AD-Vantage Point?
When selling directly to consumers it is vital that a business change and evolve with the tastes of its customers. If you don't you could quickly find yourself going from humming along with growing revenues and making a nice profit to slashing personnel and scrambling to keep your core business alive.
I recently found a company and a product that I am very intrigued with. Vantage Point seems to be an electronics accessories manufacturer based in Sante Fe Springs, California. They have an impressive variety of television and speaker mounts, along with a new product that I find really cool, the BeanPad. The BeanPad looks like a great accessory to my iPad 2. I constantly find myself sitting on the couch and grabbing a pillow to prop my iPad up so I can see it while laying back. However, nothing I seem to do enables me to get the screen exactly how I want it while also being comfortable. While not having played with this product myself, I am almost certain my life would get a whole lot easier with the BeanPad.
While very little information is available on the company (which is a problem in itself...really you can't give me a good story about the company on your website? Weird), I can see the progression of the company somewhat clearly. They start with TV mounts, speaker mounts, and other accessories, which likely were popular. Thinking to how much the television viewing experience has changed just in the last 10 years I can assume that the products Vantage Point sold were cutting edge and hip ways to mount your television or speakers.
But as industries expand, so does competition. Just searching for tv mounts on Amazon (more on Amazon later) brings up a whole host of competitors for Vantage Point in that space. With this increase competition, margins on Vantage Point's current products likely have dropped and the days of easily dominating this space over. For some companies, actually thousands of companies, this increase in competition leads to a slow decline in the business and possibly the closing of the business' doors. Some companies instead fight back and create a new market to compete and dominate. I have a feeling that Vantage Point is capable of that with its focus on the iPad products. But if they want to get there I really think they need to change how they promote and sell their products.
First and foremost the window for them to take advantage of this opportunity will be small. Right now their product is the only one I can find, but the idea itself isn't hard. Someone else is likely working on a way to make the iPad experience comfortable and effortless like the BeanPad. To be a long-lasting success, it needs to get traction and become something that catches storm, almost going "viral". To accomplish this though you need to get the BeanPad in front of as many eyes as possible. Right now, the BeanPad is too hard to find, and at too expensive a price.
If for some reason I am able to find the BeanPad (a friend pointed me to their website) your jaw will drop at the price of it. Right now it is selling for $60 on their website, $60!!! It is a BEAN BAG that I can connect to my iPad. Ummm....what is the margin you are trying to get on this product, $50?!?!?! I really think this could become a hot holiday item, but not at $60. Now I don't work for the company maybe their manufacturing costs are high and the margin on the BeanPad is low, but I would be really surprised if it were. If it was priced in the $30-$40 dollar range it would more likely become a product desired and sought after by many of those highly desirable 18-30 year old demographic. They love their iPads and love to buy apps, accessories, etc for them, but not at $60. At that price range you are going for older adults and the upper-middle class who like their Apple products, but aren't PASSIONATE about them.
Secondly, I don't know Vantage Point's distribution lists, but it needs to get in Target, Best Buy, Walmart etc. Maybe not all of those, but at least Target. And if Target isn't demanding for 1 million of these things yet then I know somewhere that its presence HAS to be found, AMAZON. Right now I search for the BeanPad on Amazon, I find one distributor selling ONE BeanPad for $80!!!! What!?!??! Come on Vantage Point, what century are you living in? Do you know that 40% of ALL holiday shopping this year will take place online? Do you know that your search engine optimization to your website is horrible. How are you planning on making this product take off, word of mouth?
I truly believe that Amazon would take this company to the next level. I have helped support a clothing store with their Amazon sales before, and it is fairly easy. Yes, Amazon gets a cut, but don't view their fee as a cut our of your sale, look at it as a MARKETING costs. That is exactly what it is. For a fee Amazon's millions of users have your product at their fingertips. Vantage Point HAS TO start running part of their business through Amazon. The BeanPad is a perfect fit, it really is. What is great about Amazon is also the fact that you gain control over a huge part of your market. If you dropped the price on the Vantage Point website to $40, you could every now and then drop the price on Amazon to $35 or lower, creating the illusion of a great deal (trust me other do this all the time, i.e. OtterBox). Right now selling the BeanPad primarily through your own website is not cutting it. It isn't going to drive the traffic, and it isn't going to jump out as "I WANT THAT NOW!!! LET ME BE IMPULSIVE AND PURCHASE IT!!!". But Amazon could greatly change that. Someone is surfing Amazon looking for a great gift idea for the holidays, sees this awesome product, and one-click and it's purchased!!! And if it gets hot on Amazon who knows what kind of demand that could lead to from some of the big box retailers (i.e. Target). Sell the BeanPad on Amazon and in those stores and I would say the owners and investors in Vantage Point would be having a very good Christmas a great New Year.
Again, I don't know that much about the company. My friend pointed me to the BeanPad after seeing an article from the LA Times. I really want one to try for myself, but unfortunately I will not buy one for $60 + tax + shipping. My pillow will have to work for now. However, if Vantage Point changed up some of its selling tactics I would be the first person to order it from Amazon with my Prime membership for $37.50. Who knows, maybe the Amazon experiment works so well that it gives a nice little boost to your mounts and other items as well?