ANAHEIM, Calif.––Would your credit union somehow be more effective if all the exterior signage was about financial products but inside only pizza was for sale?
The interior of a Johnny Cupcakes store, designed to look like a bakery, but...
That may not be a model that would work for credit unions, but it’s been highly successful for Johnny Cupcakes, a popular, almost cult-like purveyor of clothing whose retail outlets look and even smell like a bakery even though they don’t sell cupcakes.
Behind the Johnny Cupcakes brand is another Johnny, Johnny Earle, a serial entrepreneur with no business school experience who shared his story here with credit unions at the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council annual conference.
Before he had even turned 16 Earle said he had already started 16 different businesses, ranging from selling lemonade to drinks on the beach to shoveling snow to doing magic shows at kids’ birthday parties.
“At a young age I began to cut back on the things I was spending a lot of time on: video games, social media, YouTube, TV, a girlfriend, partying,” he told credit unions. “I was using this extra time to try out new businesses. I have never partied. I have never had alcohol. But I did go to parties, where I would put Orajel on people’s drink glasses, and they would start drooling. I think it’s important to have creativity and humor every day.”
Itching Powder & Fart Bombs
Earle said he struggled in school, which meant he was sent to a charter high school that he called the “best thing that ever happened to me.” He created the school’s yearbook and sold pranks. It was an experience that led to him making an observation that may have never been made before a credit union audience: “It’s important to reinvest in your brand,” he said of the prank business. “I did it by investing in itching powder and fart bombs.”
A graduation requirement at the high school was to do an internship “in something you were really passionate about. I got one at a t-shirt printing place, but I didn’t know much about t-shirts. I was motivated and excited every day I went into work. Hands-on learning is really key, especially for me, who has trouble learning.”
Earle said he “tried out” college, but it wasn’t for him. He bought a pin-making machine to make pins and buttons, and while he made hundreds of thousands of dollars, that business eventually failed. “But I tried to keep positive,” he said.
Earle toured for a while as a member of the metal band On Broken Wings, selling t-shirts out of his car as he was touring. He eventually left the band to focus on the clothing brand.
Mixing Cute With Bad Ass
“I thought it would be fun to create a Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt to advertise a bakery that doesn’t even exist,” said Earle. “People started asking about it and with the word of mouth it spread like wildfire. People would randomly come into my record shop and ask for the t-shirts. I started making more t-shirts and going to concerts and craft shows. I started making fun of pop culture and replacing pop culture icons with cupcakes. We use seasons and sports and more to remix our brand every year. Now we do official licensing deals with teams, as well as parodies.
Johnny 'Cupcakes' Earle speaking to CUNA Marketing & BD Council meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
“No matter what kind of business you have you can always utilize the different seasons, if for no other reason to reach out to past customers and let them know you remember them,” Earle continued. “But anytime we do something we try to mix cute with a lot of badass.”
That combination has worked. Earle said he has met at least 2,000 people who have Johnny Cupcakes tattoos. “At first it was really creepy, but after talking to these customers I came to realize some people inspired to live a healthier lifestyle or to follow their passion,” he said. “We’ve had people camp out up to two weeks to get limited edition t-shirts.”
Earle told credit unions it’s not enough to have one or two or even three new ideas; they must keep “challenging themselves” to constantly develop new ideas.
“People thrive off of NEW experiences. When you can effect the way they feel inside and give them a memory they are never going to forget that,” he said. “If you can have some type of memory associated with what you do, it really helps people to spread the word about what you do.”
That’s why Johnny Cupcakes innovations around t-shirts go far beyond what appears on those t-shirts. It partners with other brands (such as the Simpsons) and develops packaging that is as much an attraction to consumers as the product inside.
All About the Packaging
“Good packaging doesn’t get thrown away,” said Earle, noting how many people save packaging from Apple computers. “It acts as a miniature billboard.”
Among Johnny Cupcakes’ packaging:
- It placed earrings in packages that look like food containers, including “nutritional” info on back.
A Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt packaged inside what appears to be a can of cake icing.
- It delivered ice cream themed t-shirt designs in oversized push-up pop packages and oversized ice cream boxes. Those t-shirts retailed at more than $50 and sold out.
- It distributed t-shirts in oversized cake icing cans that even smelled like frosting.
- It created movie trailers for non-existent movies for which it created t shirts. Included employees and some customers in the trailers.
- It will often include in its packages random items such as trading cards, a pack of batteries, a candy bar or even a doll’s head. “I have learned the more strange stuff we put in your package, the more people will talk about it.”
That packaging “really makes people feel like its their birthday every time they order something, and that’s my motive,” said Earle. “Sometimes we do something completely free. I will write a personal thank you on things we ship out. Those handwritten notes are key.”
“We are a t-shirt brand that sells shirts in stores that smell like bakeries and have shirts in refrigerators and we make hungry people’s days worse every day,” said Earle. “We have created events that stop people who are driving by. My concept is strange, but strange is good. It sets you apart from the rest.”
What Credit Unions Should Do
Earle urged credit union marketers to identify at least a dozen things that makes their CU unique.
“Any time you working on a new launch or promotion you should challenge your team to come up with 12-plus things that separate you,” he said. “People have too many options. Why should they take a risk with you? You should always ask yourself this.”
Johnny Cupcakes began as a one-man operation with assistance from Earle’s family members (many now work full-time for the company). Its first warehouse was an attic in the house Earle grew up in; he opened his first store in 2005 on tony Newbury St. in Boston where rent was $7,000 a month and Earle admitted he had no idea if it would even be successful. More than 400 people lined up to shop at the new Johnny Cupcakes’ retail outlet, including people who became angry when they discovered it didn’t actually sell any cupcakes. It was successful enough to generate three months’ rent in revenues in one day. It now also operates stores in Los Angeles and London.
The company also continues to have fun. On April Fools Day it removed all the clothing and sold actual cupcakes. And Earle said he’s seriously thinking about opening a store across the street called Johnny’s T-Shirts that sells only cupcakes.
A Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt specially designed for the CUNA Marketing & BD Council meeting.
He’s also playing with the idea of taking one person’s angry online review after discovering it was a clothing store and printing it on a t-shirt and selling it.
“The turning points in my business have been when I took the biggest risks,” he said. “I fail every day, but when I fail I learn something, and what really excites me is the puzzle and figuring things out.”
The Johnny Cupcakes brand has been built in large part by a passionate customer base that has become its “brand ambassadors,” said Earle. When it decorated its store as a haunted house on Halloween, customers filled social media with photos.
“I still fail every day. I have no superpowers,” said Earle. “I am just a little guy who is willing to try new things and who is not afraid to fail. And if you fail you look at it as a funny war story and a learning experience.”
More Icing On The Cake
Among Earle’s other observations:
- “Your business card, website, and resume are all extensions of your personality. If it looks like everyone else’s, you get treated like everyone else.”
- We built a community around the brand. We would host meet-ups to find out what people love about the brand, and what they don’t like about the brand. And we throw in pizza and dodge ball.”
- “Building a positive team and learning to delegate is a tough thing to do. But sometimes if you don’t let go you end up treading water. You need to focus on what you do best.”
Finally, Earle cautioned credit unions to remember that financial success is not the be-all, end-all.
“With this success, sometimes it feels like I’ve built a prison,” said Earle. “So right now I’m trying to find a really good work/life balance. We could be a lot better and put stores all over the world, but I’m very happy with a small hobby that packs a real punch. When I was 24 years old we made our first million. We realized that with hard work and creativity we could do some pretty cool things together. But it’s not about the money, it’s about being happy doing what you love. If you can go to work laughing and come home laughing, it effects every part of your life.”