Where to go after “Kickstarter”: difficulties of promotion of manufacturers of niche electronics
The idea of a decentralized marketplace managed by manufacturers and in the interests of the producers themselves came from CEO Hamster Marketplace LLP, Russian entrepreneur and electronics manufacturer Denis Bulavin, when he built up sales channels for his main product, the PlayPad children's tablet made in Russia. Working in the niche electronics segment, he saw the demand for a site that would allow other independent producers to find their customers and expand sales without a devastating struggle for a limited number of shelf and storefront windows with large vendors and manufacturers of non-original goods with which they can don't even cross target audiences.
Finding yourself trapped in a cramped (market) niche is sometimes very uncomfortable.
The degree of difficulty in promoting a niche product directly depends on the state of its niche in the market:
The hardest thing in this hierarchy is the producers of a unique product, which, being a discovery or invention, creates a previously non-existent niche that is in the “primitive broth” stage, when the target audience of the product is scattered, clustered, not related to each other. Marketers do not have centralized tools for interacting with it, and work on finding a buyer begins with solving the problem of the widest possible PR coverage of the very fact of the emergence of a unique product and niche. This work on promotion turns out to be very heavy for a manufacturer if he does not have any exceptionally powerful and unique resources.
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For a fresh niche, this equation often consists of many unknowns:
Newbie products experience the paradox of “a lemon squeeze net”: a product whose idea is instantly appreciated by almost everyone, but for advertising which basic marketing tools like SEO or context do not work - simply because no one knows about the existence of the net and people it did not occur to me: “but I will look for such a thing that would not, when I squeeze a lemon into tea, fall to my bones”.
Vendors in a young niche are also quite difficult, because their target audience, although known, is scattered across other segments (for example, the PlayPad target tablet audience is a percentage of the “parents with small children” market segment). Tools of access to the segment as a whole are known and work, but “catching” one’s share requires either manual searching or sifting the entire segment through a “fine sieve”, which means the cost of marketing the audience at times, tens and hundreds of times more than the target. This is the price of niche formation. It is very heavy for most indie projects. Therefore, many manufacturers in a young niche remain local - they simply do not have the resources to “bust” or “sift” on a global scale. And nevertheless, yesterday's invention of a loner can already today become a global product.
A similar transformation usually occurs in the following ways:
For the first time, Kickstarter centrally demonstrated the scope of inventions in the world: more than 131 thousand successfully financed projects have accumulated on this site alone. But to the same extent they can be considered a census of losers: how many of them have become viral and global products? How many of them at least went beyond the supply of a single batch of goods to their sponsors, backers? How many of them have succeeded in the global marketplace?
Going to stable sales on a large online marketplace is a transition to a new level, and for many novice vendors, it is simply not possible. Even the entrance to the largest existing electronic sales platform is not available to all projects.
Small and novice vendors on Amazon are waiting for:
And on AliExpress, they will drown among the non-original, low-quality, homogeneous goods, tens, hundreds and thousands of flooded almost any category.
For buyers, the situation in the e-retail market translates into 35–300% of intermediaries ’margins for goods, less choice of new producers in the market, lack of information about interesting, useful new products, if their manufacturers could not leave the level of invention on Kickstarter or somewhere else .
In this market niche, between Kickstarter and Amazon, which has hitherto been a limb for good ideas, the Hamster Marketplace marketplace will take its place.
At the start, the Hamster Marketplace will be focused on indie electronics manufacturers (starting with DIY, exclusive handmade assemblies, the demand for which is potentially as high as the promotion of such a niche product) and gadgets. In the future, it is possible to expand the profile of the site due to non-electronic products, which demonstrate a distinct potential for growth when promoting to the Hamster Marketplace audience.
Projects “between Kickstarter and Amazon” may have different scales, but a common problem: a ceiling that they cannot overcome.
Some could not move from a “garage start-up” to a functioning production, others did not master access to global markets, remaining local players.
Both will help Hamster Marketplace, thanks to its unique concept of a decentralized global trading platform managed by the manufacturers themselves, without intermediaries, which offers something useful to both manufacturers and buyers:
Because it is a platform:
To finance the creation and launch of a trading platform, Hamster Marketplace LLP organizes and conducts a crowdfunding campaign through the placement of tokens.
