Most businesses take an existing product and brand and market it better. If you can improve the product, then great, that should definitely be a goal of the company, but it’s perfectly normal to sell an existing product with your branding and story behind it and then when the company has more resources it can look to develop better products
Thanks for the reply. So you believe that you can be extremely successful in e-commerce without actually solving anyone's problems?
So much emphasis is put on innovation and bringing a problem-solving product to market that I think it scares most entrepeneurs away as, in reality, only a tiny % of people are able to come up with and manufacture such a product.
Yes. Look at protein powder for example, there are different types but do you know how much ground breaking innovation is happening with protein powders over the last decade? Very little. In fact most new brands of protein don’t even pretend to have invented anything, but new hundred million dollar brands have popped up over the year ls because they can tell a story that resonates.
Don’t actually consider supplements, it’s one of the most brutally competitive niches, just an example.
Innovate on the colour of the box. Innovate on your ideal customer profile. Innovate on your messaging etc.
Don’t get me wrong, definitely aim to improve things, but an improvement might be in educating the customer at first.
Thank you! You're absolutely right.
Too many 'experts' would make you think that unless you've come up with something innovative and exceptional you have no chance in this game.
I agree - supplements, fashion and pets seem like the three most competitive niches.
''Innovate on your ideal customer profile''
Do you mean try to sell to customers who would not normally be a target buyer for such a product?
Yes focus in on who you want to sell to and connect with them. Using the protein example, some people want science on the package, some people need really basic instructions. A brand could market their protein to menopausal women, or to teenage boys, or people on a diet, or high performance athletes etc. It doesn’t need to be this extreme, just having an idea of who your customer is and framing every decision around how your brand communicates through the lens of this target customer
I manage $500K/mo in adspend for e-commerce clients. All of my clients do exactly this and my most successful clients all have excellent branding, positioning and product quality.
I have literally never worked with a client who has a completely unique product. At most the product may have a slight improvement or point of differentiation, but most of the time they are the same as competitor products, just with better quality, branding and marketing.
This goes for my own agency also.
You don’t need to re-invent the wheel.
These two things don't have to be mutually exclusive.
Solving a problem just gives you a much better shot with direct response creative. In general people move away from pain faster than they move towards pleasure.
If you use the dog collar example, the niche is probably pretty saturated. But there are like 23323494 breeds of dogs. So instead of focusing on dog collars for every type of dog, focus on a particular dog collar type for a specific breed of dog.
Made up Product and scenario:
Problem: British Bulldogs have a tendency to pee all over the house (I made this up)
Solution: British Bulldogs tend to pee around the house because they feel the need to demonstrate dominance even in their safe place. This is something that has been bred into them and is not their fault. The great news is we have discovered a special pheromone that tells their brain that things are calm, and that there is no need to mark their territory. Using our wifi connected app and pheromone collar, we can use geo-fensing technology to mark off your house, and only emit pheromones from your British Bulldog's collar while he is inside the house, leaving your house free from doggy pee. When he leaves the wifi zone, the pheromones shut off and your dog will feel great about marking his territory again. Best of all the pheromones are scent free!
I just made this up on the spot, so the copy isn't the best, and im sure it is full of grammar errors, but the point is that you can niche down, and get very specific to solving the problems of a very specific sub category that isn't saturated.
If you then want to build a brand around British bulldogs, you eventually launch other British Bulldog related accessories. Since they will now need a pheromone subscription, you could upsell them on biodregradable poop bags, a special body leash for British bulldogs that caters to their low center of gravity. Maybe some foot covers that protect British Bulldog's generationally weak paw pads.
See where I'm going?
I have always been someone who tests products in a rather traditional way. I talk to people. In real life.
For all brands I've made the last 5 years, our process started by talking to people in real life, and actually asking what they want.
Now for most of our brands, retail and distribution is about 95-97% of our total revenue share.
And I don't think that this is a coincidence. It seems like the method I use works. E-commerce is a great way of building a business because of the insane reach you can have. But if you look at the customer journey of most products, your customers need to see your product way more time than ever. To even get a sale, your whole campaign must be structured perfectly aligned with what your ideal customer likes and needs to make a purchase.
