A Pitch For The Pits

A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to be asked to help work on a new business pitch for Speed Stick. Yeah, I know, deodorant (or Under-Arm Protection as they call it in the industry) isn’t the most exciting thing in the world. But what is cool is thinking about things that you could do to change the category. Even though we won the pitch, I realized that one of the best ideas was actually cut from the presentation.

The Insight:
I never remember to buy deodorant. I have no idea how often I use it. I never pre-buy that stuff. I just get it every time I run out. The crappy thing is that it’s such a pain in the ass to go to Shopper’s and pick it up. There are so much better things that I would rather do. Like hang out with my buddies and watch the Canucks.

The Idea:
A subscription service for deodorant. You sign up online and it gets mailed to you every 3 months. Auto billed to your credit card. No additional fee for it to be mailed to you. I don’t have to remember to go to shoppers. Speed Stick has a happy customer locked in to their brand.

They could even throw in a quarterly magazine as a value-add. Or maybe a pair of socks. Everyone can use a new pair of socks.

Validation? I just read an article this morning on Seth’s blog. Here’s what he had to say:

“Few businesses can successfully sell subscriptions (magazines being the very best example), but when you can, the whole world changes. HBO, for example, is able to spend its money making shows for its viewers rather than working to find viewers for every show.”

Hey, if he’s down with this subscription idea, it can’t be all bad.

- Christian