The proceeds from the fees will go to:
Being focused on selling indie goods, Hamster Marketplace plans to attract customers through the most efficient channels for the relevant audience segment: readers, visitors and active users of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and others. Attracting “warm leads” from there to the Hamster Marketplace will cost no more than $ 5.6–7 per customer; and through its own audience of projects that hit the Hamster Marketplace. The average number of Becker users who financed the product on Kickstarter is ~ 1,400 people per project. Turning to the Hamster Marketplace, the projects will lead to their client base, which we will already see other interesting projects.
If you want to get more information about Hamster Marketplace first hand, welcome to our Russian-language channel in Telegram .
Finding yourself trapped in a cramped (market) niche is sometimes very uncomfortable.
What to do when you find yourself in a niche
The degree of difficulty in promoting a niche product directly depends on the state of its niche in the market:
- a well-established niche is open, known, the main target audience is gathered in it, its coverage tools are known and work. Usually occupied by a more or less constant set of competing manufacturers;
- the young niche is open, limited known, the target audience is known, but not structured, its coverage tools are known. The set of products is dynamic; Constantly new manufacturers come in with competing products;
- a fresh niche is open, unknown or little known, the main target audience has not been studied, its tools do not work yet or are not created. It may be occupied by a single manufacturer whose product / invention discovered / created this niche - or a pair of quick followers / authors of parallel inventions / discoveries.
The hardest thing in this hierarchy is the producers of a unique product, which, being a discovery or invention, creates a previously non-existent niche that is in the “primitive broth” stage, when the target audience of the product is scattered, clustered, not related to each other. Marketers do not have centralized tools for interacting with it, and work on finding a buyer begins with solving the problem of the widest possible PR coverage of the very fact of the emergence of a unique product and niche. This work on promotion turns out to be very heavy for a manufacturer if he does not have any exceptionally powerful and unique resources.
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For example, Apple was not worth anything to get the maximum coverage, which allowed us to immediately pull the main target audience into a niche that emerged with the invention of the iPhone. The reason for this was the unique market position obtained by the success of the previous product - the iPod. Even global vendors may not be able to do this, like the Apple c PDA Newton 14 years before, not to mention small independent (indie) manufacturers and “garage startups” of 1-2 people.
For a fresh niche, this equation often consists of many unknowns:
- even the target audience of the product may not be known - there are a lot of cases when the new invention is not used by those for whom it was intended;
- unknown or outreach tools do not work.
Newbie products experience the paradox of “a lemon squeeze net”: a product whose idea is instantly appreciated by almost everyone, but for advertising which basic marketing tools like SEO or context do not work - simply because no one knows about the existence of the net and people it did not occur to me: “but I will look for such a thing that would not, when I squeeze a lemon into tea, fall to my bones”.
Vendors in a young niche are also quite difficult, because their target audience, although known, is scattered across other segments (for example, the PlayPad target tablet audience is a percentage of the “parents with small children” market segment). Tools of access to the segment as a whole are known and work, but “catching” one’s share requires either manual searching or sifting the entire segment through a “fine sieve”, which means the cost of marketing the audience at times, tens and hundreds of times more than the target. This is the price of niche formation. It is very heavy for most indie projects. Therefore, many manufacturers in a young niche remain local - they simply do not have the resources to “bust” or “sift” on a global scale. And nevertheless, yesterday's invention of a loner can already today become a global product.
How inventions achieve global success
A similar transformation usually occurs in the following ways:
- The product has become viral. At the root of the viral promotion of almost any invention, there are usually early followers - easy-going people, with whom the new product at some level has resonated so powerfully that it began to cover everyone around with waves of attention, even covering the entire globe. For example, it happened to the Pebble watch as a result of a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. In many respects thanks to Pebble, the niche of smart watches is now confidently moving from the category of young to well-established.
Of course, inventions acquired a viral effect even before the emergence of the Kickstarter site, and even before the emergence of the concepts of “crowdfunding” or “viral effect”. But the concentration of early followers of various projects in one place - such as Kickstarter and others - gives a powerful synergistic effect, increasing the chances of any project on global fame instead of complete oblivion.
- The project hit the global showcase or marketplace. In the biopic "Joy" in 2015, the effect of the marketplace is well illustrated by the example of the global showcase version of the time: the TV shop. The invention of the main character, a self-extracting mop, is first defeated due to incorrect positioning (the first problem of a fresh niche is ignorance of the target audience), and only on the second attempt does it acquire instant demand on a national scale, thanks to the more successful presentation in the TV shop. As before, TV shops and large retail chains, and now the largest online marketplaces can, with a single display on the screen, placed on shelves or the main page, turn one housewife into a foundation of a multimillion-dollar business empire.
