Hi, Here goes…
“With Hi, I am trying to build and sustain the friendliest brand in the world.”
There’s the mission in one big bold snappy quote. Furthermore, I write this with interest in partnering with good-natured and trustworthy individuals who believe in the power of human kindness and are interested and have experience growing e-commerce businesses.
The Hi Why
The Hi Brand exists to foster more friendliness and Human Interaction.
Why does the world need this? If you haven’t noticed, at times humanity can be a bit cold and unfriendly… read the Hi Johnny about page to get a deeper idea of what I’m looking to put into the world. But first, I suggest you keep reading below and then come back with curiosity to check out the links.
How We Accomplish Our Goal Of More Friendliness and Human Interaction
Designed to celebrate global greetings around the world, we create friendly fashion statements and accessories that encourage human connection. Check out our collection of shirts with greetings in many languages from around the world.
Who Is Hi For?
Hi is a brand built for friendly people who love to travel, experience new places and meet new faces.
How We Can Share It Out / Reach New Customers
To market the Hi brand on a global scale - We’ll partner with travel influencers and use digital ads to reach people traveling and planning trips. We’ll aim to be the perfect shirt for taking tourist and landmark photos and celebrating cultural heritage.
Examples for Tourist/travel-inspired photos
Bonjour in front of the Eiffel Tower
Ciao at the leaning tower of Piza
Ahoy upon a cruise ship
Aloha posing in front of a group of Hawaiian Hula Gals
Etc..
How We Can Show Up in the Real World
Using Google Ads is one way we’ll try and target travelers. For retail experiences, we could also work with airports to create shops and connect with travelers on the fly.
Stories of Human Interaction
Because Human Interaction is our core value, we’ll share stories of people and how they met. Simply by capturing and telling these stories in a video series, we’ll inspire people to the possibilities and creative ways people have come to be friends and partners and trustworthy companions.
Check out The Hi Film
Friendly Folks — The Hi Community
Along with a great story, every great brand needs to have a great community. To build this I’d like to utilize the perspective and progressive utilities of NFTs. The idea is to create a series of “Friendly Folks” avatars that people can own. Along with any purchase of Hi Johnny merch, people will have access to the Friendly Folks community where they can meet and interact with other people who have introduced themselves and become part of the Hi brand. Digital fashion is also on the rise and wearing Hi brand gear in the metaverse would be an awesome way to show up and connect in the digital world.
Supporting Artists + Evolution of Design
Identifying as an artist myself, it’s important that the Hi brand honors and supports other artists. Partnering with Graphic Designers from around the world, we’ll pick artists to represent each geolocation, having them design special edition shirts for their home region and culture. We’ll create a payout system to support the artists and share profits and sales for the merch we sell. People who engage with the brand will know that their money is going directly to support artists and creativity. This will create a larger audience by combining with artists’ networks, but will also create a barrier to competing brands that could potentially create greetings on t-shirts and simply sell them at a lower price. Adding exclusive art, style and personality will separate us and keep the brand iconic and desirable, allowing us to create a coveted travel fashion brand with a purposeful mission of giving opportunities to artists. Here is an example of a recent collaboration.
Hi Johnny
Hi Johnny is a digital art project where Johnny Michael (me) walks around in scenic locations and waves. Entering from screen right, waving in the middle, and exiting screen left. This project began in 2017 and continues on. It aims to use a digital medium to send friendliness and positivity. It is the genesis story and eventually what inspired the Hi brand’s creation.
Products & Production
Currently, all Hi products are created with a fulfillment and shipping partner Printful. Our store runs on Shopify. Costs to maintain the site are around $1000 a year. To expand and increase product quality I’d like to eventually partner with private labels and manufacturers. This video shows how I create and launch products with Printful. As an individual, it currently makes sense, but the brand’s ambitions for growth would require more production and fulfillment partnerships.
Lastly, here’s this… Some Hi Slides and waves