Why Does Cash App Have A Clothing Line?

Cash by Cash App is a luxury apparel collection from the well known peer-to-peer payment solution Cash App. Yes — that Cash App. And while the idea of a fin-tech frontrunner breaking into the world of haute couture sounds like a joke about modern day consumerism run amok, it’s actually a brilliant example of knowing your customer, taking what they care about, and building it into a powerful story that grows your brand.

In December of 2020, the app you use to split a bar tab launched a range of high-concept streetwear in a new online store. Offerings included bold designs from LaQuan Smith (outfitter of hip hop celebrities from Nicki Minaj to Coi Leray), as well as apparel from “Hot Girl Enterprise,” a clothing collection created by superstar rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Prices ranged from an accessible $20 for a graphic tee, to up to $200 for statement pieces like their Portal 2 Raincoat.

News outlets were surprised yet enthusiastic. GQ Magazine concluded that “…Cash App may have built its reputation by being the easiest way to send, spend, and invest — but if the company keeps it up, they might soon be equally as loved for their fashion.”

GQ was probably being a little generous about Cash App’s ability to penetrate this distant second market (though stranger things have happened — Yamaha’s incongruous mix of motorsports and musical instruments comes to mind). Still, in the years since its launch, Cash App’s apparel has yet to overshadow its financial offerings.

However, far from dying the quiet death you might have predicted, Cash App’s clothing store is still going strong. The steady trickle of news about the fledgling fashion house continues, including the announcement of a new collection, “Future Nature,” this past spring.

It’s also worth noting that Cash By Cash App’s clothing isn’t just Cash App-branded merch for rabid payment solutions fans (if such people exist). Lots of companies slap a logo on a t-shirt as an exercise in building brand loyalty (or even tapping into nostalgia), but swipe through Cash by Cash App’s eye-catching duds and you’ll see an aesthetic that’s much more catwalk than company picnic.

So what the heck is Cash App doing?

The answer is some very effective brand storytelling by means of a little tangential marketing.

Tangential marketing is when you create an offering that’s unrelated to your primary product but that aligns with your customers’ values. Take, for example, the time Patrick Ward boosted sales for a financial product in the agricultural sector by releasing a weather almanac. “Was it related to our product?” he asks, “Absolutely not. But it was important for our customer base and stirred up a lot of emotions.”

That’s what Cash App is doing with Cash by Cash App. The clothing line is the tangential offering. But the connection between the apparel and the app isn’t agriculture.

It’s hip hop.

Hip hop has been a major factor in Cash App’s growth since at least 2017. As Forbes describes it in “Hip-Hop’s Role In Square’s $40 Billion Cash App Business Success,” “About 200 hip-hop artists name-check Cash App in their lyrics…rappers have been using the fin-tech platform as a way to engage with fans for a while now…[and it’s] easy to see how hip-hop influencers and their loyal followers grew Cash App’s monthly active users from seven million in 2017, to 30 million in 2020.”

And so the reason Cash App launched a clothing line starts to become more clear:

If a large segment of your customer base cares about hip hop, then it makes sense to create a marketing opportunity where your brand name is spoken in the same breath as the artists your customers love. Cash App’s streetwear line connects the brand to the hip hop luminaries that design and wear it: Megan Thee Stallion, LaQuan Smith, Nicki Minaj, and more. And with customers receiving a substantial 25% discount for using Cash App to buy their Cash by Cash App statement pieces, there’s a directly incentivized pipeline from the apparel to the app.

It’s a tactic that seems to be working.

Cash App has been the number one finance app in the app store for five years running, has 80 million users, and was the 8th-most-downloaded app in the United States across all categories last year. While competitors Venmo and Zelle still loom large, Cash App is fast gaining on them, with a projected user increase of 15.3% for the end of 2022.

With such a competitive market, building a narrative that drives loyalty and acquisition is key. For Cash App, that means creating a clothing brand that positions their flagship product at the center of the things their customers care about.

But the important takeaway here is more than just a lesson in clever marketing, it’s a reminder about a fundamental tenet of brand storytelling that Cash App got right:

Your customers don’t necessarily buy your product because of its features, they buy your product because it fits into their view of who they are and who they’d like to be. By creating streetwear with bona fides in a world their customers aspire to, Cash App tells a story about how their app is more than just an app — it’s a means to living a life closer to that of the celebrities their customers admire.

Cash by Cash App is a way for Cash App to say “use our product to become the kind of person you want to be.”

—

Looking for insights? Check out my portfolio.