hours per day on IG reels and/or TikTok. We’ve all seen (and discussed to death) what Stanley did when a customer posted on TikTok about her Stanley tumbler surviving after her car caught on fire.
As your brand gets bigger, your odds of experiencing one of these moments increases, simply because more people own the product. But even if you’re just starting out, you don’t want to pass up the opportunity to start a conversation with one of your customers. Jones Road Beauty, a smaller brand than Stanley, leveraged a critical TikTok to help a new product launch go viral.
How do you do this? Have someone on your team monitor your brand hashtag and mentions on reels and TikTok regularly or invest in social listening software when that becomes too much work for one person. Cultivate a brand voice on social that aligns with the way your customers speak IRL, so it doesn’t feel weird or corporate when these conversations happen. And don’t get so bogged down in “is that on brand?” and defensive legal strategy that responding to these moments becomes impossible.