A look inside Jeremy’s e-commerce business, Spirit and Groove™.
I decided to migrate my drummer clothing company website, Spirit and Groove®, to this site. I have kept the brand’s social media channels as-is and will continue to offer two lines of drummer t-shirts and drum hats under the GROOVE Stripes® and Groovy Fun lines with the anticipation to launch a Groove Powe® collection soon!
You can shop Spirit and Groove by CLICKING HERE!
Forecasting a prospective market can be quite tough. Especially if you are a small business that lacks the resources to acquire and use costly third-party database results and analytical software. In some niche markets, data can be even harder to uncover even with these resources at your disposal. For instance, I focus on the drum industry and even though there are a “crap ton of drummer’s out there” –words from an SEO consultant I worked with. It is tough to get empirical evidence on their behaviors. Luckily, I had developed my own forecasting model in grad school and was able to use that when working on my business plan for Spirit and Groove™.
My model follows a four-step process that creates a funnel from a 100% total market through a potential audience to the final stage of prospective buyers. The last step is a calculation I call the “gut metric” that allows me to adjust the data based on a “gut” feeling. Some would argue the use of this step, but I disagree for two reasons.
Number one, data is both qualitative and quantitative. Analytical software rarely includes the qualitative metrics. Algorithms are great, but there is a reason even Google and Facebook continue to seek out ways to model the “human” perspective. Number two, having run my own company, worked for firms of all sizes, and studied the business plans of countless publicly traded brands during my MBA studies, I have a refined understanding of what is actually possible when you have that empirical evidence in your hands and I am able to sift out marketing “pipe-dreams” from that data.
Perhaps the most important, my model aligns with the concept of “underpromise…overdeliver” – a theory I learned with one of the world’s top brands.
While working as a retail specialist and store mentor with Apple, I witnessed firsthand just how powerful this corporate mantra can be. Apple doesn’t simply include it in their employee manual and call it good. No, they drill it into the corporate-wide psyche. As a retail specialist, it is a concept you learn in your initial training before you are introduced to any of their coveted i-products. At Apple, you are taught to always tell the customer their iPhone would be fixed in 30 minutes, even if you are sure it will only take 10. This way, you are able to increase the consumer’s buy-in when you do deliver ahead of schedule, and that is just the tip of their underpromise…overdeliver iceberg.
If you follow the tech giant in the news, especially when earning’s statements come out. You will notice that (somehow) Job’s brainchild regularly outperforms their own corporate estimates. There is no doubt in my mind that part of this phenom lies in a brand-wide “underpromise/overdeliver” mentality.
Business owners and managers often “over-assume” their results will beat expectations. Managers see the glass as half full because their bonuses and growth-potential are directly related to those results. Owners usually adopt the same ideal, but for different reasons. They are emotionally attached to the brand, see things others may not have in their field of vision, and have much more on the line, which forces them to hope for better-than-expected results.
Neither of these are good ways to engage in business. Yes, overhyping serves a purpose in specific sections of the marketing mix. However, overhyping your forecasts with owners can be detrimental. Imagine what an investor would think if you told them you would hit 1,000,000 units sold in the first quarter of 2018, but you only hit half. Now imagine, that happens every quarter. Soon you will lose their confidence…then their support. Now instead, flip the coin. You forecast that you plan to sell 500,000 units in the first quarter of 2018 and you end up selling just over 10% of those figures. To you, it may look like slight gains (maybe even losses, because through your rose colored glasses you were hoping for one-million). However, to that investor you now over-performed. If you continued this method for future quarters and witnessed similar results. Your investor’s confidence would grow exponentially and with that, your opportunity for explosive future growth would be solidified via their willingness to spend more on your ideas.
Remember, the underpromise/overdeliver concept is rooted in marketing and not finance. It is not designed to “cook the books” or to “sell a lemon.” Rather, it is a mantra that your entire team should adopt, so that it will become part of your overall corporate culture and brand. When properly instituted it impacts both sides of the ball. Your customers will constantly be “surprised” by your service while your investors will continue to experience a responsible and growing company worthy of continued investment.
This is just one day…a Monday…of my life. I want people considering starting their own company to remember just how much time and effort it takes to make it happen, because one of their competitors could be a dude like me.
8am: Wake-up to an email from USPTO that a legal action has been placed against one of Spirit and Groove’s® trademarks and we have forty days to respond.
8:15am: As I shove oatmeal into my mouth, I investigate the claim and the party bringing it against my company. I find it legit, but winnable. However, it could be extremely costly to challenge. A HUGE decision must be made that will be 90% on faith, impacts my entire business plan, and could hinder my personal finances for the next few years.
9:00am: My regular job begins. Currently booking and contracting nine lounges for the next three months, two holiday weekends of parties for fourteen, managing the company social and website, and fielding inbound applicants.
1:00pm: Lunch-break and P90X workout…still fielding company emails.
2:00pm: Back at the daily grind.
3:30-3:45pm: Afternoon break, contact lawyers to represent Spirit and Groove® in the claim.
6:30pm: Filming Spirit and Groove’s® weekly Drummer Challenge. I record myself drumming, then green-screen intros.
7:00pm: Editing footage and preparing social for Wednesday’s launch of the video I just shot.
