Dryrobe’s promise: Get changed. Stay warm.
I’m a year-round sea swimmer. After every swim, I change into my Dryrobe. If you’ve never seen a Dryrobe, imagine the world’s cosiest winter coat, with enough room to manoeuvre inside it to wriggle out of the stubbornest of swimsuits.
Fleecy on the inside, waterproof on the outside, the Dryrobe is part fluffy dressing gown, part arctic-wear, part post-swim hug.
And each day, as I change, shivering, into my Dryrobe, I appreciate the tagline sewn inside. It simply says:
Get changed. Stay warm.
I love this. It fits with everything we believe at Broom & Moon: that the language you use to promote your brand should be the language of your customers.
I bought my Dryrobe so I could get changed and stay warm. No other reason. If someone asked me why I own one, this is what I’d tell them.
But a lot of people who work in companies (and agencies they pay to help them) feel they haven’t cracked it until they’ve filled a tagline or vision statement with jargon. In Dryrobe’s case, someone might have said:
‘Well, it’s not just people who are getting changed who buy Dryrobes. What about dog walkers, school mums, people shopping in Waitrose? Won’t they be put off by us talking about getting changed?’
Before you know it, they’re talking about warmth-led solutions.
For fun, I asked ChatGPT for some jargon-tastic alternatives that Dryrobe could have used. It gave me:
Facilitating seamless change moments through warmth-led solutions.
Innovating the warmth space, one change event at a time.
Empowering individuals to transition with confidence, comfort and consistency.
These are a bit ridiculous but it’s not uncommon for us to see statements like this. In fact, we’re working with a company at the moment whose ambition is:
Delivering real-world impact and long-term resilience
Their actual ambition is worthy and important but it’s completely hidden behind this statement that says nothing about what the company does, who it’s helping and how. And when we’ve finished listening to their customers and employees, it’s going to sound very different.
The other thing I love about the simplicity of a promise like Dryrobe’s is it can serve as a decision making filter. Any proposed changes to the product should be met with the question: will this help people get changed and stay warm?
And it’s with that I leave this one plea to Dryrobe. Please fix the zips! I’m not alone in finding them tricky post-swim, hands frozen. If anything stops me from getting changed and staying warm, it’s the zip!
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