Number
Pantone makes $100M+/yr selling a color booklet
Shaan breaks down Pantone, which standardized ~2,500 colors into a numbered matching system used by manufacturers, fashion houses, and even Ben & Jerry's QA on brownie color. They make over $100M/year selling booklets that run $85 to $500, launching ~100 new colors a year to force re-buys.
$100M
Annual revenue · USD/year
“It's like 2,500 colors. They make over $100 million a year just sending out this little brochure, this little pamphlet, this little booklet with all the colors in it. And everybody buys these things.”
Prediction
Miss
Private equity will roll up Instagram food brands as the next Ben & Jerry's
Shaan predicts PE firms will buy up cloud bakery brands like Ali's Banana Bread and 1-900 Ice Cream, scale them with advertising, and push them into retail — the way a meme-account company sold for ~$100M. He says he'd cut each of the four brands discussed a $25K check today.
“You're going to see a bunch of private equity companies coming in and they're going to buy up, you know, Ali's Banana Bread. They're going to buy up One-Nine-Hundred Ice Cream because they're going to be like, Dude, this is the next Ben Jerry's. And we're gonna take this thing, we're gonna put it on steroids, we're gonna advertise the fuck out of it, and then we're gonna get it into retail stores on top of what it's already doing.”
Framework
Ben & Jerry's vs. Amazon: which kind of company are you building?
Sam relays Joel Spolsky's framework: decide if you're in the 'Amazon' camp (winner-take-all, get big fast, lots of capital, strong network effects) or the 'Ben & Jerry's' camp (crowded market, weak lock-in, little capital, break even quickly). The choice dictates every other decision.
“You have to decide, are you in the Ben Jerry's model or the Amazon model? And the Ben Jerry's model is basically— or the Amazon model is basically you have to get big fast because you're using some type of new competition or new technology where there's very little competition at first and the winner takes all type of market.”
Steal thisBefore building, decide if your market is winner-take-all (go big fast) or fragmented (stay lean and profitable).
Tactic
"What's the Doughboy Afraid Of?" — attack instead of playing victim
Rather than positioning as victims, Ben & Jerry's launched a curiosity-driven counterattack campaign showing the Pillsbury Doughboy's hands strangling a pint, captioned "What's the Doughboy afraid of?"
“They didn't— they didn't say, "Oh, we got, you know, we're the victim," right? Right away they said, "What's the Doughboy afraid of?" And so you kind of— it's attacking Pillsbury. It gets curiosity. What— what are they talking about? What's going on here? And this turned into their rally cry.”
Steal thisFrame a fight as a curious question that attacks the bully, not a complaint that you're the victim.
Tactic
"What's the Doughboy Afraid Of?" — attack instead of playing victim
Rather than positioning as victims, Ben & Jerry's launched a curiosity-driven counterattack campaign showing the Pillsbury Doughboy's hands strangling a pint, captioned "What's the Doughboy afraid of?"
“They didn't— they didn't say, "Oh, we got, you know, we're the victim," right? Right away they said, "What's the Doughboy afraid of?" And so you kind of— it's attacking Pillsbury. It gets curiosity. What— what are they talking about? What's going on here? And this turned into their rally cry.”
Steal thisFrame a fight as a curious question that attacks the bully, not a complaint that you're the victim.
Tactic
"What's the Doughboy Afraid Of?" — attack instead of playing victim
Rather than positioning as victims, Ben & Jerry's launched a curiosity-driven counterattack campaign showing the Pillsbury Doughboy's hands strangling a pint, captioned "What's the Doughboy afraid of?"
“They didn't— they didn't say, "Oh, we got, you know, we're the victim," right? Right away they said, "What's the Doughboy afraid of?" And so you kind of— it's attacking Pillsbury. It gets curiosity. What— what are they talking about? What's going on here? And this turned into their rally cry.”
Steal thisFrame a fight as a curious question that attacks the bully, not a complaint that you're the victim.
Tactic
"What's the Doughboy Afraid Of?" — attack instead of playing victim
Rather than positioning as victims, Ben & Jerry's launched a curiosity-driven counterattack campaign showing the Pillsbury Doughboy's hands strangling a pint, captioned "What's the Doughboy afraid of?"
“They didn't— they didn't say, "Oh, we got, you know, we're the victim," right? Right away they said, "What's the Doughboy afraid of?" And so you kind of— it's attacking Pillsbury. It gets curiosity. What— what are they talking about? What's going on here? And this turned into their rally cry.”
Steal thisFrame a fight as a curious question that attacks the bully, not a complaint that you're the victim.