👋, I’m Kimberly. I’ve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, I’m giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
Last week, I was listening to my favorite podcast, The Best One Yet (also known as TBOY). And I was surprised to hear my name and this newsletter shouted out at the 4-minute mark!
Hosts Nick and Jack were talking about Dupes, a topic I wrote a newsletter about.
Dupes are exactly what they sound like: duplicates of existing products already on the market. They’re similar to knockoffs, but not necessarily lower quality — just lower-priced versions. They’re legitimate brands, not trying to trick you into thinking they are the other brand with a fake logo.
The newsletter I originally wrote about Dupes was inspired by a segment that Nick and Jack ran about Dupes. But don’t worry… we’re not Dupe-licating each other with all this Dupe talk. We’re adding stories and takeaways to the conversation. In this spirit, I’m recapping Nick and Jack’s story here today — and adding to their insightful takeaways.
TBOY’s Story: Lulumelon’s Knockoff Embrace
For big companies, dupes are a serious problem. Dupes are the number one trend on TikTok right now with 4 billion views. People are hashtagging about dupes and making videos about dupes and posting links to where they can find dupes.
Lululemon is one of the most duped brands out there. And the product being duped is their Align leggings, which I have three pairs of in my closet right now. I can attest that these leggings fit like a dream, they don’t pill, and they’re super soft. There’s a reason people are obsessed. And there’s also a reason people are obsessed with finding the dupes—because at $98 a pair, this dream isn’t cheap.
Last week, Lulu announced a Dupe Swap. If you were in LA, you could go to a Lulu, bring your dupes, and they would swap them for the real thing.
While these dupe swaps might cost them in the short term, Lulu thinks these Dupe Swaps will pay off in the long term… because after you wear the real thing, you’ll never go wading in the dupe pond again.
TBOY’s Takeaway:
Dupes aren’t about the price. Dupes are about being in the club.
One of the few forces that transcend socioeconomic differences is being an insider. Whether you’re wealthy, middle class, or lower income, everyone wants in on a secret deal. That’s the real power of the dupe. Wearing a dupe doesn’t signal cheapness. It signals that you’re part of a club in the know. That’s why you don’t just wear the dupe. You share the dupe. And that’s why Lululemon isn’t fighting the dupe. It’s embracing the dupe. Dupes aren’t a scarlet letter. They’re a badge of honor.”
The Branding Newsletter’s Add-On Analysis
It is incredibly savvy of Lulu to try and flip the script on dupes by literally flipping the real people who are already in the club for three big reasons. And those three big reasons also happen to align with many of their traditional costs:
Advertising Costs: You Zero In On the Target
By calling in the dupe buyers directly, you’re reaching the dupe universe specific to your product in a way that a Google AdWords buyout never could.Influencer Costs: You Know They Like to Share
The people inside the dupe club are the most likely to go spread the word to fellow club members if they make the switch. And their content immediately has the potential for virality.Agency Costs: You Get Your Content Created
As a brand, you can say as much about yourself as you want and how your products really are better and worth the price. But the most believable and most powerful voice is always that of your real customer, more so today than ever. It is 110% your most effective marketing tool. The value of content these dupe buyers create for you has the potential to far and away exceed what you’d pay an art & copy team to come up with a new campaign.
Bonus Fact 🚀
After a person's mind has been changed, there is a possibility that they may become stronger advocates for the new opinion. This phenomenon is known as the "Backfire Effect" or "Belief Perseverance." When people's beliefs are challenged and they experience cognitive dissonance, they may seek to reduce the discomfort by either rejecting the new information or adjusting their beliefs to align with it.
If someone goes through the process of changing their mind and accepts the new opinion (in this case, that the Lululemon leggings are actually better and therefore worth the price), they may be motivated to reconcile the inconsistency between their previous beliefs and their current viewpoint. This can lead to increased conviction and enthusiasm for the new opinion as they strive to maintain internal consistency. The Backfire Effect means that the new army of Lululomon advocates in the dupe world will be even more powerful and persuasive as advocates.
When you take it all in, the benefits of dupe-flipping add up quickly — and the potential value Lulu gets from these customers is worth significantly more than the $$$ they're losing by giving some of those dreamy leggings away.
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I help founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, they’ll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprint—a uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, shoot me an email at kimberly@brandsthatgetyou.com, or schedule a call.
More About Me
I’ve created indie darling brands (Biossance, Patchology, exa), developed Fortune 500 brands (Netflix, Gap, Wyndham), rebranded global brands (Crabtree & Evelyn, Paula's Choice), founded my own DTC brand (Archer), and run in-house teams for brands (Sephora).
My work has won over 80 awards—including Clios, Addys & 30 Under 30. And I was recently named one of the Forbes Next 1000.
I earned my BA and MA at Stanford, where wrote my thesis on the negative mental effects of gender stereotypes in advertising. And today, I devote 100% of my time to working with founders who are 100% committed to using their brands’ impact for good—developing healthy mental models for a better world.