- global change of a conjuncture. We will not consider this item due to its uncontrollability, uncontrollability and unpredictability. But it should be mentioned for completeness.
Where are the inventions that are not so lucky?
For the first time, Kickstarter centrally demonstrated the scope of inventions in the world: more than 131 thousand successfully financed projects have accumulated on this site alone. But to the same extent they can be considered a census of losers: how many of them have become viral and global products? How many of them at least went beyond the supply of a single batch of goods to their sponsors, backers? How many of them have succeeded in the global marketplace?
Going to stable sales on a large online marketplace is a transition to a new level, and for many novice vendors, it is simply not possible. Even the entrance to the largest existing electronic sales platform is not available to all projects.
Small and novice vendors on Amazon are waiting for:
- huge competition and a huge amount of goods;
- focus mainly on the US market (instead of global);
- dependence on the number of positive reviews;
- the need to purchase advertising, otherwise the product is not promoted.
And on AliExpress, they will drown among the non-original, low-quality, homogeneous goods, tens, hundreds and thousands of flooded almost any category.
For buyers, the situation in the e-retail market translates into 35–300% of intermediaries ’margins for goods, less choice of new producers in the market, lack of information about interesting, useful new products, if their manufacturers could not leave the level of invention on Kickstarter or somewhere else .
Between Kickstarter and Amazon: where the Hamster Marketplace will take its place
In this market niche, between Kickstarter and Amazon, which has hitherto been a limb for good ideas, the Hamster Marketplace marketplace will take its place.
At the start, the Hamster Marketplace will be focused on indie electronics manufacturers (starting with DIY, exclusive handmade assemblies, the demand for which is potentially as high as the promotion of such a niche product) and gadgets. In the future, it is possible to expand the profile of the site due to non-electronic products, which demonstrate a distinct potential for growth when promoting to the Hamster Marketplace audience.
Marketplace as an incubator: from DIY to the factory, from the local market to the global
Projects “between Kickstarter and Amazon” may have different scales, but a common problem: a ceiling that they cannot overcome.
Some could not move from a “garage start-up” to a functioning production, others did not master access to global markets, remaining local players.
Both will help Hamster Marketplace, thanks to its unique concept of a decentralized global trading platform managed by the manufacturers themselves, without intermediaries, which offers something useful to both manufacturers and buyers:
- the beginning and development of sales on the Hamster Marketplace will be available to small, niche and even novice manufacturers of innovative electronics and gadgets - from DIY to small factories;
- and buyers will get access to unique products that they would never have found in the chaos of other marketplaces; at prices really from the manufacturer with the minimum possible for life and the development of the platform mark-up.
Four elephants of success: why we believe in the Hamster Marketplace
Because it is a platform:
- Exclusive niche products, i.e. working on expanding the range of new ideas and proposals, but preventing it from clogging with the same type of hackneyed goods and all sorts of clones on the one hand;
- The platform, thanks to its specialization, attracts the desired target audience, expanding the community of early project followers;
- Working on a non-commercial basis, that is, costing vendors cheaper than any other marketplace, at least the size of the margin set by the owners of the marketplace;
- Occupying a niche from which large marketplaces have already irrevocably grown.
Hamster Marketplace Fundraiser
To finance the creation and launch of a trading platform, Hamster Marketplace LLP organizes and conducts a crowdfunding campaign through the placement of tokens.
The proceeds from the fees will go to:
- launch and development of the IT platform Hamster Marketplace in the form of a web site and mobile applications;
- attracting innovative electronics vendors and gadgets;
- attracting buyers interested in purchasing unique products.
Being focused on selling indie goods, Hamster Marketplace plans to attract customers through the most efficient channels for the relevant audience segment: readers, visitors and active users of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and others. Attracting “warm leads” from there to the Hamster Marketplace will cost no more than $ 5.6–7 per customer; and through its own audience of projects that hit the Hamster Marketplace. The average number of Becker users who financed the product on Kickstarter is ~ 1,400 people per project. Turning to the Hamster Marketplace, the projects will lead to their client base, which we will already see other interesting projects.
If you want to get more information about Hamster Marketplace first hand, welcome to our Russian-language channel in Telegram .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/338128/
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