Diary of a Brand: Gentle Monster
How to build a memorable brand
What is a brand, really?
There are many definitions, ranging from name and logo, to a company’s reputation, to the willingness of customers to pay higher prices for one company’s product versus another’s.
All of these definitions of brand have one commonality: brand is an asset that exists in the mind of your audience.
And few brands demonstrate the financial power of brand memory more clearly than South Korean sunglasses brand Gentle Monster. Through eye-catching products, museum-like stores, and buzzy campaigns, Gentle Monster executes a high-margin direct-to-consumer strategy without relying on digital ads. Last year, Gentle Monster delivered 30% growth while driving nearly double the operating margin of industry giant Luxottica.
In this Diary of a Brand we’ll examine how Gentle Monster uses memory as a strategy to drive margin and sales, and how other brands can invest in their own collective brand memory.
Gentle Monster’s beginnings
Hankook Kim was running an English summer camp in Korea when he identified a gap in the market for glasses. Most frames were designed with Western facial structures in mind. By enlarging frames and lowering the nose bridge, he could create frames that better suited Asian beauty standards:
In Korea, having a small face is the biggest compliment. There were no competitors for oversize glasses, which make heads look smaller.
— Hankook Kim, Koreaboo
Kim presented the idea to a partner at the summer camp who invested $100,000 in the venture. Kim used the funds to acquire access to factories in Korea and China, which allowed the budding brand to control quality and cost from the beginning:
By owning the factory, we can maintain high quality with a cheaper price and control the shipping.
— Hankook Kim, Business of Fashion
Kim’s most pivotal decision was to invest in a highly memorable brand. Gentle Monster launched at the same time as a slew of other sunglasses startups inspired by the success of America’s Warby Parker. However, without retailers, most DTC eyewear brands were forced to spend heavily on digital ads, shifting margin from the Warby Parkers of the world to Meta and Google.
Except in the case of Gentle Monster. Kim layered an evocative brand positioning onto his company that balances the wearable (Gentle) with the absurd (Monster), driving high amounts of press, conversation, and sharing.
“Gentle Monster started out as an optical company, but the goal is to make it a creatively disruptive corporation…Brand really is the genuine tool. “
- Hankook Kim, BoF
Building Gentle Monster’s brand memory
A great brand expression starts with a well-defined positioning that anchors the brand’s activities. The brand name Gentle Monster serves as the north star for its positioning, conveying the unexpected nature of the brand (monsters are not typically assumed to be gentle), as well as the duality of its products, which are designed to be wearable (Gentle) as well as bold and experimental (Monster).
“The paradoxical nature of the brand name reflects the brand’s values. As all humans do in nature, there exists a certain duality within me: the gentle and the monster.”
- Hankook Kim, Forbes
Gentle Monster stages this positioning across every surface to build and reinforce brand memory.
1. Retail
Gentle Monster is most well known for its stores, which feel more in line with museums than retail, featuring larger-than-life robotics and a rotating series of installations that keep customers coming back.
Gentle Monster’s Shanghai flagship spans 35,000+ square feet of space across four floors. Inside: a a croissant workout station next to Gentle Monster’s in-house Nudake coffee shop, and a display of six thousand cobblestones on the fourth floor, under which one of them lies a matching key for a lucky customer to unlock a philosopher’s stone enclosed in a glass cabinet at the end of the hall.
At the recently opened 14-story Gentle Monster flagship in Seoul, visitors are met by a giant napping dachshund in silver body armor. Upstairs, glasses displays are flanked by giant half painted human figures.
And in Shenzhen, Gentle Monster themed their store experience “Insect Kingdom.” Installations tell a fictional story about the 10,000 year relationship between humans, insects, and animals over the course of three floors.
Gentle Monster’s unique stores are no accident; the company employs 6 people to design its eyewear, and over 60 for its store visuals. Kim’s goal is not simply to sell, but to build a lasting brand impression:
“The idea was never just to sell products. We wanted to build an emotional connection, to create spaces that leave lasting impressions.”
— Hankook Kim, The Concept Stories
2. PR and Influencer Packages
The Gentle Monster team invests the same wow factor-focused design of their stores into the packages it sends influencers for new collections. This investment has 2 benefits:
One, influencers are more likely to share the packages organically (and Gentle Monster can save on influencer fees, which are often significantly more than an investment in packaging)
Two, every resulting influencer video drives deeper impressions from viewers, as the packaging stands out from the typical packages
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3. Collaborations
Gentle Monster embeds its paradoxical brand positioning into its collaborations strategy by partnering with both the hottest celebrities and brands, including Blackpink’s Jennie and couture house Maison Margiela, as well as linking with unexpected partners, such as Overwatch (yes, the first-person shooter game) and iconic doll brand BRATZ. Every collaboration comes with fresh frame designs, campaigns, and of course, imaginative retail experiences.
For example, the Gentle Monster x Overwatch glasses reimagined the headset of one of the game’s most iconic characters and offered in-game prizes. However, the glasses were only available via a limited-time Instagram filter challenge which required fans to post a photo or video using the exclusive Gentle Monster x Overwatch 2 filter. Gentle Monster and Overwatch rewarded the most creative entries with the sunglasses, and each brand benefitted from an outpouring of memorable content.
4. Product
Gentle Monster’s initial oversized frames filled a gap in the market, making them recognizable when worn in public. Kim struck gold when Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun wore Gentle Monster sunglasses in the popular show ‘My Love for the Star’ in 2013 and 2014. The frames were impossible to miss and revenue quadrupled within a year.
Gentle Monster’s futuristic yet cohesive designs have only fueled further growth as the recognizable frames are spotted on celebrities like Rihanna and Gigi Hadid.
How to build a memory brand
When you review Gentle Monster’s product, stores, and marketing in aggregate, it feels obvious that the brand was able to carve out a place in audience’s minds to fuel brand awareness and rapid growth. How do other brands (i.e., yours) take advantage of memory principles to grow without heavy spend on advertising?
The great thing about memory is that there is a lot of research around what drives its. Here are [6] ways brands can tap into how memory works in the brain to create brand value:
1. Emotion-focused experiences
Why it works: The amygdala tags emotionally charged events as important, enhancing memory
How to do it: First, define what you want your audience to feel, and then design your surfaces with that feeling in mind. Gentle Monster is about offering the unexpected (Monster) in a welcoming (Gentle) way, so stores are designed for shock and awe, but also welcome interaction and play.
For your brand, what are the core emotions you want to embed? Some options: awe, wonder, curiosity, nostalgia, amusement, joy, inspiration, excitement, sophistication, confidence, calm, playful, optimism, healing, liberation, strength.
2. Novelty and uniqueness
Why it works: Novel experiences engage attention and are more likely to be remembered than expected experiences
How to do it: Add unexpected elements. Everything Gentle Monster launches has some sort of futuristic design twist. Can you rethink the shape of your packaging (i.e., Graza’s squeeze olive oil)? The email flow that your customers receive (i.e., make it a piece of entertainment)? The wifi landing page when customers sign up in your cafe? Your receipts?
3. Multi-sensory engagement
Why it works: Memories encoded with multiple senses are easier to recall
How to do it: Consider how all five senses — touch, smell, taste, sound, and sight — can come to life in your product and experience. Abercrombie’s heavily perfumed stores in the 2000s created brand recall that millennials still reminisce (or try to forget) today.
Gentle Monster’s sister brand Nudake offers surreal pastries to compliment the art in Gentle Monster stores. Brands like Coach, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Lacoste have all invested in branded cafes. The soundtrack that plays in your stores can set the tone for your experience.
4. Storytelling
Why it works: Our brains remember narratives better than isolated facts
How to do it: Embed a clear story arc (beginning, conflict, resolution) into your content. Dating app Tinder invested in a mini romcom about dating during that in-between Christmas and New Year’s time period otherwise known as Twixmas. The 30 minute film was teased on Instagram — and the amount of commenters asking for the link to the full movie show that audiences are indeed interested in brand content, provided there is a good story.
It doesn’t need to be content, either. A retail experience or unboxing that features a beginning, conflict, and resolution will make your brand memorable.
5. Focus on the Peak and the End
Why it works: After an experience, people tend to remember the most intense emotional moment and the ending
How to use it: Plan emotional or sensory highs and a satisfying conclusion. Gentle Monster embeds shocking installations into their stores and packaging. Disney engineers surprise moments into queues and ends the day with fireworks, almost causing attendees to forget the long lines. Apple’s one more thing moment at the end of product launches become cultural memories. And Red Bull’s record breaking stunts associate the brand tightly to peak energy activity. How does your shopping experience end? Is it memorable?
6. Interactivity and participation
Why it works: Active engagement strengthens memory
How to use it: Get your audience doing something, rather than just observing. In Gentle Monster’s stores, audiences often walk through installations rather than around them. McDonald’s Monopoly campaign spurs millions of participants to play a giant game of property accumulation via McDonald’s purchases. Aritizia’s mirrorless dressing rooms compel customers to come out into a communal area to discuss fit and styling in front of the communal mirrors.
Gentle Monster and the Brand Flywheel Model
In all of the Diary of a Brand pieces, I evaluate how the brand connects marketing, price, and product to underlying operations. For example, IKEA’s flat pack furniture, out of city locations, and reliance on customers to assemble goods allow IKEA to save costs and invest in a killer offering of good design at low prices.
How does Gentle Monster perform? The system is self-reinforcing — the holy grail of brand economics — and no surprise given their growth.
Brand Positioning <> Product: Gentle Monster’s brand of wearable eyewear (Gentle) that meets the unexpected (Monster) is brought to life perfectly via its consistently unexpected stores, packaging and content
Product <> Price: Gentle Monster’s museum like stores and avant garde designs offer the experience to command luxury eyewear prices ($200-$400)
Brand, Product, Price <> Operations: Most importantly, Gentle Monster supports their brand strategy with an aligned operating model. Founder Hankook Kim’s high equity stake and his status as CEO allows for a long-term focus on memorable brand-building instead of short-term sales. Investments in stores and content then drive virality, while owned factories ensure the company can control costs and quality, driving up brand reputation and willingness to pay. Gentle Monster then earns strongs margins from sales that do not need to pass through a retailer or digital ad platform.
What’s next for Gentle Monster?
When you are a brand built on offering unique, standout experiences, you have to continue to innovate. Gentle Monster’s partnership with Google positions the brand to do so by leading the fashion-forward march into smart glasses.
But glasses are only part of the ecosystem. Kim has expanded Gentle Monster into adjacent design-forward brands with a headwear line (ATiiSSU), beauty concept (Tamburins), and bakery brand (Nudake). All these brands feature within the Gentle Monster retail ecosystem.
This reveals a final benefit of memory as a brand strategy: category expansion. A brand with a highly memorable positioning has license to break into new categories by applying that positioning to new areas. What would Warby Parker’s take on furniture be? Probably something that West Elm already offers. How would Gentle Monster do it? Probably in a way only Gentle Monster can.