Intro
So, you’ve got your product idea and you know what it’s for. You think it’s going to be a hit and make you lots of money. But, the problem is that nobody knows what the product is for. It’s like asking a first-time parent who they are buying a present for. And if they don’t know what they want, how can they buy it?
So where should you start marketing? That depends on your product, and if your product is like Too Faced products in that it solves a need that nobody else has answered, then starting with Facebook could be the best option. Facebook will make sure you get discovered by those who come to your website or through some other means of advertising. This could take anywhere from days (months) to years (decades).
If your product solves a need that nobody else has answered (or if you are building a new category), then Twitter may be another good place to start marketing because people will hear about your product via their friends and acquaintances there first before any news or ads come from elsewhere; but even then, that might not be enough to make people buy from you.
What is too faced eyeliner?
In real life, the look is too faced. Look too faced and people will tell you to get a real face. In a social network, the look is too faced and people will tell you to change your avatar.
What do these two things have in common? They both require an external force to establish that look as part of your identity (and thus “face”). In both cases, the nature of this external force is that it is not in your control (as you are not even aware of its existence until it asserts itself). In both cases, what makes them “too faced” is that they say there should be more than one way to do something — some are better than others, and some are not better at all — and so imply that there should be more than one way for each specific person to express themselves.
In the case of too faced eyeliner sketch, what we need is an extra line or two on someone’s face in order for them to appear as if they have made some honest effort. That extra line would make them more distinctive from other faces on the same platform. And while they may not be able to say exactly what they lack, we can still guess what they lack: their face doesn’t show enough emotion and/or their expression isn’t enough expressive; hence why it looks too much like a computer-generated cartoon character.
In the case of Slack spaces, our goal is slightly different: we want someone else to do the work for us and do so effectively; however, we still want them to appear as if they have tried their best. The extra line or two provides us with a way of making sure that when other people see us using Slack spaces, we actually use them well (the way you would use an email client). It also prevents anyone who wants to take advantage of our platform from hiding behind fake names or misusing our brand name.
The Benefits of using too faced eyeliner
Too faced eyeliner is an eyeglass company that uses a simple product to sell an expensive one, usually through an online marketplace.
The problem with this kind of business model is that it only makes sense if the competitor’s product is at least similar enough to the one you want to sell that you can reasonably expect your customer base to use it as well. But most of them are not.
The fact that many products in this category are simply not worth their price leads to a vicious cycle: selling expensive glasses for people who aren’t likely to wear them, and people who don’t know how to use them because they don’t see any reason why they should. That’s both bad for business and customers as well, since in addition to the initial acquisition costs (to get people out of their existing glasses) it also puts pressure on your sales team and on your customer service team (since they have to find products whose customers will actually buy instead of just having the same ones all over the store).
On top of that, by making a product at a premium price you raise the price you charge for it later down the road, which can be quite damaging if you decide later on that you want to lower it again (and have no money left over) as part of a turnaround plan.
So what do we do? By changing too faced’s product-market fit from overlap with existing glasses ends up being much closer than its competition (which is good) there are four main things we can try: 1. Focus on building in 2D drawings or 2D modeling capabilities 2. Move away from online marketplaces 3. Move towards physical stores 4. Try something new The first step is getting away from online marketplaces or e-commerce sites altogether since those are difficult enough as it is and most importantly:
They don’t let your customers pay over $100 when they aren’t even buying anything!
The second step would be eliminating online marketplaces entirely; however, finding physical stores where your customers could actually buy and use your eyeglasses would be much harder than finding an e-commerce site that lets someone pay $300 without ever having touched anything — so I suppose it’s best thought of as a stepping stone between these two extremes… In any case, my recommendation would be avoiding these platforms altogether unless absolutely necessary (e-commerce sites have proven themselves time and time again). Moving away from e-commerce sites
How to choose the right color for you
Here’s a quick thing to remember when choosing the right color for you:
Think of the color like a filter, and you filter out a lot of the world.
For example, if I am wearing black eyeliner and I want to go back to wearing my red lipstick, I might go with something lighter-toned (e.g., eye shadow or blush) to bring back some of the redness. If there was no red lipstick in my makeup bag, I might choose something blue-based (e.g., purple or blue-green).
The same is true for your hair: if it is blonde, you’re going to be more likely to choose a lighter shade of blonde; if it is brown, you’re going to be more likely to choose something darker.
Hair color doesn’t mean that much except that it is somewhere between light blonde and dark brown — so even though the same color will look slightly different on different people, there is a general consensus about what will make people look their best. It is much easier for me to pick out which color suits my skin tone than trying on neutral colors like white or gray; but someone who wears black eyeliner may have trouble reading what color suit my skin tone should be because there are so many shades…
Making a Decision
It is hard enough to make a decision in the absence of information. For example, we might ask ourselves: ‘How would I feel if someone told me that I could get this product for free?’ While the answer may be easy to come up with, it is not easy to articulate. And then there are the emotions that come with it: fear, excitement, worry, frustration; the list goes on and on.
But when we can communicate our decision through a sketch (or even just an idea), it becomes much easier to make that choice.
This process is something I find useful when I’m deciding between two products: listening to customers who have used both and what they say about them; and conducting a customer survey of my own (unfortunately only done recently).
The sketch helps me articulate why I think one product over another; and it also helps me explain why an existing customer wouldn’t choose one over the other (without having to explain the reasoning behind that conclusion).
Conclusion
You’ve come to the right place. This is the first of a series of posts in this series on the topic of “how to build a startup”, and I hope you enjoy it. This second post was inspired by this discussion thread on Hacker News, which is well worth following if you are interested in learning more.
Hope you enjoyed it.