.st0{display:none;fill:#936037;} .st1{fill:#936037;} Open a new market, conquer sailors and families Read more
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Hi all! Today we want to tell you how we at Verf opened new markets in such a seemingly hackneyed market as leather goods.
When a new bag model is released, everything is clear — no need to explain what it is and why, even if there is some cool feature in it. Recently there have been many «innovations» in bags: built-in charging, GPS tags, anti-vandal fabrics, new types of materials (paper, banana skin, recycled plastic) and so on. But, nevertheless, the product remains clear — it’s still a bag, wallet or backpack.
We initially went the other way.
Sign of becoming an officer
At the origins of our company are sailors. Representatives of this profession keep a lot of documents with them. The guys thought: why not make a special folder that fits only these documents? The uniqueness lay in the fact that the format of documents for sailors is non-standard. A4 they have a little more (letter). Therefore, the documents had to be piled up in a simple larger folder.
Having traveled to different industries and made several samples, we got something vaguely reminiscent of the Seafolder. And then the question arose how to present it. Seems to be as simple as possible. The target audience is very clear. Just advertise for sailors and that’s it. In fact, that’s how it started.
In 2012, there was no targeting, smart feed in VK and other modern things. We just wrote ads in thematic marine groups under the posts. Roughly spammed, in general.
And we encountered the very first comments: why is this folder needed, who will pay 5,000 rubles for some kind of folder? But little by little orders began to arrive. In the case of folders, there was one big plus: sailors are not poor people, for the most part, albeit conservative ones. Therefore, for the command staff, the amount of 5000 was insignificant. It all started with the fact that captains and chief mates began to buy, plus the product turned out to be very convenient and functional. And after the first buyers appeared the following.
Over time, almost every sailor got our folder. Some crewing companies (companies that hire seafarers) oblige them to have a folder, because it is more convenient to check documents with it, and many graduates of maritime academies come to us, for whom our Seafolder is already a sign of becoming an officer.
It is interesting that almost immediately several companies tried to copy us. Companies from Ukraine had the most attempts, but they did not succeed, unlike our next hero. The reason is that there is, in fact, a very small market for seafarer folders. You cannot develop and live on only one product. Tanners didn’t get into this market because they didn’t understand it, and the sailors didn’t understand leather and didn’t see further development, except for folders.
We made the brand «Shipyard» and invented … the same functional folder for documents, only the family folder «Family Matters» at home.
Non-existent demand and existing demand
If with seafarers the uniqueness is still understandable in people’s heads, then when we say that we have invented a whole market, many are twisting at the temple. But it really is! What was before that was a regular stationery folder (plastic) with a ring mechanism and cheap A4 files for all documents.
We took all the household documents, found a place for everyone and wrapped it in a beautiful shell — a leather folder. Moreover, they divided the documents into what is needed to be at hand (passports, SNILS), first-order documents (TIN) and those that are rarely used (military ID cards, certificates, etc.). And launched into the world.
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You can take all the skepticism that was with the marine folder and multiply it by 10. When we told our friends that we made such a folder, all the friends said: cool, but we would not buy it. It’s funny that the sailors who used the same folder, only at sea, were not particularly appreciated at the beginning. Their main objection was that it was a necessity at sea, but at home it could lie in a box / folder / closet.
To give you an idea of how zero market it was, Yandex had a negligible number of requests related to the folder for home documents, storage systems, etc. We wanted to give numbers here, but Yandex does not store data for 2017, there is only correspondence with the director , where he wrote that this request cannot be promoted, since such a request does not exist.
So, what we had was a fairly clear target audience — all women who love order in the house (men to a lesser extent) and men who are tired of always looking for documents and asking their wife where they are. We posted information about the new product in our group and began to wait, but there was no result. And then we posted traffic with three ideas and photos that worked great.
Working with target audience
We have narrowed down the audience into several types:
1. Young mothers who love order. We made a caption text and a trigger photo with mom, baby and Family Matters.
Mom has only one problem — it’s time. «Family Matters» will give you a little more time for your child, yourself and your beloved home.
2. Women between 28 and 45 who would be interested in home and family. Wrote text for them.
Especially for home perfectionists and just for everyone who loves their home and order in it — a new compact storage system for personal documents! Now you can store all kinds of personal and family documents ergonomically and aesthetically!
Using the test method, we managed to find the absolutely best and most converting frame for the folder.
We then used it a bunch of times and in different photos. Shot from behind the right shoulder with the effect of peeping at the moment when the girl lays out the documents. No matter how cool photos we take, but the photo from this angle was always the best.
3. The audience, which, in my opinion, at first turned out to be the most successful — those who were looking for a gift for the wedding.
Why the most successful? Because at that time people were sorry to spend 5,000 rubles for themselves on a folder, but this amount is universal for a wedding gift. And our message was that you can give money that will instantly go away, or you can give a product that will be with the newlyweds all their lives. And you will be remembered. It was the beginning of summer, wedding season. We just took an associative photo. Which we twist periodically until now, 4 years later.
On an unforgettable day — an unforgettable gift. The first important brick in family history that the newlyweds will receive is from you. Folder «Family Affairs» — for a cozy family life.
Pandora’s Box
In general, the indicators of these 3 companies were similar, I will not even separate them. The cost of going to the site was about 3 rubles. And the purchase cost about 300 rubles. What was just a fairy tale. And it lasted about 1.5 years. Why so many? Because at some point, several companies realized that this was not just some whim and a niche product, but a large new market.
Somewhere in 3-4 months after the start, we no longer had a release from customers and this allowed our production and the company to grow very strongly.
Now there are about 25 companies producing similar folders. One of the 3 largest stationery companies in Russia took and completely copied our folder, without changing anything at all, and ordered it from China (it was a shame). We did not sue, although there were all grounds. Then they could not stop, and copied 2 more products.
Now the cost of a lead inexorably exceeds 2,500 rubles, so we stop advertising for this product. But we still keep it in the top, but this is exclusively on a sundress, because we have a very loyal audience.
But, offhand, we think in Russia more than 500 thousand of these folders have already been sold, which makes it a fairly large market. In any case, these two products have done a good job for us and are a great foundation for building our company.
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