Darkside and I began to have a discussion about the art of marketing to crowds and communities on the last half of the first page, and first few posts of the next page here https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/ge...-giving-away-million-dollar-website-idea.html

The main purpose of this thread is to learn how to market through leadership, by inspiring people and cultivating communities. This is subject to change or redefining

Darkside proposed a second purpose, which I'm not going to rob him the chance to share with you.

Okay so the second purpose of this thread is to provide people with an opportunity to see whether or not the message or idea behind their business is a compelling one or not. If it isn't a compelling one then we can help that person by giving ideas on how to find a compelling message or refine one.

Hey guys, haven't had much time to slip anything extra on here yet (or do much of anything really).

I wanted to get some kickstarter case studies written up for you, one for physical products, and one for something more service / intangible.

Just starting that, but I have something that's very relevant to some recent topics, and I just want to point this one out while the iron is hot!

In a recent post, someone pointed out this impressively successful project TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch Watch Kits . When I went to the site, I noticed a second project The Ultimate One - Quad Mountain (iPod Watch Wristband) and went "Oh hey wow, forget the other stories to study, this will let us really get to see brands and 'stepping up to plate' in action!"

Right. But that's not what I'm going to talk to you about right now. I want you to go here, I really do, and look for "Scott Wilson". THAT is how a winner tackles competition my friends. I dare you to convince me otherwise!

So, you're Scott Wilson?

That's a funny question. You're a funny guy

But really, I pointed that out because even now we get a lot of people who secretively or jealously try to covet their ideas, yet the been-there's keep saying it's fruitless, you could instead be improving your product, your delivery, you relationships. If you look at Scott's post there, he actually offers to help the other guys who are directly competing with him. This will lead to having strong business relations, good public image, and frankly sets a standard of inviting people to deal with him.

Let's say someone comes up with a great tweak on his watches, but doesn't want to persue it themselves later. If they read what Scott's reply there, two things may happen: 1 they feel inspired to do their own thing after all. 2 they aren't afraid Scott is going to freak out and start foaming at the mouth while throwing pink papers all over. They may get to present the improvements, get a moderate sum for them, and Scott may gain an advantage over his competition.

FDJustin said:

Let's say someone comes up with a great tweak on his watches, but doesn't want to persue it themselves later. If they read what Scott's reply there, two things may happen: 1 they feel inspired to do their own thing after all. 2 they aren't afraid Scott is going to freak out and start foaming at the mouth while throwing pink papers all over. They may get to present the improvements, get a moderate sum for them, and Scott may gain an advantage over his competition.

Click to expand...

I like that ethic a lot. By doing that Scott is admitting "Look, success isn't finite" and by helping others in the market, he's establishing himself as a leader or even as a paternal sort-of figure. But beyond inspiring other entrepreneurs, it's building trust for himself with potential customers. People looking at other watches will see Scott's comments, and be like "wow. this Scott is a stand-up guy."

This was going to be a synopsis, but after posting it - then posting the original, I find there wasn't enough difference between them to warrant it. So, below you'll find the information I gathered on the two ipod nano watch conversion startups on kickstarter.

Maybe I'll write down what I see as lessons from it later, but for now I'm hoping some of you will raise questions and propose lessons.

Also, let me know if this study seems too off topic! I know some of you have a better grasp of how to be a leader, and how to use that as part of your marketing. Please speak up, as an outcast this is rocket science to me.

Section 1, the front page.

First comparison to note: Steve (Tik Tok & Lunatik) focus on their quality, while Tim (Ultimate One) focuses on it's superior features.
Neither video strikes me as higher quality than the next, and both people do a good job of clearly explaining what they have to offer.
Although I did notice Scott talked about his passion for watches. That didn't have an affect on me, but wouldn't it bring out a sort of comradery in enthusiests?

Names: Steve has named his products on in a way that seems very relevant to what they are; ipod nano to watch conversion kits. Tim on the other hand went with a more abstract name that still sounds good.
I would really like your opinion on naming things. It's always been a fascinating subject that seems to carry as many strategies and beliefs as there are people.

Notable differences on the pledge page: Tim has a runner's testimony quoted. Scott finishes up by making a rallying call, "...please spread the word and share with your friends. Everyone has at least one friend that is a watch geek." The second sentence is a good way to actually put an exact person(s) face in mind to match the request.

Let's move on to look at the stats: Backers, targets, and final funding.

Tim has 228 backers at $12,340 over a $7,800 goal. The $5+ amount is a thank you reward and has 1 backer. The next level is $25, and is basically pre-ordering the Ultimate One. It has 163 backers. After that the numbers taper off sharply. Most of what the next set of tiers offer is more of the same product.

Scott on the other hand has 13,512 backers with $941,718 over the $15,000 goal. His minimum reward was $1 and was basically a thank you, but, instead of that it says how any amount helps, if successful you'll be able to buy the product later, and "Be a part of making a cool product that no one else would take the risk on and enabling a design firm to produce its own undiluted product." it has 128 backers.
Here's where things get interesting. His cheaper product gets a respectable 2.4k pledges, while his more expensive one gets over double that at 5k+. The next tier up still beats the first one at 4.3k, and is basically both products at $5 less.
After that there was a limited edition, signed version of the lunatik (yes, came with a tik tok too). This has about 1.4k backers. For the prestige, these people were willing to donate over double the last tier. There was one more after that. I'll let you check for yourself.

Obviously I can't say that Scott's backing stem from having a more attractive reward list, but I do believe his more even distribution is heavily influenced by it.

As my final note on the front page, Tim's profile includes website addresses. Scott's profile includes website addresses, twitter name, and a contact link for press.

Section 2, mining for gold. (Reading comments)
I began with Tim's comments simply because there are far less of them.
First thing is, I mentioned it before, but Scott actually visited the comments, made a note about his pledge, and offered advice for manufacturers and such. Tim turned that down (Was it wise?) but did say he wanted to talk about the other aspects of business. (Distribution lines etc.) so that's pretty cool. Makes Scott look like a great guy, and it can strengthen both businesses that are direct competition down the road!

I'm not actually lookig forward to the comments on Scott's project. There are 25! Pages, and it seems most of the first page is support issues.
I found one mention of a published review so far.
A lesson learned: A lot of people want to celibrate/commemorate. Plan for that.
Someone "stumbled upon" the project. Neat.
Huh. It was featured on good morning america as a 'must have' christmas gift! That probably helped.
"One of the things we also learned at Nike was that above all the watch has to look good. With LunaTik and TikTok we felt that the extruded form parallel to the arm was the most visually harmonious and the most sellable."
Scott Sez: "@ Tim Moore. Good thought. At some point I will document the process and timeline. Probably post it here and maybe do a Blurb.com book or something. In a nutshell however, what you see is what you get plus I happened to show a Fast Company editor the idea in passing one day and he asked to run it first. And then some of the blogs ran it. Gizmodo's impact was staggering though. I still can't believe it. And not to mention we had one person in our studio staying on top of press inquiries, etc. That is the key. I think it is an an example of digital confluence of the Kickstarter platform + Design/Biz/Tech Blogs + Social/Sharing + Design Storytelling + a cool technology product that was overshadowed by the Touch/iPad/iPhone 4... as well as the perfect time of year. It really did get a life of its own though."
Sneaky insertion? The real deal? Practical joke? It got a surprisingly small ruse. Steve Jobs — Kickstarter


In the updates, we see that Tim has two published reviews. One from ZDNet, one from crunchgear.
The bottom update asks to help spread the word. That's too out of the way, really.
The only other thing I want to mention about his updates is that he says what the material is "...premium materials (specially selected durometer)". I think this would have been better suited to either the intial pitch, or on the front page.

Scott's updates are useful, very useful to the people looking for updates. But not much stands out that I want to mention for our purposes beyond that.

I know triple posting is really bad form, but there's just something else I want to note. Because Scott reached out to Tim on his projects comments, when people would say "Hey Scott! There's a ripoff for your watches on kickstarter!" other members of his community would pipe up and say "Naw, it's cool. They sort of serve different people, and Scott even supported the other one."

I think this example shows that your community will take on.. Or at least be affected by the standards you display.