#53 • It was a sprint
Ok, it's open. Now what? Marketing, lights, finishing items as materials become available and more inventory.
You are reading 3Bits & Change, Joseph's email about building a direct to consumer business on the internet. Today’s email was written to a bad station Alexa chose, again.
Good day,
It was a sprint to get open. It took a few days to recover. Days. Now, we’re on to the marketing side! Sitting at the shop alone is lonely. :) Let’s fill it up!
Bit #1 • And then there was light
Finding an electrician on this project was hard. Getting lights that work has been harder. During the initial install, one of our 8 lights flashed and the others went dim, accept one. Nobody knows why at this stage, not even the engineers.
New lights arrived Monday afternoon and were being hung by Tuesday mid-morning. Initial results are promising! There was full and dimmable light from the first fixture as of mid-afternoon. Today… all the lights turned on again! Wahoo!
Bit #2 • Direct mail gets your attention
A handful of you texted me pictures of one of our direct mail pieces that hit mailboxes yesterday. We have two automated campaigns going. One is for customers that have not sharpened in over 6 months. The other is for folks who have shopped by vivront.com, have not purchased and can be synced to an address. We’ll see how those few hundred variable cards do. Postpilot.com is the service, BTW. Nifty.
In other postal news, the Hopkins post office delivers mail for a huge swath of the west metro, including the routes around the shop. Who knew? It’s not the post office in Wayzata that delivers for Wayzata - not Minnetonka either.
Anway, we’re using the Every Door Direct service from USPS to deliver postcards to mail routes around the physical store. The fine folks at USPS want just $.18 per address to deliver to every address on a route. Check the .com to see a map of routes and to make a selection. 451 cards (complete with a spelling mistake, opps) were delivered to a route to the west of the shop yesterday. I hope I see 5 people trading their card for a free paring knife on Friday. :) 7500 more cards are being printed this week. Hope we can get them in mailboxes on Friday!
Bit #3 • Getting the story out
THANK YOU!
The word on the shop is getting out. Your posts and likes and shares on the various socials are leading people to sharper knives and happier home cooking. We can track a whole bunch of the word-of-mouth at this early stage and we’re thankful!
Thanks for the introductions to grocery stores too! And, we’ll always take more of them. We have good conversations ongoing with grocery folks. Think of a sharpening package (to mail) near the gourds/produce and meat counter. How many weeks do you think folks with dull knives (90% of the country) will walk by an easy mail-in sharpening solution in a grocery store before buying it? We’ll need to find out but I’m thinking 9-12 times - then they buy. Another pilot store is readying to go live with packages next week.
Who do you know in grocery? :) We’d like to meet them.
We’re also making friends with the restaurants nearby. More to come but think of all the knives in steakhouses. Let’s go!
And finally, we’re going to turn Mondays into industry day - back of house day? It works like this, mention you work in a pro kitchen and receive a sharpening discount. Same day service on Mondays (in by 12:30 p.m., ready by 2 p.m.). Come with co-workers, demo the Japanese knives on the wall, hangout, chat, get some tacos for lunch from our neighbors. Enjoy. See you on Mondays! Let your cook and chef friends know!
How do you get involved in Industry Mondays? Nominate a kitchen in the Twin Cities to receive one knife sharpened per team member, free. Just one kitchen per week, on Mondays. Get at me and make an intro. We’ll name a Vivront Champion in each restaurant who can gather up the knives and bring them by.
Sum
It took a few days to recover from the opening. Like a week. The lights are going to be on full blast in the space soon. Postcards work for attention getting. We’re looking for more grocery store partners. It’s time to nominate your pro kitchen teams for sharpening service on Mondays.
Change
The menu board and back accent wall are scheduled to be worked on this week. Goodnews, I’m not doing the wallpapering!
We’re noodling around about PR post Thanksgiving. Wish us luck.
An order of sweet Japanese kitchen things is on the way from a brand called Kinto! Stay Tuned. It’ll all join more knives hitting inventory
Multiple of you are shopping for your christmas gifts!
Supply on some knives is becoming more constrained. Want a knife before Christmas? Order sooner than later.
On Your Way
I need a walk around the lake. It’s been almost a week since the last one. What do you need?
Take care of yourselves.
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