In 1998, after spending a weekend playing games with some friends Richard Tate, a rising star at Microsoft at the time, decided that there was a gap in the market for a board game that used multiple skills. He was so confident of the opportunity he quit his job and convinced his coworker, Whit Alexander, to join him. Instead of focusing on a general market need the two founders decided to design their game around a “moment,” specifically the moment when players “appear smart and funny in front of family and friends.” Together they designed a novel board game called Cranium – billed as “The Game for Your Whole Brain.” Initial feedback from friends and family was so strong they decided to place an order for 27,000 units from China. However, with the order delivery date looming the team failed to get their product into the American International Toy Fair and hadn’t managed to sign up a single toy retailer.
机 jī opportunity
While drowning their sorrows in cups of Starbucks the team wondered why they needed traditional toy retailers at all, it struck them that other channels might make more sense, not least Starbucks. After some persuasion the coffee chain stocked Cranium, the first time they had ever sold such a product and it was an immediate success. The game went on to be the first board game sold by many other retailers too, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Cranium then developed a series of other products, making sure that they stayed true to their brand by remembering the acronym CHIFF (clever, high quality, innovative, friendly, and fun) as their guiding principle. By developing great new products and selling them through new retail channels the company has sold over 22 million games – making it the third largest games company in the world. Whit and Richard sold out to Hasbro in 2008 for $75m…
How About…
- Optimising products or services around an important “moment”?
- Distilling your brand down to its DNA to help choose brand extensions wisely (acronym optional)?
- Questioning traditional channels, instead asking yourself where your target customers tend to congregate?
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