David Lee Roth’s sister has sold nearly 2 million albums. Whilst David is renowned for his on-stage acrobatics and vocals during his time as lead singer for Van Halen, his sister, Lisa, produces instrumentals… lullaby instrumentals.
In 2006 Lisa Roth founded Rockabye Baby. Releasing over 50 albums of soothing instrumental versions of rock albums and, well, the music you wouldn’t necessarily expect to help your young ones off to sleep.
This is a great story. Not just because I fed myself a diet of Van Halen as a long-haired guitar touting teen, but because of the backstory to Lisa’s business.
CREATING YOUR MARKET
A line-up of upcoming baby showers led Tina to the conclusion that the market for musical baby gifts was a little bland. So, what do you do? You invest a year in the studio to produce 3 xylophone-rich cover versions of Coldplay, Metallica and Radiohead hits.
How do you get to market quickly? You build distribution relationships to stock the CDs in leading department stores. Let’s face it, the novelty aspect of the CDs will leave the shelves empty pretty quickly, correct?
Unfortunately not. Even with high profile launch publicity, sales stagnated.
Lisa’s productions created a hallelujah moment for those of us who’ve found ourselves in a sea of pastel pink and blues struggling to decide which teddy bear hasn’t yet been bought for our friend’s or family member’s new born.
Why weren’t people buying them? Placement.
KNOWING WHERE YOUR MARKET IS
Emphasis quickly switched to positioning the CDs in the very place we, as struggling buyers, shop… the baby store boutiques offline and online.
Let’s just take a quick break. You haven’t yet heard a lullaby version of Nine Inch Nail’s Closer? Just where have you been?
9 years later, CD sales are edging towards 2 million and downloads are not too far behind.
The eventual success of Rockabye Baby came down to the re-evaluation of where you find the buyer your product matters to.
This is the gifting market. You place your product where your buyer buys. You provide an alternative where the mainstream products reside. You offer something to somebody. That somebody is a friend or family member looking to by the new parent a gift that will raise a smile. A nostalgic smile.
CONTEXT
Lisa has no children. In fact, there were no parents in the entire startup team at Rockabye. These aren’t products created by taking a walk in the consumer’s shoes. They’re all about the customer’s shoes. The pre-children friendship. The nostalgic bond of Guns-n-Roses concerts. The boozy nights accompanied by Aerosmith albums.
Parenthood is a huge huge transformation. The Rockabye collection is a gentle reminder of life when the spare room was the music room without a teddy bear in sight.
That’s the connection Lisa has created between her product, the customer and the consumer (we’ll assume the baby is out of the equation for the time being).
What lesson can we learn from this market maker?
Lisa created a market for her products to sell within. The production quality of the recordings is brilliant. More importantly, the message is meaningful. This is a hat-tip to the days when you bought your friends a CD for their birthday (remember those days?).
It’s interesting to note that the best sellers are the tangibles. Again, this is a gift market, would the delivery of an online download have the same impact?
The takeaway is that you need to know your market. Not just your consumer, but your customer. The Rockabye Baby CD buyer wouldn’t start their journey in the CD department. They’re start out in the baby gift store. Make sure your products are positioned in the context of the buyer’s journey.
I once owned a guitar shop. We sold miniature versions of famous guitars by the bucketload. When? Christmas. Always Christmas. Whilst the guitarist always acknowledged the mini versions were cool, they rarely spent £25 to own one. The product mattered more when it presented as a gift.
We sold the connection between the customer and the consumer.
Consider how you use content to position your products or service from the perspective of the buyer, not just the recipient. There are opportunities abound.
That reminds me. I never did nail that solo in Panama….
Written By:
