Use
The Michelin Guide
A free guide to where to eat, from a tyre company. People drove further to use it.
Why customers forget you between orders.
Your product gets used, then put away. Between orders, nothing of yours is in their life.
A Brand Trojan Horse is a second, smaller product that gives your customers real value and stays in their life long after the sale. The best are free, cheap, or low cost compared to your main product.
01 · 18 examples
18 examples
Four kinds: something they use, show, follow or collect.
18 examples
Use
The IKEA Blue Bag
A 99-cent bag people keep for laundry and moving. It sits in millions of homes.
Use
Le Creuset's Recipe Booklet
It comes in the box. Every recipe in it needs the pot.
Use
Nike Run Club
A free app in their morning run, with no sale in sight.
Use
The Glossier Pink Pouch
Packaging too useful to throw away. It ends up in their bag, in public.
Use
The rhode Lip Case
A phone case that holds the lip gloss. The brand is in every mirror selfie.
Show
The Yeti Sticker
In every box. The cooler stays in the truck. The sticker goes on the laptop.
Show
The New Yorker Tote
A subscription perk you carry. It tells people you're a reader.
Show
Trader Joe's Canvas Totes
A cheap, well made bag that says where you shop.
Show
Arc'teryx Beanies
The cheapest way into an expensive brand, worn on the street.
Show
Erewhon Smoothies
A drink people queue for and photograph.
Show
Spotify Wrapped
Their own listening, turned into a post they want to share.
Follow
The Red Bulletin
A free magazine about the life around the drink, never the drink.
Follow
Monocle Radio
You read a magazine once a month. You can leave a radio station on all day.
Follow
Miu Miu's Reading Club
A book and film club from a fashion house. It claims how its customers think.
Collect
Crocs Jibbitz
Charms for the shoe. Small, cheap, and a reason to come back.
Collect
LEGO Minifigures
Pocket-sized and collectable. On the desk long after the set is put away.
Collect
The Diptyque City Candle
Only sold in the city it's named after. A reason to visit the shop wherever they travel.
02 · The test. It isn't merch.
01
Does it give them real value? Would they want it with the logo taken off?
02
Does it carry your brand's story, not just your logo?
03
Is it free, cheap, or low cost compared to your main product?
04
Will it still be in their life long after the sale?
0 of 4 answered
03 · Find yours in three steps
Step 1
Write down where your customers are when they aren't using your product: their kitchen, their commute, their gym bag, their desk, their feed.
Step 2
For each place, come up with one idea of each kind: something they'd use, show, follow or collect. Your ideas, not a machine's.
Step 3
Run each idea through the test above. Keep only what gets four yeses.
04 · Do it now
AI is the average of everything already out there. That makes it very good at finding your category's clichés, and no use at all for escaping them. So this prompt does the legwork. The decision stays with you.
I run a [what you sell] brand. My customers are [who]. My website: [link]. Help me do the groundwork for finding my Brand Trojan Horse. A Brand Trojan Horse is a second, smaller product that gives your customers real value and lives on in their life long after the sale. The best are free, cheap, or low cost next to the main product. It is not merch. 1. Ask me who my five biggest competitors are. Wait for my answer. 2. Map the gap. From what I sell and who buys it, list the places and moments my customers are in between purchases: at home, at work, travelling, online. Be specific to my category. Ten at most. 3. Audit the category. For each competitor, tell me any second product, free item, content, app, club or collectable they already use to stay in a customer's life. If you cannot find one, say so. Then tell me what they have in common and what nobody is doing. 4. Now ask me for my own ideas, up to five. Wait for my answer. 5. Test each of my ideas against four questions. Yes or no, with one blunt line each. Does it give them real value, so they'd want it with the logo taken off? Could only my brand have made it? Is it free, cheap, or low cost next to my main product? Will it still be in their life long after the sale? 6. Show me which ideas passed all four. For the ones that failed, tell me which test they failed. Do not come up with ideas for me. Do not flatter me. If you cannot open a website, say so and ask me to describe it.
Find out how far you are from a cult brand.
A Trojan Horse carries your brand into someone's life. If your brand isn't clear yet, all it carries is a logo, without a story.
The Brand World Score shows you which part of your brand to fix first. Eight questions, two minutes, a score out of 10.
Get my score
Hi, I'm Jack.
You might know me as @jackofbrands. I run Blink Twice, a brand world building studio in London for consumer founders. My team and I have worked with household names like TikTok and Jack Daniel's, independent consumer brands and fast-growing startups. This tool is part of the method we use with every one of them.
300+ projects · 150+ brands · 7+ years
Selected clients