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Thanks for all of this! - Glaring Issues: You're totally right. I need to build a landing page for that link. I had originally hoped to create an enticing link

Thanks for all of this! - Glaring Issues: You're totally right. I need to build a landing page for that link. I had originally hoped to create an enticing link to get people into the shop, but I'm realizing it just seems misleading. It had been on my to-do list, and I clearly should've finished that before posting. -General Sales Feel: This is actually a bit of a problem. Quantifying the characteristic benefits of hand-forged knives, made by people doing it their entire lives, is close to impossible. Any knife is capable of taking a sharp edge and cutting things. How long it holds an edge, how well it performs when cutting food, how it feels, I don't know how to equate these to reasonable metrics. I could give a 1-10 personal rating based on my perception of each knife, but would that make sense? Or help? I had heard about the "brands to avoid" issue from another poster, and I totally agree with you. I'll be working on changing that tonight. All I meant to say, especially regarding a company like Wusthof, is that price/value ratio is not right. You can get a better knife than a Wusthof for the money. Wusthof still makes some worthwhile knives if they fit your style, but they also produce an incredible amount of not worthwhile knives, at slightly lower prices, in an effort to capitalize their trusted brand name. Again, my apologies for any offense I've caused. If a person loves any knife they have, then it's a good knife. You're also right that it's an information overload. I feel that it's my responsibility to educate where I can; I'm not just in this to make money. It doesn't seem fair to sell knives like these without offering people a local way to learn the elementary concepts of these knives. What would you suggest I do otherwise? Should I keep these articles but produce simpler and abbreviated ones that could link to the full articles? Where would you want to see this information? -Selling High-End Stuff: That's a good point. Ultimately, I want make my shop accessable to chefs and the industry. Yet, it will be essential to orient myself towards the home enthusiast, be it the collector or home cook. I believe that the majority of my sales will go to home users. Yet, some of the posters have called out the hand-made, pedigree, and tradition aspects of my content as bullshit-y. I think that both sides are important, but I still haven't found my balance of fully expressing both. Is there product copy that you think works particularly well, or poorly? That video of John Neeman, god damn. So picturesque. Process videos, use videos in fine-dining restaurants, etc. are on my list. I won't be able to get back to Japan this year, so it'll be a while. I'm working with some American makers, so I may approach this idea with them. That's one hell of a video. Are there any videos that you would've liked to see on my site? Thanks again!

bradleyland 11y ago
I can tell you right now that you will find a way to tackle all these problems. I know this because of the way you respond to criticisms of your work. There's not a single hint of defensiveness in your response. Kudos to you for seeking solutions, not defending mistakes! - On quantifying the benefits This goes back to that fundamental challenge of deciding how you want to sell. IMO — and this is just me — trying to quantify aspects like feel is a fool's errand. Feel is experience; communicate experience. How do you do that? I would focus on producing materials that appeal to the senses. Photos and video, primarily. Find ways to communicate the experience of using your product. Create visual associates with environments and traditions that your target buyer will identify with. - On competitors I like that you've recognized the problems with that copy. I would make an effort to acknowledge that your product is different than what these other companies produce. You want to create the feeling that there's something better out there, but you don't want to insult the buyer's historical judgement. Focus on creating confidence, even when talking about competitors. > If a person loves any knife they have, then it's a good knife. You have to find a way to work this statement in to your copy. It is a garage door sized gateway to selling against your competitor's weaknesses. Your knives are designed to be experience; to be loved. - On education I'd break all this stuff up. 1) Knives 101 should not start with any content dedicated to knocking competitors. I would move that copy to a separate document titled something like "What's different about these knives?" Then speak to the differences. Use language that speaks positively about your knives, but avoids explicit negative statements about competitors. Speak to the absence of the positive attributes your knives possess in your competitors' products. 2) When authoring your site's education materials, start from an outline and drill down in to details. As the details emerge, a structure should appear. You'll find lots of "one of these things is not like the other" moments. The content will naturally organize itself. 3) Don't overdo the education portion on your marketing site. Maybe you need a separate resource for education. I've been fortunate to work with some really incredible marketers, and any time I insisted that I needed to educate someone, I got shut down. Hard. I know it's a passion, but you may need to break it out in order for your marketing site to be effective. - On markets Maybe selling to chefs and home buyers is similar, but they strike me as very different. I would imagine that a chef is going to have a much greater depth of knowledge and feel for what they want. A chef will probably want to shop by steel type, because they will already be familiar with at least some of the types. Your ability to execute on both through a single site will stretch the limits of simplicity. My business is business procurement. Care to venture what the the sell through rate would be if we sent a consumer through our business procurement process in order to buy something? I'm not sure if negative sell through rates are possible, but we'd give it a good run! Likewise with professionals (chefs) vs home buyers. I would expect that the pro is going to come to the table with far more knowledge than a home buyer. They're not going to be compelled by an authenticity play. This is a tool for them. They're likely to know what they want and will value the ability to quickly find what they're looking for at a good price. You'll know whether I'm overstating the difference. You should make that judgement call though. - On pedigree and tradition Anyone who finds the pedigree and tradition elements of your product bullshit-y is not your buyer. They might speak loudly, but they're irrelevant. Based on the feel of your site, I'm guessing that you don't care to be Walmart or Target. The people who don't give a shit about pedigree and tradition are going to buy a knife at a retailer. They'll never value the qualitative aspects of your product, so you should discard their detractions. - On videos I think you're headed the right direction. I don't have any specific recommendations for you, unfortunately. The "Man at Arms" katana video is the most relevant thing I've seen to traditional Japanese forging techniques, but it's not at all appropriate for your site. Too bad the "The Birth Of A Tool" video isn't traditional Japanese. That's exactly the kind of video I would shoot for when selling to consumers. I think your overall idea and product selection is really spectacular. One of my brother-in-law's went to Le Cordon Bleu and is building a career in fine dining, so I have some exposure to his knife obsession :) If you'd like to keep in touch, feel free to email me. My domain is bradlanders.com, and my email is [my first name] @ bradlanders.com.

bradleyland 11y ago

I can tell you right now that you will find a way to tackle all these problems. I know this because of the way you respond to criticisms of your work. There's not a single hint of defensiveness in your response. Kudos to you for seeking solutions, not defending mistakes! - On quantifying the benefits This goes back to that fundamental challenge of deciding how you want to sell. IMO — and this is just me — trying to quantify aspects like feel is a fool's errand. Feel is experience; communicate experience. How do you do that? I would focus on producing materials that appeal to the senses. Photos and video, primarily. Find ways to communicate the experience of using your product. Create visual associates with environments and traditions that your target buyer will identify with. - On competitors I like that you've recognized the problems with that copy. I would make an effort to acknowledge that your product is different than what these other companies produce. You want to create the feeling that there's something better out there, but you don't want to insult the buyer's historical judgement. Focus on creating confidence, even when talking about competitors. > If a person loves any knife they have, then it's a good knife. You have to find a way to work this statement in to your copy. It is a garage door sized gateway to selling against your competitor's weaknesses. Your knives are designed to be experience; to be loved. - On education I'd break all this stuff up. 1) Knives 101 should not start with any content dedicated to knocking competitors. I would move that copy to a separate document titled something like "What's different about these knives?" Then speak to the differences. Use language that speaks positively about your knives, but avoids explicit negative statements about competitors. Speak to the absence of the positive attributes your knives possess in your competitors' products. 2) When authoring your site's education materials, start from an outline and drill down in to details. As the details emerge, a structure should appear. You'll find lots of "one of these things is not like the other" moments. The content will naturally organize itself. 3) Don't overdo the education portion on your marketing site. Maybe you need a separate resource for education. I've been fortunate to work with some really incredible marketers, and any time I insisted that I needed to educate someone, I got shut down. Hard. I know it's a passion, but you may need to break it out in order for your marketing site to be effective. - On markets Maybe selling to chefs and home buyers is similar, but they strike me as very different. I would imagine that a chef is going to have a much greater depth of knowledge and feel for what they want. A chef will probably want to shop by steel type, because they will already be familiar with at least some of the types. Your ability to execute on both through a single site will stretch the limits of simplicity. My business is business procurement. Care to venture what the the sell through rate would be if we sent a consumer through our business procurement process in order to buy something? I'm not sure if negative sell through rates are possible, but we'd give it a good run! Likewise with professionals (chefs) vs home buyers. I would expect that the pro is going to come to the table with far more knowledge than a home buyer. They're not going to be compelled by an authenticity play. This is a tool for them. They're likely to know what they want and will value the ability to quickly find what they're looking for at a good price. You'll know whether I'm overstating the difference. You should make that judgement call though. - On pedigree and tradition Anyone who finds the pedigree and tradition elements of your product bullshit-y is not your buyer. They might speak loudly, but they're irrelevant. Based on the feel of your site, I'm guessing that you don't care to be Walmart or Target. The people who don't give a shit about pedigree and tradition are going to buy a knife at a retailer. They'll never value the qualitative aspects of your product, so you should discard their detractions. - On videos I think you're headed the right direction. I don't have any specific recommendations for you, unfortunately. The "Man at Arms" katana video is the most relevant thing I've seen to traditional Japanese forging techniques, but it's not at all appropriate for your site. Too bad the "The Birth Of A Tool" video isn't traditional Japanese. That's exactly the kind of video I would shoot for when selling to consumers. I think your overall idea and product selection is really spectacular. One of my brother-in-law's went to Le Cordon Bleu and is building a career in fine dining, so I have some exposure to his knife obsession :) If you'd like to keep in touch, feel free to email me. My domain is bradlanders.com, and my email is [my first name] @ bradlanders.com.