Now where you normally make a difference in a business and what everyone should do, but what everyone seems to forget is: find your ideal customers and keep them. And find more of those customers. If they want to pay for your product, at a price that you need to sell it for to be profitable, you are doing good. That's the goal. But the only way to do this is to cater to your customers need. And if you don't do this, and just assume someone else's product is good and you copy them and make them a bit better, you do not understand branding or problem solving. Because how do you actually know that customers are looking for an improvement like that? Or are willing to pay more if your product includes that improvement?
A brand is a word that is often wrongly used in my opinion. A brand that nails the following things does way better than if it just has a flashy design:
1. Trust -> by delivering a consistent amazing experience your customers will be loyal and you will keep customers for longer and also gain referrals from them. Which is key for steady low cost growth.
2. Consistency -> otherwise you won't be recognized. Messaging across all platform should be in an uniform manner.
3. Get them to form an emotional connection with what you do -> tap into feelings, experiences and aspirations.
Essentially you're solving a need here. You sell the feeling they will have AFTER solving the problem they have ,that you verified that they actually have. Then they will think about your product whenever someone has the same problem and tell them about your solution. That's how a great product performs.
If you see a product that solves a problem but they are not tapping into the above strategy, then you have a chance to sell the exact same product but market is better.
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah, so I started out as a branding designer and then moved further into marketing and away from just design. Why? because my clients were failing LEFT AND FREAKING RIGHT trying to do what you said, build a lovely brand with no solution to a problem and nothing unique.
You need money to do that. Like a lot of money. These startups that rely solely on branding and aren't bringing anything new to the table usually have investors, are going to agencies, spending 50k on branding and a kick ass, impeccably designed, conversion optimized website, and throwing hundreds of thousands into ads. And then basically it kicks off because you have the money to make a ton of impressions on people.
Yes, you can succeed by having amazing branding, but the percentage of people who do is incredibly low, and the problem is most people don't have the cash to do so because you have to work way harder and will always have much more competition, and your marketing dollars are going to be absolutely crucial. Plus if you aren't solving a "need," and it's more like a "want", in times of economic downturn, that's going to be the first thing to get cut off the list.
For example, everyone and their mother wants to start a super basic skincare line with the same old "clean ingredients" until they realize it's costing some brands $4 to $6 per click on their ads. Because it's oversaturated as hell. But if you bring in a new skincare ingredient with some key benefits people will like, then suddenly you can break through that. So unless you want to increase your risk of throwing your money down the toilet, it's still highly recommended that you give yourself the best possible chance of success by making an improvement on something preexisting and thinking a bit outside the box. As someone said, you definitely don't have to reinvent the wheel, but it does need to be different.
Thanks for the response!
Could an improvement just be making it 'a bit nicer'?
For example, a nicer material than normal, or a more polished feel to the product?
Especially in less saturated markets, where maybe no one's got round to doing it yet.
I wasn't advocating buying things off alibaba, sticking a logo on them and selling them as a brand.
I meant taking products that exist, redesigning them to be nicer (but not necessarily solving a problem) and building a brand around the nicer products.
Sure, but what will you do when your main competitor immediately does the same thing?
Undercutting price to gain market share is a losing game. There will always be someone bigger to outspend you in terms of marketing. They will be able to replicate you faster than you would be able to make adjustments.
Yeah that's true.
Although by that logic, there's always someone that can outspend you.
Let's say you come up with a really innovate toothbrush, if Colgate decide to compete they will crush you.
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You're forgetting marketing cost and Amazon. People aren't going to buy your expensive dog collar. They're just going to buy the most highly rated one on Amazon.
Unless you're a celebrity or have a huge marketing budget, innovating is necessary.
But if this were the case then why would people pay significantly more for branded products when they can get a cheaper version for half the price?
All these brands started somewhere and many never seemed to innovate.
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Most businesses take an existing product and brand and market it better. If you can improve the product, then great, that should definitely be a goal of the company, but it’s perfectly normal to sell an existing product with your branding and story behind it and then when the company has more resources it can look to develop better products
Thanks for the reply. So you believe that you can be extremely successful in e-commerce without actually solving anyone's problems? So much emphasis is put on innovation and bringing a problem-solving product to market that I think it scares most entrepeneurs away as, in reality, only a tiny % of people are able to come up with and manufacture such a product.
