Chapter 11: this business is fully dilated | positioning statement, social media style | a kitchen device you didn't know you needed
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She’s Live!
The website and pre-orders are live!
It’s been a long road to get to this point. If you are new here, (first, hello!) read through this post to get some more background about what I’ve been working on. There are still so many things, big and small, that I want to do when it comes to the website, the content, the product. The perfectionist in me wants to spend more time tinkering with it in private. But, like being pregnant and delivering a baby, it’s been a long enough gestation period, and this thing is more or less cooked and needs. to. get. out. And I also keep reminding myself, similar to having a real life baby, more will happen once this business is outside the proverbial womb. Growth, evolution, lots of challenges.
Thank you for being a part of this experience and following along as I’ve grasped in the dark with product design, development, supply chain, content creation, writing rudimentary html/css. I’m ever so grateful for the support you’ve shown over the past many months. Leaving a pretty stable job/career to start something completely new has been, at many times, a lonely experience. Being able to share updates and behind-the-scenes info with friends, family, strangers on the internet, strangers-on-the-internet-who-have-now-become-friends, and starting conversations through these posts, has kept me motivated and encouraged me to keep going. Or maybe you are just here for the pop culture commentary and the recipes? That’s cool too!
If I may, I’d like to ask for your help. Since I’m bootstrapping this business, I’m not turning on a free flowing spigot of paid media any time soon. And for this initial pre-order period, I’m focusing on word-of-mouth, friends & family, owned and earned media/content. I’d love to get your help with spreading the word about my launch!
If you know of anyone expecting or have young kids, please tell them about this new, exciting, functional, high quality, gender neutral diaper backpack!
Are you part of any parenting groups on Facebook or at work? Please consider posting a little blurb sharing the website link.
Please consider sharing on your preferred social media platform(s) to spread the word within your network! You can repost or screenshot any content on my IG account .
Here are some suggested talking points for you to use (but like any good influencer brief, please share in whatever manner feels natural and authentic to you):
made from sustainable and high-quality materials that are built to last (same materials that are used in hiking gear.)
super functional - made by a parent who has some OCD tendencies and is obsessed with keeping everything organized. There is a place for everything.
intentionally gender neutral design - Dads, we see you!
Free shipping & returns
Special pre-order promo: special pre-order discounted pricing, plus all pre-orders will ship out with some surprise freebies!
Thank you so much for your help. If you have general feedback about anything and everything, I’d love to hear from you! If you reply to this email, it’ll go straight to my inbox and I’ll respond right away.
Is Charlie Puth secretly an Associate Brand Manager?
When you hear the name Charlie Puth, what do you think of? Maybe you’re really into his music, I don’t know. But maybe you’re thinking, like me, of a vaguely generic bucket hat-wearing pop singer/songwriter, who’s sort of like a young John Mayer/Adam Levine. (Sorry I had to reference Adam Levine, disgraced ‘wife guy’, but he’s the second person that came to mind!)
Puth has gained a large following on Tik Tok by posting lots of random goofy videos, but also sharing behind-the-scenes videos of him creating music and sharing the the details of music composition and sound mixing. Puth launched a new album recently, most of which he has already shared snippets of with his followers online. He said of his album: “I’m going to call the album, ‘Charlie’. It’s done. I’ve made most of it on TikTok. My goal for this album is for everybody to know every song title before it comes out.”
Puth’s album launch strategy is in stark contrast with Taylor Swift, who is launching her new album Midnights later this month. She’s been very secretive about the album and has been slowly releasing the track names one day at a time via dramatic videos that are posted at midnight. Just drop the album already!
Puth has a partnership Bose, but doesn’t promote the brand that explicitly on social media. Aside from one or two sponsored videos, the most you’ll see of the partnership is him wearing Bose headphones.
He posted a video about his Bose headphones recently that I found really compelling - I even thought to myself ‘Should I be in the market for a pair of Bose headphones? It sounds pretty good.’ And then I realized the content of the video fits into the structure of a positioning statement that is drilled into the heads of Brand Marketers.
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Here is a standard brand/product positioning statement:
Target: who is the target consumer? What attitudes/behaviors define this consumer?
Competitive framework: who or what are we competing with?
Benefits: what benefit addresses our target consumer’s needs?
Reasons to Believe: what features or proof points will deliver against the benefit(s)?
Let’s break down the video and fit it within this framework:
He states the full name of the product: Bose Quiet Comfort Earbuds 2 (check check, that’s usually the headline of any positioning statement.)
Next, he scrolls through the comments of a different video and responds to a question. Puth doesn’t explicitly say, “hey this is for so-and-so”, but he’s responding to a comment on a video where he goes in-depth about his approach to making music. So the assumption here is that the target consumer is, if not a music aficionado, at least a fan of his music.
“…other headphones.” Even though Puth briefly states the obvious that Bose is competing with other headphones, this sets up the part of the positioning framework that gets into why this product is superior to others.
“If you listen to this song with these earbuds, you’re going to be able to hear things that you don’t hear with other headphones.” Ok, I’m into music and I want to be able to hear every single note and instrument. You’re telling I can’t get that with all headphones? Say more, I’m intrigued.
“For example, there’s that really loud guitar sound again. But did you know, there’s also a secret piano tucked in with those guitars. Listen with these and you’ll be able to hear those secret layers I put in my music.” This is a slightly different spin on a Reason to Believe. Instead of saying some traditional marketingspeak like, “Bose headphones are made with blah blah blah technology that transmits yada yada yada frequency better than…”, he puts the RTB into his work and the proof point comes from experiencing it. I think that angle makes it feel way more authentic and natural to Puth, and more effective as a sales pitch.
I listened to his song with my non-Bose headphones and couldn’t hear the secret piano. Either he’s right or my sound comprehension is not very advanced. Puth has a traditional ad campaign for Bose posted on his Tik Tok account, which has received 25MM views. Between this response video and the original video in which he’s wearing the headphones, they’ve gotten a combined 132MM views. Hey Bose, run some whitelist ads behind this video, it’d be a killer ad!
Have you heard of a Sushi Bazooka?
Setting aside the fact that this kitchen device is named after and looks sort of like a mini hand-held missile launcher, this is a novel and useful tool that kept my daughter occupied for about 20 minutes on a Saturday afternoon. Our kids are big fans of sushi, but I’ve always found it hard to make at home because I’ve never quite gotten the handle of making a sushi roll with just a rolling mat. Enter the Sushi Bazooka! It’s this contraption that helps you make and extrude out a perfectly round roll of sushi. Here’s how it works:
First, place your sushi rice on both halves of the contraption. For sushi rice, cook short grain sushi rice in water plus 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sugar for every cup of rice. If your kid does not like the taste of vinegar, drop the quantity to 1 tablespoon or omit completely. Let the sushi cool all the way down before using the Bazooka. The rice gets stickier as it cools.
Make an indent down the middle of the two halves and add your filling. Place the rod on the edge of one half of the device and carefully snap the two sides in place. Place the cap on the other end of the device. Twist the rod a few times. Take off the cap and slowly push the rod and the sushi roll will get extruded.
Place a sheet of seaweed on a rolling mat, put the roll of sushi on the bottom edge of the seaweed and rolling mat, and slowly roll the seaweed onto the sushi.
Cut into small pieces and enjoy!
Miscellaneous Links
The Pudding is putting out some great longform content. They also created this game you can play once a day that’s a mix of Words with Friends and Wordle.
The months of September and October are usually reserved for Christian Girl Autumn, but in the year 2022, it will be forever remembered as Try Guys Fall. Pun intended.
And of course, it wouldn’t be Fall without a nod to Pumpkin Spice.