Sarah Blakely — Spanx Origin Story
Problems (2)
Manufacturing Access for Unknown Inventors
Inventors without industry connections or large orders cannot get manufacturers to produce samples or prototypes. Manufacturers optimize for high-volume orders and view small inventors as unprofitable distractions.
Give me a way to prove my product concept without needing a $50K minimum order that I can't afford and have no guarantee will sell.
I called and called and no one would take my call and they'd either hang up on me or say they weren't interested so I took a week off of work and drove around in person and just showed up
Product Naming for Non-Marketers
Entrepreneurs without marketing backgrounds struggle to create memorable, legally available product names. They either choose generic descriptive names or accidentally offensive ones, both killing market potential.
Help me create a product name that people remember, can legally trademark, and won't embarrass me when I say it in public.
I knew that Kodak and Coca-Cola were the two most recognized names in the world at the time and I thought what do they have in common
Solutions (1)
Personal Story Selling for New Products
Rather than using traditional sales materials, Blakely sold Spanx by physically demonstrating the before/after effect on her own body in bathroom stalls with potential buyers.
Mechanism: The mechanism works because it eliminates the credibility gap between seller and buyer. When someone demonstrates a product on themselves, it proves three things simultaneously: (1) They actually use ...