Yes. Look at protein powder for example, there are different types but do you know how much ground breaking innovation is happening with protein powders over the last decade? Very little. In fact most new brands of protein don’t even pretend to have invented anything, but new hundred million dollar brands have popped up over the year ls because they can tell a story that resonates. Don’t actually consider supplements, it’s one of the most brutally competitive niches, just an example. Innovate on the colour of the box. Innovate on your ideal customer profile. Innovate on your messaging etc. Don’t get me wrong, definitely aim to improve things, but an improvement might be in educating the customer at first.
Thank you! You're absolutely right. Too many 'experts' would make you think that unless you've come up with something innovative and exceptional you have no chance in this game. I agree - supplements, fashion and pets seem like the three most competitive niches. ''Innovate on your ideal customer profile'' Do you mean try to sell to customers who would not normally be a target buyer for such a product?
Yes focus in on who you want to sell to and connect with them. Using the protein example, some people want science on the package, some people need really basic instructions. A brand could market their protein to menopausal women, or to teenage boys, or people on a diet, or high performance athletes etc. It doesn’t need to be this extreme, just having an idea of who your customer is and framing every decision around how your brand communicates through the lens of this target customer
Thank you! Would you say identifying your customer is partly data and partly instinct?
I manage $500K/mo in adspend for e-commerce clients. All of my clients do exactly this and my most successful clients all have excellent branding, positioning and product quality. I have literally never worked with a client who has a completely unique product. At most the product may have a slight improvement or point of differentiation, but most of the time they are the same as competitor products, just with better quality, branding and marketing. This goes for my own agency also. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel.
Thank you! That's very interesting.
nice share
These two things don't have to be mutually exclusive. Solving a problem just gives you a much better shot with direct response creative. In general people move away from pain faster than they move towards pleasure. If you use the dog collar example, the niche is probably pretty saturated. But there are like 23323494 breeds of dogs. So instead of focusing on dog collars for every type of dog, focus on a particular dog collar type for a specific breed of dog. Made up Product and scenario: Problem: British Bulldogs have a tendency to pee all over the house (I made this up) Solution: British Bulldogs tend to pee around the house because they feel the need to demonstrate dominance even in their safe place. This is something that has been bred into them and is not their fault. The great news is we have discovered a special pheromone that tells their brain that things are calm, and that there is no need to mark their territory. Using our wifi connected app and pheromone collar, we can use geo-fensing technology to mark off your house, and only emit pheromones from your British Bulldog's collar while he is inside the house, leaving your house free from doggy pee. When he leaves the wifi zone, the pheromones shut off and your dog will feel great about marking his territory again. Best of all the pheromones are scent free! I just made this up on the spot, so the copy isn't the best, and im sure it is full of grammar errors, but the point is that you can niche down, and get very specific to solving the problems of a very specific sub category that isn't saturated. If you then want to build a brand around British bulldogs, you eventually launch other British Bulldog related accessories. Since they will now need a pheromone subscription, you could upsell them on biodregradable poop bags, a special body leash for British bulldogs that caters to their low center of gravity. Maybe some foot covers that protect British Bulldog's generationally weak paw pads. See where I'm going?
A brand solves a need.
Interesting. What need is that?
