Making Room in a New Category
Tinker & Hack Case Study
Tinker & Hack is a retail and e-commerce store specializing in alternatives to home electronic products to help the consumer save money on monthly household bills, like cable, Internet and phone. The products they sell include media streaming devices, HD antennas and installation and Internet services. Their goal is to teach customers about cost effective solutions that are much more affordable than the other major service providers, Rogers and Bell.
Creating a Brand and Offering Value to Customers
Tinker & Hack, like the name suggests, offers D.I.Y. solutions for any person who is looking to save money on cable and phone services. For example, HD Antennas offer free local channels for life and media streaming devices will give you content for free.
Also, with the emerging of D.I.Y. technology for the youth and for the average consumer, there was a market to also sell mini computer boards and accessories, products like Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Competitive Landscape
Creating a brand for Tinker & Hack required thorough research to understand the positioning of competitors from electronic stores to online e-commerce. Future Shop, Tiger Direct and RadioShack had closed their doors in the past year (2015) and smaller “mom & pop” electronic stores mostly served the local community. Tinker & Hack is very niche, only specializing in free TV solutions and anything closely related to help leverage the category, ie. TV stands, TV mounts, HD antenna installation, etc.
Based on their central location in the city and close to major highways, Tinker & Hack wanted to be so well versed in HD antennas and media streaming devices, to the point where customers throughout the Greater Toronto Area and outside would come to Tinker & Hack to inquire about their products and purchase it; and that is what happened.
First level:
Major big box store competitors, some of which have closed.
Second level:
Multiple location or single location competitors offering products and brands on par with the major big box store but at competitive prices.
Third level:
Discounted electronics stores offering a variety of small and large brands
Forth level:
Liquidated warehouse and stores, offering a little more than just electronics
Fifth level:
Strictly online stores or store comparison shopping with a large inventory with product reviews and ratings.
Building a Brick & Mortar and E-commerce Store
An entire brand program was created for Tinker & Hack from logo brand design, store design, graphic elements, web design using Shopify, P.O.P. signage, magazine and direct mail. The retail store was designed under a strict budget and with the eco-friendly lifestyle that the owners were known for, the interior design mostly used wooden crates and large spools that were refurbished into furniture and store displays. Within the first six months of opening, Tinker & Hack had 4700 orders.
A small trade show was managed at the local annual Vietnamese New Year’s Festival to help increase brand awareness of their main product iTV Viet and other services that Tinker & Hack offered.
Challenge
- Build a brand from the ground up
- Create a demand in television entertainment electronics and persuade customers to cut their cable and switch Internet providers.
- Convince customers HD antennas and media streaming devices are technology that are being used now
- Convince customers that we offer currently the best provisioned media streaming devices on the market
Strategy Plan
- Educate customers that come in the store and online about media streaming devices and other alternatives
- Advertise in the neighbourhood using direct mail
- Use free online advertising to compete with small retailers
- Strategically advertise specific products on shopping comparison sites to compete with price
- Advertise specific products during different peak seasons
- Create foot traffic to help build the brand locally and gain trust from audience
Results
- 4,700 orders after 6 months
- 80% increase in store traffic during holiday season (December & January 2014/2015)
- 30% of foot traffic were people passing by and saw the sign and thought the name was “unique”
- Increase in inquiring about media streaming devices
- Over 40% of new customers were through word-of-mouth or recommendations
- 35% of customers who bought, had a repeat purchase.
- Convince more than 55% of customers to switch Internet providers to one of our third-party providers (first year of business)
- Excellent customer feedback on Google+, Yellow Pages, Yelp
- Under 1% return rate on product sales
- Tinker & Hack® is now a registered trade mark in Canada and is owned by Stokhaus Limited
