Overview
Fun and functional lifestyle objects are the mantra for this upstart product development company trying to reinvent an old industry with new style.
Fun, functional, ergonomic “lifestyle objects”
Amidst the salty air of the Northern Atlantic coastal waters, and hidden near the historical nautical area of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Vu Points, Inc. sits nestled among the tall, ancient trees in a place known as Prides Crossing. This small and pristine area might be the last place someone would look for an aggressive guerrilla marketing expert who is trying to redefine an industry and explode onto the scene of venues such at the ESPN Extreme Games and the Lollapalooza Alternative Music Tour. Out of his corporate headquarters in this quaint little town Matt Esecson the founder and directing force of VU Points is looking to capitalize on the three years of his life he has spent forming and shaping the establishment of his product development and marketing organization by successfully marketing his company’s first product called the VU Points Performance Binoculars.
Vu Points is described as a company dedicated to the design and manufacture of fun, functional, ergonomic “lifestyle objects”. The first product VU Points is producing and marketing is the VU Points Performance Binoculars that are presented as “the opera glasses of the 90’s”. The VU Points binoculars are much more than your father’s old and crusty black-cased, two hundred pound military issue model. These binoculars have bright and bold coloring, an ergonomically friendly design, are easy to use, and are meant to be used towards one of today’s most popular activities of the human race which is people watching. “Just like it says on the packaging, we want people to use them to gawk, ogle and stare and make it a product that will be used for watching concerts, sports event, and any other people watching activities.” It is this vision of exciting and fun product types coupled with a strategy of “hot branding” that will embody what VU Points desires to be, “Our challenge is to create a company whose message, mission, delivery apparatus, and products are sharply focused on what VU Points is calling trend-setting ‘ActiveStylers’ consumers. ActiveStylers are defined as the generation of consumers that possesses new expectations and nontraditional purchasing patterns.”
VU Points did not start out as an idea to build a company or a brand identity, but more to develop the initial binocular concept. “I didn’t start out thinking lets make a brand then come up with a product to fold into that. As soon as the idea for the binocular product came up that was MTV Sports personified, and the steps for filling that need were conceived, then the decision for how to structure it was to fit it underneath the brand. All decisions are based on that.” Now the goal is focused on making the whole business a brand more than a particular product. “The idea is that this brand will become recognized for presenting products that fit the need for fun, functional ergonomic lifestyle objects. The binoculars are the first product, VU Points is more of an idea for a company than a product.”
According to Matt VU Points came as an idea literally on a cocktail napkin and the business bloomed out of that. Over a weekend he developed his first version of his business plan which was five pages long, and has since grown to over forty-five pages which he is currently shopping around to venture capitalists and investors. From a simple clay model to some of the most modern and complex consumer product manufacturing techniques utilized today, the Performance Binoculars have evolved into the first, and make or break product that Matt hopes will be in a long line of products that will all share the brand identity he has developed for VU Points.
About the Founder – Matt Esecson
Matt’s experience lies in marketing and sales as prior to his VU Points venture he spent twelve years as a manufacturer’s representative for consumer products in the New England area. The types of products Matt sold ranged from backpacks, to ironing boards, to Hefty trash bags. The size of manufacturers his organization represented ranged from the likes of Mobil to small specialty organizations making only one product. The organization’s territory was in the six New England states and it was run by Matt and two partners employing eleven sales people in the field. Sales reached the levels of $65 MM per year during the healthy economic times of the 1980’s. This experience proved to offer more than just profitability as a benefit for this evolving entrepreneur. This business Matt had built with his partners gave him valuable experience in sales and retail merchandising which is the foundation for his VU Points business, “The best part about selling is getting a no. Every time you hear no, you get that much closer to a yes. For this business of sales it is vital to learn how to handle rejection so when you get slammed against the wall and you hear no, no, no…it’s all right. It’s out there somewhere, you just keep going.”