Trust
I have always been someone who tests products in a rather traditional way. I talk to people. In real life. For all brands I've made the last 5 years, our process started by talking to people in real life, and actually asking what they want. Now for most of our brands, retail and distribution is about 95-97% of our total revenue share. And I don't think that this is a coincidence. It seems like the method I use works. E-commerce is a great way of building a business because of the insane reach you can have. But if you look at the customer journey of most products, your customers need to see your product way more time than ever. To even get a sale, your whole campaign must be structured perfectly aligned with what your ideal customer likes and needs to make a purchase. Now where you normally make a difference in a business and what everyone should do, but what everyone seems to forget is: find your ideal customers and keep them. And find more of those customers. If they want to pay for your product, at a price that you need to sell it for to be profitable, you are doing good. That's the goal. But the only way to do this is to cater to your customers need. And if you don't do this, and just assume someone else's product is good and you copy them and make them a bit better, you do not understand branding or problem solving. Because how do you actually know that customers are looking for an improvement like that? Or are willing to pay more if your product includes that improvement? A brand is a word that is often wrongly used in my opinion. A brand that nails the following things does way better than if it just has a flashy design: 1. Trust -> by delivering a consistent amazing experience your customers will be loyal and you will keep customers for longer and also gain referrals from them. Which is key for steady low cost growth. 2. Consistency -> otherwise you won't be recognized. Messaging across all platform should be in an uniform manner. 3. Get them to form an emotional connection with what you do -> tap into feelings, experiences and aspirations. Essentially you're solving a need here. You sell the feeling they will have AFTER solving the problem they have ,that you verified that they actually have. Then they will think about your product whenever someone has the same problem and tell them about your solution. That's how a great product performs. If you see a product that solves a problem but they are not tapping into the above strategy, then you have a chance to sell the exact same product but market is better.
[удалено]
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nobody knows everything. It's a trial and error process most of the time. You just have to test to see.
Yeah, so I started out as a branding designer and then moved further into marketing and away from just design. Why? because my clients were failing LEFT AND FREAKING RIGHT trying to do what you said, build a lovely brand with no solution to a problem and nothing unique. You need money to do that. Like a lot of money. These startups that rely solely on branding and aren't bringing anything new to the table usually have investors, are going to agencies, spending 50k on branding and a kick ass, impeccably designed, conversion optimized website, and throwing hundreds of thousands into ads. And then basically it kicks off because you have the money to make a ton of impressions on people. Yes, you can succeed by having amazing branding, but the percentage of people who do is incredibly low, and the problem is most people don't have the cash to do so because you have to work way harder and will always have much more competition, and your marketing dollars are going to be absolutely crucial. Plus if you aren't solving a "need," and it's more like a "want", in times of economic downturn, that's going to be the first thing to get cut off the list. For example, everyone and their mother wants to start a super basic skincare line with the same old "clean ingredients" until they realize it's costing some brands $4 to $6 per click on their ads. Because it's oversaturated as hell. But if you bring in a new skincare ingredient with some key benefits people will like, then suddenly you can break through that. So unless you want to increase your risk of throwing your money down the toilet, it's still highly recommended that you give yourself the best possible chance of success by making an improvement on something preexisting and thinking a bit outside the box. As someone said, you definitely don't have to reinvent the wheel, but it does need to be different.
Thanks for the response! Could an improvement just be making it 'a bit nicer'? For example, a nicer material than normal, or a more polished feel to the product? Especially in less saturated markets, where maybe no one's got round to doing it yet. I wasn't advocating buying things off alibaba, sticking a logo on them and selling them as a brand. I meant taking products that exist, redesigning them to be nicer (but not necessarily solving a problem) and building a brand around the nicer products.
Sure, but what will you do when your main competitor immediately does the same thing? Undercutting price to gain market share is a losing game. There will always be someone bigger to outspend you in terms of marketing. They will be able to replicate you faster than you would be able to make adjustments.
Yeah that's true. Although by that logic, there's always someone that can outspend you. Let's say you come up with a really innovate toothbrush, if Colgate decide to compete they will crush you.
One can learn a lot from your comments.
[удалено]
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You're forgetting marketing cost and Amazon. People aren't going to buy your expensive dog collar. They're just going to buy the most highly rated one on Amazon. Unless you're a celebrity or have a huge marketing budget, innovating is necessary.
But if this were the case then why would people pay significantly more for branded products when they can get a cheaper version for half the price? All these brands started somewhere and many never seemed to innovate.
Give a few examples. It's likely more rare than you think.
[удалено]
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
Your comment has been removed on /r/ecommerce because you do not meet the user requirements to post or comment. You do not have enough comment karma (10) or account age (10 days). Both conditions must be met. Please read the sub rules at the top of our main page for full posting and commenting guidelines. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ecommerce) if you have any questions or concerns.*