Stewart Butterfield

We don't sell saddles here: sell the lifestyle, not the product

Shaan summarizes Stewart Butterfield's pre-Slack memo. A saddle company shouldn't sell saddles to existing riders; it should sell the joy of horseback riding so more people want to ride and then need a saddle. Lululemon used the same move by spreading the yoga lifestyle rather than pitching $100 pants.

“the reason he says we don't sell saddles here even though we're a saddle company— is that what we need to do is sell the joy of horseback riding. If we can make people want a horseback ride, we can tell them about how awesome it is to ride horses, how it's fun, how it's great exercise, how it feels great to have the wind blowing in your hair, then they'll want to do it. And when they do it, they'll be like, oh shit, I need a saddle.”

Steal thisIf your category is small, grow the category by selling the lifestyle, then sell your product to the newcomers you created.