His success in this business proved not to be reason enough for him to pursue this lifestyle for the rest of his professional career. A changing business environment and diminishing satisfaction in this type of work steered Matt away from the organization he had successfully built, and towards seeking a new venture which ultimately turned out to be VU Points, “I did the manufacturer’s rep. business for a while and didn’t like it anymore. The retail picture changed due to the recession and a dramatically changing retail environment. I could still have made a good living but it wasn’t satisfying anymore.” It wasn’t an immediate departure from this venture as Matt had built an entity that had the livelihood of other individuals dependent on its operations, so he gradually eased out of the business to ensure it was going to be handled correctly after he left and maintain its integrity, “I separated from the partnership over 2 1/2 years to ensure everyone was happy. I separated from the partnership and sold the intangible contracts for the product lines I came in with back to the partnership.”
It was concurrent to these events that Matt was seeking his next business opportunity, and when the proverbial “2X4” hit him on the head for his VU Points venture, “During that time I was working with business brokers to see what was available in this area of the country so I could maintain earning a living and keep my family in the Northeast where they wanted to live.” Buying someone else’s dream as Matt called it did not work out and fortunately for him the idea for VU Points came to light which filled the need he had for finding a new business to make his own. His role in the VU Points venture is that of the company’s direction, leader, idea person, and the implementor of all the functional facets of the business. Admittedly he knows there are aspects of the business that he is better suited for than others, but that does not stop him from facing all of his responsibilities and striving to achieve the best level of effort he can offer, “In a start-up situation such as this, you have to do them all and be capable with all of them. There certainly are better people out there that can do certain things more efficiently than me, and that’s part of the business which is to bring people like that in to build a strong management team. The objective with the whole thing is to build a company.”
VU Points Performance Binoculars – Product Concept
“The inspiration for the Vu Points binoculars was literally a cocktail napkin idea that happened one happy hour between rounds of Margaritas. I was sitting in the bar in the middle of the floor four tables away from the window when I noticed a table next to the window had opened up. There was a mad dash of people trying to get this table including people who already had a table but wanted to move to be next to the window. I thought to myself ‘They all wanted that table to people watch.’ Then I thought further that this is a great example of people watching being the world’s most popular sport.” After formulating this original idea, further consideration led Matt to think that at best the people at the window would not be able to see anything beyond twenty feet with good clarity. “I then said what about a pair of binoculars to help people watch people. And what if they were like Swatch Watches and were really cool? What if they were like the attitude and lifestyle that is seen on MTV Sports?!” Two days later Matt had taken his laptop computer and wrote his five page concept which became the foundation behind what VU Points is today.
The idea was for a fun, functional Swatch type of binocular that would be driven by breaching accepted distribution channels, appearance and branding. From the start the idea was to take the concept of binoculars from what Matt had determined was a stagnant, non-dynamic industry and turn it completely upside down to give it a whole new look and conceive completely new uses and markets for the product to be placed in, “The key part was to challenge the traditional method of distribution. A product is associated with where you find it. It would be perceived differently if it were seen in Audobon Magazine than in Rolling Stone or Wired.” VU Points is also seeking to define who they are by events such as Lollapalooza and the Extreme Games, and then the retailers they will roll into and the packaging that will be utilized. Proposed retailers that would be non-traditional outlets for individuals looking for the Performance Binoculars would be the likes of Tower Records, Urban Outfitters, Nike World, and specialty sporting goods stores such as bike stores and surf shops.
The branding strategy would be to link the product with “passion branding” and “cause branding” to associate the product with things that people are passionate about. Cause branding can be defined from the visionary marketing book The Popcorn Report by Faith Popcorn which Matt considers the bible for his organization. Cause Branding – where each purchase expresses a point of view about the environment, social issues, even political candidates. Included in the cost of goods to the marketer is money that goes to support an admirable cause. “We believe cause-related marketing is not simply a gimmick to make companies feel good about themselves, but rather a cultural requirement that all companies should support.”