Day Three of Onboarding week in London was packed with workshops with industry experts in product, pr, branding, and building a startup. The highlight for us at FabAllThings was meeting with Tracy Doree, who founded Llustre.
BRAND
What makes a powerful brand? How does one go about building a new brand from scratch?
Tracy began the workshop by talking about the power of brand and telling the story of Llustre. Llustre was an editorial-led e-commerce platform Tracy co-founded in 2011 that was eventually bought by Fab.com. Together with her co-founder, she raised £1million and launched an editorial proposition in November 2011. The platform had a flash sales model selling homewares such as furniture, lighting, and accessories.
At the time of launching, they received an email from Jason Goldberg, co-founder of Fab.com who loved their product selection and website. They met in London the following week and soon after Llustre was sold to Fab, which at the time was the fastest exit in UK history (10 weeks!).
What was fascinating for us was the process she and her team went through to build the Llustre brand. The team initially launched an editorial platform, that was solely focused on engaging with consumers and testing their theory of what would sell. By going editorial-first they found a low-cost way of gaining an audience, engaging with customers and sourcing invaluable data and feedback on products without having to take an inventory risk. By the time they launched a transactional platform in April 2012 they already had a significant following with a mailing list of 12,000 people.
EDITORIAL-LED PLATFORM
So, what exactly is entailed in launching an e-commerce platform with an editorial focus?
Tracy illustrated this with an example – how to market a pen. On the one hand, you could talk about its features – the fact that it is felt-tipped, pink and 20p. Another option is to tell a story about Hilary and her cool job with Seedcamp and the contents of her pencil case. In this way, you build a story around the product rather than solely focussing on a functional description of the product itself.
“People like people more than they like products”
Tracy’s advice was that if you are in the business of selling products, you should editorialize those products by associating them with people. Llustre started by writing and creating mood shots months before launching the transactional element of the website. They communicated what their vision was for their business visually, and with interviews and news articles.
This strategy of defining your vision, personality and brand first, echoed a Ted talk we had watched the day before by Simon Sennick. Simon talks about building brands and the why, the how and the what of business. Most companies concentrate on the ‘what’ – the products they build and the amazing features those products possess. He suggested that a more powerful route to take is to concentrate on the why – the vision, the driving force and the meaning behind what you do.
For us at FabAllThings, this was something that, although we had thought about it, we had never really articulated it in any detail. We had started the company because of what we believed about creativity, technology and design. We sat down after the workshop and went through what it was we were trying to accomplish – who we were and how our focus on design and new technologies should inform the way we move forward – it was an incredibly helpful exercise!
Founder Emer O’Daly pitching at WebSummit’s final
PROTOPERSONA
Another important part of building your brand is creating your protopersonas – these are fictional, but potentially-real people who you imagine are your customer: what age are they? Did they go to university? Where? Think about where they work, where they holiday, what music they like, what festivals they go to, what media they are exposed to, what fashion they wear, who influences them. The more details you can consider, the better. And lastly, you must ask “what would they say if they saw my brand?”
FabAllThings tried out the protopersona exercise and came up with our own customer Chloe. She’s 29 and works in animation and graphics. She is alternative, not mainstream but doesn’t consider herself a hipster. She doesn’t use traditional media channels, but instead watches netflix and reads news online. She also likes sites like XKCD, IFL Science, The Oatmeal, The Awkward Yeti. She shops on ASOS and Etsy, as well as in small boutiques for the products and the experience. She has a smartphone that she’s never without. She rents an apartment in the city. She likes to travel, and loves city breaks.
What was interesting about this process was that it made to easier to think about routes to market when you know exactly who you are talking to. It’s a process that is invaluable, but will also depend on what your customer data is telling you.
Our takeaway from the workshop:
1. “People like people more than they like products”
2. Telling a story about the person behind product is much more powerful than listing features
3. When building a brand, you should always be thinking about it through the lens of your individual customer.
In essence: This time, it’s personal.
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We just love meeting innovative startups and budding entrepreneurs. Whatever stage your business might be, whatever sector you may be moving in, we want to learn from you and help your business grow. But we are well aware that applying for funding can be downright tricky. There are so many options out there, all with their own set of rules and regulations.
This is a guest post by Maciej Krupowies, co-founder of one of the newest teams to join Seedcamp, Gaming Live. Maciej shares his take-aways from the Seedcamp Academy Onboarding session on product led by Shawn Zvinis. Seedcamp first met Shawn in 2012 in the basement of Google Campus where he was testing out his prototype and building his startup, Tab. Shortly thereafter, Shawn and the Tab team joined the Seedcamp family with big ambitions and a loyal and loving customer base. But the nut just couldn’t quite be cracked, and several months and many learnings later, Tab shutdown. Parlaying his skills and learnings into a different startup tackling payments, Shawn now looks after product at Yoyo.
This is a guest post by Ken Valledy, founder of Tech2Brand (t2b), and Seedcamp mentor. After 10+ years at Anheuser-Busch Inbev working in various marketing roles including UK Brand Director for Beck’s Beer and Consumer Digital Director for Western Europe, Ken broke off to start his own gig in January 2014 with t2b. His business merges his passion of brand marketing and digital innovation. Now, having the perspective of both sides of the table – big brand and entrepreneur – Ken shares some of his insights on working with big brands.