Seltzer
We’re going to start selling seltzer water so we can sell more software.
Strange, maybe; stranger still, perhaps, because we don’t talk too much in this space about Repeat the brand or Repeat the product. But this development is pretty in line with what we talk about here, so let’s talk about it.
The goal of this newsletter has always been to explore the intersection of CPG, DTC and consumer behavior. When we do it right, we end up delivering some value in the form of getting you to ask questions about your business.
Maybe sharing the fact that we’re trying to sling seltzer on the internet—and explaining why we’re doing it—will elicit those questions, too.
So, why sell a physical product?
Two reasons: awareness and trial.
We’re producing a lot of content—basically a reality TV show—around this process, so we can expand our reach and build awareness around Repeat as a solution that powers reordering for CPG brands.
In fact, you can watch the first few episodes here.
If all we do is build awareness around this (and later reinforce that awareness to the extent that Repeat gains mental availability with CPG brands), then this project would be a win on its own.
But we’re also selling the seltzer water, so we can demo Repeat. And that demo, essentially, is a trial: after all, we’re all consumers and the brands we work with care about their customer experience, especially as it relates to driving repeat purchases.
If we can show off how Repeat impacts that, isn’t that a good thing?
The answer, of course, is yes. And we’ve validated that through sales conversations: when we talk to people who have already experienced Repeat as a consumer, they better understand it’s value and convert to paying customers faster than brands who haven’t.
In short, it benefits our business to get people to trial Repeat as a consumer first.
The challenge, of course, is that if we wanted to do more of that by sending Repeat’s prospects to our customers websites, we would lose visibility into the “funnel” and lose control over educating which pieces of the post-purchase experience are Repeat and which aren’t. It also distracts from building the mental availability.
So, we’re building it all ourselves.
If we can do that organically, and in a bit of an entertaining way (it’s certainly comical to watch software people struggle with physical products), then, the bet is, we’ll reach CPG brands on Shopify more efficiently and more quickly than we’d be able to do otherwise.
We share this, not because we think we’re smart, but because we’ve asked ourselves how we can increase awareness and increase trial in non-obvious ways.
We bet there are a lot of them out there for you, too.