Sometimes the best ideas aren’t entirely original. Rather, they innovate upon an existing product or find a new use or market for it. That’s just what Ryan Close and his team did when they launched Bartesian. The brand’s machines use single serve recyclable capsules to make cocktails, similar to how coffee-pod machines work.
But marketing this easy-to-use concept wasn’t simple. Ryan had to create a new product category, educate customers, and negotiate with manufacturers for licensing deals.
Ahead, Ryan shares his four tips for creating and finding success with a product the world hadn’t seen before.
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4 tips for launching in a new product category
A model holds a glass under the Bartesian machine as it pours out an speciality cocktail.
The Bartesian takes the stress out of making cocktails at home, so anyone can feel like a professional bartender. Bartesian
1. Identify the problem and how you’ll add value
Before launching a product in a brand new category, you first need to identify and get to the heart of an existing problem, and figure out how your product will solve it. “I could never get [drinks] right, so I understood it was difficult to make great tasting cocktails at home if you’re not a bartender,” Ryan says.
Once Ryan understood the problem, he knew the best solution was an easy-to-use, single serve, cocktail-making machine.
“You can’t just make something that you think is going to work. You have to understand what the consumer wants,” Ryan says. And, since he had the same needs as his target customers, it was easy to understand them and create a solution.