so asop does no marketing and their entire approach to marketing it is still Marketing in an indirect way is having fantastic experiences with the brand so through packaging product and placement so like their stores I love asop and I think asop is a perfect branding case study for why Simplicity matters in branding and the approach to how you run your business how you make decision making and why when you commit to simple and thoughtful execution you can win I think it builds out of how Simplicity makes a product that is significantly different in how good
it works because I remember when I went to the office you had this soap there and I was just washing my hands and I just remember stopping saying this is the best soap I've ever washed my hands with and I came out and I said I think I was actually trying to steal it from your office to take back to money you're like don't steal my amazing I think you even like hesitated to say anything because like a part of you like hates that I buy expensive soap and you're like that was really good soap
like no I was like I was embarrassed how much I wanted the soap I even hate saying it like a like the the bouin that exists inside me cringes as we're talking on camera about how great high-end soap is but it really is a fantastic experience the brand is called asop it's the Greek word for Storyteller and because they're so fixated on product placement and positioning storytelling matters because it allow allows us to tell stories like their whole idea or their whole ethos is that the store is such a memorable incredible and different experience in
a way that's not over the top like they're not can canning out and handing you a glass of champagne to buy you know soap like they're in minimalistic aprons they've got one type of moisturizer but the experience is still so unique that you go home and you tell T of your friends about your asop experience and their stores it's a really interesting model they take real estate super seriously ly so they'll only purchase real estate in areas that are focused within the Creator community so they want to be around creative so like designers creators and
Architects their brand archetype or their target market Persona the language that they use is intelligent independent educated traveled well read and sophisticated so it's it's interesting that they they're putting into this box it's not just quite price point it's also like you've traveled the world like you understand things like the importance of ceremony and washing your hands and no two stores are the same they maintain their brand feel the way that the brand the sorry the store is designed is both by that community's kind of feel ethos location and then also the architecture of the
building they put their soaps and shampoo in like stone blocks in New York and Brooklyn where you get more of that like industrial feel in Japan you get more of the like almost that World War II like glass like medicine cabinet stores they only place asop within hotels that are aligned on parameters outside of it just being a festar hotel right like they're not focused on chasing like fake luxury like they're more focused on like the arts and culture so premium placements that make sense for the brand that are with in line with the brand
placement so they're not chasing like the Ritz Carlton right like they're chasing like four seasons Kyoto you know like it's it's not the Four Seasons brand it's like specific locations which is really quite cool that a brand can execute at that level the thing that I love about asop is there's no shortage of skincare brands that are trying to profess and tell you that you know this is the magic pill for anti-aging they create a great product that's consistent that's not over the top and it's still premium
