Ask any true movie buff to name their favorite inspirational films of all time and it probably wouldn’t take very long before you’d hear them mention at least one of the films from the renowned Rocky franchise.
For decades, Rocky films (based around the fictional character, boxer Rocky Balboa) have resonated with moviegoers of all generations because most people could relate to being an underdog at some point in their lives and overcoming arduous obstacles in order to achieve their goals.
However, you don’t have to be a moviegoer to find inspiration from real-life stories that are all around you. One of my favorite places to find those stories is by studying founders of successful brands and how they were able to succeed against all odds stacked against them.
Mike Amiri, founder of the breakout luxury brand Amiri, is one of those founders. These are the marketing tactics that helped take his brand from a basement in Hollywood to the top of luxury fashion.
Exaggerate demand for your brand
Psychologists say that the most effective tool for a man to attract a great deal of women isn’t by going out and purchasing things you’d might expect like a new sports car, an expensive wardrobe, or even a huge house for that matter.
According to psychologists, the absolute most effective way for a man to attract a great deal of women is simply by appearing coveted or being seen keeping company with attractive women.
That’s because doing so would signify social proof. Social proof is defined as a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.
Aside from being a chick magnet, social proof is also a very effective tool in business. And Mike Amiri could attest that as well as anyone. How, you ask? Well, after attending law school and becoming one of the pioneers of K-pop, he took $30,000 from his savings and founded his luxury fashion brand Amiri.
While creating designs for his brand’s first collection in the basement of a Hollywood restaurant, Mike devised a brilliant strategy to get his clothing line displayed at Maxfield; one of the most exclusive luxury boutiques in Los Angeles.
“The hardest thing to do is try to get into luxury shops back then.” Said Amiri in an interview on the Idea Generation podcast. “Still are pretty pretty difficult to do and I guess this is where a little bit of like clever, and like strategy, came into place.”
That oh so clever strategy consisted of Amiri brilliantly utilizing the power of social proof to his brand’s benefit. Which he described in detail.
“Instead of me just walking into the store, I just had a few friends like each one knew the buyer. And I’d say do me a favor and just mention this brand to them. Like don’t connect us on the phone, just mention it to them.”
The strategy worked so well that by the time Amiri got around to contacting the boutique’s buyers himself, they were happy to hear from him. They also told him that they’d been hearing about his brand everywhere from various touchpoints.
Needless to say, Amiri’s plan worked to perfection. Which resulted in Maxfield picking up his first collection and featuring his products in their store.
Emit unavailability for leverage
Desirability often works in mysterious ways. For example, think back to when you were a kid. If you grew up with a sibling around your same age, you may have noticed that on a few occasions, whenever you began playing with a toy that had went totally unattended—all of a sudden, your sibling began acting as if you snatched the toy straight from their hands; then began acting as if they now couldn’t live without.
Inherently, even as adults, we tend to desire things more when they are seemingly unavailable to us. It’s that understanding of the power of unavailability that helped Mike propel Amiri to becoming one of the most sought after brands in the luxury fashion space.
Following the placement of his collection in Maxfield, wholesalers suddenly began requesting Amiri to showcase his collection (which only consisted of 6 items at the time) in their stores as well. Which he declined; telling them he had a one-year contract with Maxfield for his brand to be featured exclusively in their boutique only.
Although Amiri fabricated having the exclusive contract with Maxfield, after hearing about the fictitious contract—wholesalers wanted to showcase the Amiri brand in their stores even more! This afforded Mike the opportunity to have more options for where his clothing line could be placed. It also provided him negotiation power on sales margins.
“When you’re trying to build a luxury brand or something with exclusivity, you have to be able to control how much of that product is out there.” Said Amiri.
Place your brand where it belongs
The third P of the 4 Ps of marketing (also known as the marketing mix) represents place. As in the place consumers will be able purchase your products. The places consumers encounter your products often play a major role in the success or failure of your brand.
Which is why it is so important that you establish ideal locations for your brand’s products to be placed and presented to the public in order to project the right perception to consumers.
When it comes to luxury fashion brands, there may not be a better place in the world to have your products placed than on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Which is precisely where Amiri opened up its first flagship store in 2020.
The move was considered incredibly risky at the time by many in the industry due to the extremely high rent prices at the location. Along with the fact that the store would share the same neighborhood as Euro powerhouse brands like Balenciaga, Dior, Gucci, and Versace just to name a few.
But as the saying goes, no risk, no reward. And Mike Amiri was certainly rewarded big-time for betting it all on himself. As the Amiri flagship store became the highest-grossing store on the block per square footage in its first year of operation! Which was, as Amiri humbly avows, “proof of concept.”
“Seeing our brand perform in the context of luxury throughout the world, in every account we were top two or top three like, why would I not put my own store next to European luxury also?”
Conclusion
As a brand, Amiri is a great example of just how powerful believing in your vision for your brand could materialize that vision in ways that could even exceed your wildest imagination.
Similarly to those classic Rocky films, even when Amiri went up against competitors who were seemingly bigger, scarier, and had more experience; the brand still came out victorious through sheer passion and perseverance.
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