As an entrepreneur, it’s your job to position your brand creatively.
So you scored a check for $1,500 from your Aunt Karen, and a bit more from your cofounder’s sister, an investment banker. Great work.
But that’s not enough. Not nearly. No offense, but you probably also don’t have all the smarts, experience, support, and mentors you need. There’s no need to throw in the towel, though. It just means you’ll have to get crafty.
You probably know that knocking on the front door of a crowded marketplace and asking politely for a seat at the table isn’t usually how it works. Just ask Manoj Bharghava, the founder of 5-hour Energy shots. Big Soda wasn’t about to let an upstart compete with them, especially with a product that actually did what it claimed. Instead of tiring himself out pounding the door down, Bharghava snuck around the side.
Bharghava’s heart sank every time he walked into convenience stores and saw the refrigerators stocked floor to ceiling with energy drinks. How could he compete? But he had a trick up his sleeve: instead of going toe-to-toe with the heavyweight sixteen-ouncers, he shrank his drink down to a two-ounce shot. The new petite size also meant that 5-hour Energy could be sold right off a store’s countertop, next to the disposable lighters and Slim Jims. It worked: six months after launch, Bharghava was selling 10,000 bottles per week.
You can get eyes on your brand in other ways, too. Pitching to tastemakers can build serious buzz. Steph Korey and Jen Rubio did this to great success with their Away suitcases. Before they even had a suitcase on the market, they hired a public relations firm to get their luggage in the pages of Vogue. They subsequently sold out their first production run.
But the best way to get attention is to get normal people talking. In the words of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend.”
This kind of buzz – the kind that prompts people to pick up their phones and text, “You’ve gotta try this!” – is harder to come by. But not because no one knows how to get it. The way to do that is to build a great product – so good that people can’t help but recommend it.
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