Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / GEMS: The Power of Savvy Organic Marketing with Kaylin Marcotte from Jiggy Puzzles

Transcript

GEMS: The Power of Savvy Organic Marketing with Kaylin Marcotte from Jiggy Puzzles · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:08
  Let's rewind to early 2020, pandemics hit. You're like in the early days. What was going on? Oh my gosh. It was wild. Yeah. Wild time. So, you know, I had been thinking about this idea for years at that point. And so finally left my job and started really working on Jiggy and launched November of 2019. And I'm,
• 0:36
  you know, some of the, some of the trends I was already seeing happen that gave me the conviction to even start around, you know, unplugging, um, from technology and kind of wanting to get away from screen, self-care, mindfulness, and this, this appetite for like analog activities. Those were already happening, but then, you know, add in,
• 0:59
  everybody in the world being stuck at home for a puzzle company, you know, it, it honestly just kind of threw me into this tailspin in some great ways and in some really challenging ways. And it's just been like a sprint really, you know, we're, we're catching our, our breath now, but those next two years.
• 1:21
  were really just kind of a daze. But back to the beginning of 2020, so we launched November 2019 and went right into holiday season. So I knew there would be some seasonality. A lot of people have great fond memories or traditions around puzzling together with their families during the holidays. So that was kind of our first marketing around the holiday season for 2019.
• 1:50
  We had only done one production run to that point. So, you know, we had our vendors, we had our supply chain, but we really only, you know, kind of troubleshot it once. And so... How many units did you have? We had... The initial order was 10,000 units.
• 2:11
  But I split it up. So I, you know, basically part of the negotiation with the factory was that was their minimum, minimum, minimum. They would not like accept my business for less than that. I was like, all right. So what if I pay for like the raw materials of that amount? But I don't, I don't, you know, I'm just starting out. We're going like cold start. I don't think I need that many, you know, in our warehouse. And actually at that point in my living room was where I was shipping from.
• 2:38
  Uh, so, you know, I took delivery on the first, let's say couple thousand. And so I still had an allocation from that initial, you know, run quantity. Um, so as soon as we saw like the writing on the wall and going into the new year, anyway, you know, we did have some marketing plans around, um,
• 2:57
  dry January and an activity to do when you're, when you're sober over the weekend and, you know, Valentine's day, like date night, you know, have a date night in. And so we were already starting to sell through that. So I ordered the next batch and then, you know, that mid March weekend when I was in New York. So, so it was fairly early that it was just full shutdown. You know, everyone at home and we saw immediate, um,
• 3:26
  you know, overnight people looking for activities, you know, like media outlets writing about what to do and puzzles kind of coming to the forefront. So immediately ordered all the rest in and had already gotten out of my living room and had a warehouse that could fulfill much more quickly. But yeah, we immediately went into restocking because did end up selling out of that first full run
• 3:55
  And so, um, I kind of saw, you know, even with, even with placing as quickly as I could, we were going to be sold out for about two months. And so, you know, I'm a six month old company. Yeah. Like I'm so early. I'm, um, I'm a six month old brand and it's like, the demand is now like, I'm, I'm, I'm missing the moment, you know, I'm missing this window of opportunity, um,
• 4:23
  And so we did a couple of things then, which I think people can take some inspiration from. So the first, of course, everyone, you know, was moving to gift cards and like how else you can support these small businesses, even if they are sold out. So we did a fun spin on our gift cards where we made them puzzles. So it was a mini 24 piece, like postcard size puzzle. And so on the back of it was where we wrote the redemption code. So you'd get it in the mail, just in an envelope.
• 4:53
  And then you'd have to put it together, you know, to redeem it once you're back in stock. So that was kind of just an added layer of fun, fun little surprise and delight for people. But then really what I, you know, I was just trying to troubleshoot. Can we store some elsewhere? Can we change the packaging to at least have something available for sale? And so what I was able to get, you know, just off the shelf,
• 5:21
  were blank white puzzles. And so, you know, it's a puzzle, but there's nothing printed on it. And so it was kind of this, you know, necessity is the mother of invention, like aha moment, where I was like, well, my whole thing is I have this community of artists. And so I got these blank white puzzles and I live in New York, don't have a car. So I rented a zip car, you know, fully masked and gloves and everything. And I drove around to our New York
• 5:52
  based artists and dropped off these blank white puzzles and they hand drew and hand painted on them. And, you know, essentially created these one of a kind original pieces of artwork on a puzzle. And so we hosted an auction for them and raised money and it was split between the artists and COVID fundraising efforts for New York City. And so it was really
• 6:15
  special campaign that ended up, you know, getting media coverage and actually being not just a quick temporary fix, but actually a really special moment for the brand. So that was kind of our first six months of COVID was trying to restart quickly, scrambling, you know, doing our original hand-painted campaign and trying to just
• 6:39
  kind of meet the moment, wait lists, gift cards, and stay as relevant as we could while being sold out. It's interesting because I feel like for you, you were really leaning into at that stage, the bootstrapped founder, everything was kind of the word of mouth, like you every day hitting the internet pavement, trying to get your story out there. But actually what's come out of that is how you've kind of
• 7:06
  You've really went for that grassroots approach and that inherently built that word of mouth marketing moment for you, which...
• 7:13
  It seems like such an obvious thing, but I feel like it's actually often forgotten. People shouldn't be turning straight to launching paid media ads or, you know, blowing thousands of dollars to get things happening. You should be organically trying to find these ways to reach your target audience through innovative campaigns and through kind of just getting your story out there, which is exactly what you did.
• 7:39
  Yeah, absolutely. I think for me, it just, especially from my experience at the startup before the skin that I was at before Jiggy, you know, we took a very kind of grassroots and community driven approach as well. And so I think, um, in some ways it's just felt so organic and just much more authentic of a way to build a brand to me, but also, you know, strategically
• 8:02
  I think it's just so much, you know, it's a longer play, but I think it's what actually makes a business defensible, especially if you have a product that can be knocked off and, you know, and, and competitors will pop up. I think, I think ultimately it's what makes you stand out, what gives you, you know, longer legs and gives longevity to the idea and what makes it a more defensive business. So both,
• 8:32
  kind of just from my core, what I had experienced already and what I was comfortable with and felt more authentic. But then also certainly I think it's in the best interest of the brand too. And it is so easy. I think there was certainly a period of time where everything was a DTC Facebook ad machine just
• 8:53
  you know, come up with some products, even drop ship a product from, you know, don't even make it yourself, pump money into ads. And like, there you go, you have, you know, you have your e-commerce business. And I think that model, you know, just kind of ran its course and it is a bit tired. I think consumers do want to know what's behind it. And, you know, if you're really just selling a product, buying ads and paying for acquisition,
• 9:22
  a moment when you're sold out or there, you know, something goes wrong, like there's not that much to fall back on. So I think when you, when you approach it from a bigger, from a why, you know, what is the why behind the brand, then it was, you have, you know, coming up with campaigns, like it was because we had
• 9:46
  this community of artists and this mission around it, like it was, that's what allowed, you know, being able to meet the moment in an authentic way versus, versus I think just, you know, having a product that you push out. Quick win. Exactly.
• 10:07
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 10:32
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 10:54
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.