9:30pm: Work on Lesson 12 from Rosetta Stone® Spanish.
10:00pm: Open a company checking account and secure a company credit card after updating finances.
11:30pm: Begin investigating Angel Investors.
12:30am: Find a suitable business plan template and get to work.
2:00am: Bed.
Spirit and Groove’s Instagram presence is being established as a community of drummers to share their beats, ideas, drum-pinions, and grooves. Check out our recent promotion video.
We do this because: (1) we totally dig drummers and want to spend as much time as we can hanging out with people who are generally more happy than anyone else; (2) it is part of our marketing plan, which is founded on the Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy (CwF + RtB) model.
Nine Inch Nails frontman, Trent Reznor coined the term CwF + RtB during his post Napster career. Like those around him in the music industry, Reznor needed to find ways to create his own stream of revenue without the assistance of major label deal money that had disappeared with the collapse of physical music sales.
CwF + RtB is one of those methodologies that is so simple it is complex (or we make it so). Basically, you build a fan base and then give them reasons to buy into your brand. The math totally makes sense. If you have a loyal fan base of 10,000 fans and you get them to spend $100 per year on your brand. You earn $1,000,000 per year.
I would say $1,000,000 per year is a good chunk of change for any small business and one that is completely reachable if your foundation fanbase is world-wide and within a supportive niche. This is why we chose it for Spirit and Groove.
Plus it is a REALLY cool way to build a company.
I mean, we totally dig this. For the first years of our business we have to concentrate on connecting with, watching, listening, and learning from drummers. For a drummer, what could be better?
So, if you play the drums or like to groove. Connect with @spiritandgroove on Instagram and tag us in your groovy videos. As of the publishing of this blog, we are within 200 followers of hitting 10K on our feed and when we do that, we will celebrate with deals and monthly contests where community involvement will be the key indicator of how many drum tees we give out and whom earns that drumming clothing.
For any of you who don’t know (or haven’t read my resume), I studied graphic design at a very young age and have been involved in the art-form through some amazing changes. When I started at the age of 18, computers (or should I say the MAC) was just being introduced to the medium. While working as a photojournalist for a local paper, I started out by actually developing my own film, making prints, and pasting them up on the broad-sheet. Soon, we moved to an AGFA 35mm scanner that cut out half of those steps and within two years. I was fully digital, sending the next day’s stories to press over this new thing called the World Wide Web.
Fast forward about twenty years and I have just finished revamping not one…not two, but three websites. The first was my personal site, www.jeremylarochelle.com (hint: it’s where you are right now). My focus was to tell my personal brand, which in itself can be a lengthy journey, and track my thoughts in a number of areas I am passionate about.
The second was a tandem-effort with a Google social media expert to revamp my employer’s, Mike Moloney Entertainment’s website www.mmec.com. Our goal was to streamline our procurement funnel, focus on our strongest product offerings…entertainment for cruises and casinos, and to tell our brand story in a simple way.
Finally, I revamped my online drumming t-shirt brand, Spirit and Groove www.spiritandgroove.com. I am working on a more in-depth post outlining this move, but let’s say. The goal of this overhaul was to tell our brand story and increase conversions from the vast amount of traffic we have developed thanks to our social procurement funnel.
I am finding web design to be an exceptional way to tell a brand’s story, connect with consumers, and to fill any marketing funnel regardless of product type. During my years working in-print, it would have cost thousands of dollars and just as many hours of time to reach a fraction of the people we reach online and through social media. However, the really cool thing about web design is its organic nature. Just like an old-school painter, I can throw down a brush stroke. Step back, take a look, and make adjustments. It let’s my creative mind constantly adapt to what is happening around me.
Let me know what you think about the revamp of these three brands and stay tuned for more updates!
As I write this blog post, I am preparing for the first press release to hit the wire for my drummer t-shirt company, Spirit and Groove .
I chose to add a PR marketing channel to my online business to achieve a couple of marketing objectives, but before I hand those out. I wanted to explain why I chose to add this channel to my marketing mix.
First, understand that I always think “big-picture.” If I am going to do something, I am going for it. As for Spirit and Groove, my ultimate idea is a clothing brand, not just a drummer tee shirt company. This dictates that my planning always be long-term and to properly build a brand. I must tell everyone what the heck groove is all about and why I am placing so much faith in one word.
“The goal of our first Groovy Press Release is let everyone “step into” the mindset of our brand. You shouldn’t be afraid if you are not a drummer, because as you will learn. The beat is beyond any other instrument. It mimics the heartbeat and as such it was our species first language. We celebrate with it, we have worked in unison to it, and we have followed it into battles. We are all connected by the drum. It doesn’t matter if you play it, move to it, or feel it in your soul. We are all part of the groove.”
Second, we are building a community and that requires a very strong social presence. To achieve this organic build, we need solid backlinks to increase our credibility and reach. In addition, strong backlinks will provide increased “Opportunities to See” at a lower cost through higher Search Rankings. PR can be a cost-effective way to achieve worthwhile backlinks that Google will respect and hopefully bump us up the search ladder.
Finally, I was a newsman and enjoy writing. So why not write about something I am passionate of… the groove.
Click here to read Spirit and Groove Drum Tees first Groovy Press Release.
