Etsy was featured on Nightline last night. According to the program, Etsy has 400,000 sellers, 6.9 million members, and $273 million in sales. These statistics are only a small reason for the feature. Etsy is an ecommerce site solely selling hand made items. The founder and CEO Robert Kalin is a carpenter and Etsy was his way of building a community of people who appreciate, sell and purchase handmade items. He believes there is not enough emphasis on or space for items made by actual people. There disconnection between product and person. With handmade items, people are involved through out the entire sale process. Etsy believes in allowing crafters and buyers to share the story behind the product. For Kalin, such stories are lost within the retail world of machine made products. Kalin has no favor for bigger entities; according to the program, he doesn’t like Wall Street, which clarifies that Etsy will most likely stay independent.
Etsy’s story of representing the hidden loved world of crafts and allowing hand made items to find its online home has allowed the company to brand itself well. While some companies featured on nightline would flat out state who they are and how they want you to view them, Etsy’s feature was focused entirely on hand made crafts, the crafters, and the stories. In one shot, Etsy seemed different from the typical retail business brand and branded itself well within its niche market.
Story telling can be a powerful branding tool. It’s more powerful when it represents an underrepresented niche market. The lesson to learn from Kalin is to know your story and emphasize the difference between your creation and others. Often times, differences can be made between products but of those times, we consumers knew the difference due to product marketing.
No comments:
Post a Comment