Posted by: Troy White
December 5, 2008
Issue #561

Frank talk about Selling Lobsters
By The Boatload
Part 3

Fellow Business-Builders,

Thanks for all the great comments on the last 2 articles! If you haven’t read them yet, please visit them here and here.

The lobster story is the perfect case study … one that any business can find practical ideas in, that they can use in their own business.

Sometimes the ideas are easy to spot … other times not so easy.

The key point is … they are in a traditional type business that usually competes on price. Most commodity businesses fall into the trap and complain to no end that they cannot make a decent living.

These 2 young guys say “screw tradition! Lets do it our own way …” and the rest is history.

If you haven’t looked at their site yet – why not?

These guys are doing multiple millions a year now (and they just got started).

They are ramping up the marketing and the payoff has been huge.

Look at the media outlets who have interviewed them:

• CBS News
• MSNBC
• NPR
• Incentive
• ManageSmarter
• MaineBiz
• DownEast
• Fortune
• Gourmet
• USA Today
• Luxist
• CNN Money
• Urban Daddy
• Monterey Bay
• New York Post

 …and countless other publications!

Here is their site again: www.catchapieceofmaine.com (what a perfect gift for the right person).

Why is this important?

Hopefully you see the potential with this marketing strategy they have used?

Every single business in existence can use one or many of their ideas in their own business … and see similar results.

What they did differently is take MASSIVE ACTION.

Some of the strategies that they use:

• Selling at a premium … but selling premium products to premium buyers (rather than trying to upsell low end buyers to high end products)
• The use of stories. As you can see, they have found one of the real secrets to success in their business is story telling. In their case, it is the lobstermen that tell the story … via dvd and blogging. The lobster men are paid to do it. They love it because they are mini-celebrities and people treat them as such. The owners love the video because, not only is it easy to do, their customers are loving it! So is the media.
• High end bundles that are only available to people who understand the true value in the bundles … the story they can tell their friends. Truly affluent people love to have unique things they can share with their friends, and there isn’t much more original than your own lobsterman catching your dinner and sending a video of him actually catching it!
• Since my interview with them, they have now introduced a number of new bundles. They now have:
• Gift certificates from $50 to $250
• Tshirts
• Calendars
• Lobster tails
• Jumbo lobsters
• Lobster Share bundles
• Club memberships
• Premium Memberships
• Special bundles for special occasions
• Corporate gift bundles
• High end travel packages
• Continuity type programs with auto renew options
• Bundling in travel packages to let people see what really goes on behind the scenes (many marketers and coaches use this and have people into their homes and offices to see what it is really like in “guru land”. The first tie I wrote for John Assaraf (of The Secret), was at his palatial mansion where he held a seminar for 60+ people. We sat around his living room and watched vids, visited his office, saw what software he used, etc. People ATE IT UP! And paid a premium for the privilege.
• Media frenzy. They created something buzz worthy and have done everything in their power to let the media know. Imagine what that type of advertising would have cost them! MSNBC, CNN, Fortune, USA Today … many many hundreds of thousands to get the coverage they got (and continue to get)
• Find a way to cater to the buyers – no matter what they (as long is the buyer is willing to pay for it) They will ship near anywhere, on 24 hour notice. Again, it isn’t about the business owner shipping when they want to … it is all about the customer being willing to pay to have the products delivered when they want, where they want.
• Do the opposite of what everyone is doing. With all the publicity the have received, how many Maine lobstermen have even tried to up their prices or create bundles? I would bet … None. They are still selling their lobsters on the docks for a small fraction of what these brothers are doing. Why? Laziness and a lack of big picture thinking. These guys get it … their competitors don’t.
• Complimentary businesses – one caters to a lower end client – one to a higher end – the low end ones want more of what the high end ones are getting … and the ascension model is born
• Look at your competitors and think about what you could do to charge 10 times what they do. How could you justify the price? What could you do to add enough value and unusual bonuses that a small percentage of your target market would pay your price?
• Leveraging inexpensive videos shots with the owners, the lobstermen, the customers, etc. Major studio productions are just not needed here … thanks to YouTube. People love home cut videos and understand they are probably much more real and down to earth than the major productions many companies waste their money on.

I challenge you to go through this list and think of just a few ways you could implement an idea or two in your business.

With the economy in the state it is … you MUST change things in 2009.

Here is a golden list of things you can do differently.

These 2 young 20-something year old brothers
are making millions in a “commodity” business …

What can you do?

I double dare ya!

Find a few ways to make these lessons work for your business  …

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
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4 Comments »

1. Comment by Cashflow Queen — December 5, 2008 @ 6:11 pm

   Great article Troy. I looked at the brothers website and loved how they added the youtube playlist to their site. I have started to research that feature of youtube with my marketing site for small business owners.

   As we know or should know web 2.0 is here to stay and video converts.

   Thanks again for great article and I’m implementing two of the ideas you mentioned above this weekend!

   CashFlow Queen
   "Addicted Subscriber!"

2. Comment by Marcelino Latorre — December 5, 2008 @ 10:04 pm

   The idea of selling at premium, with mouth dropping, hair raising stories is such a classic touch. I love these posts, thanks Troy!

3. Comment by Herb Palmer Jr — December 6, 2008 @ 6:56 pm

   Lobsters are people too. My name is Herb Palmer jr and this is a lobster tale. I just finished my second book called " The lobster and the chicken" a fairy tale for adults in search of enlightenment. I saw there story awhile back in one of the large national magazines, note to self, connect with this guys when the book is done. Its at the puplishers now and will be done in a month or two.  I get "lobster alerts" from google, anything lobster pops in. Neon blue lobsters in Deep sea world in the U.K. to capt Dave of Liquid coast sport fishing who takes people "lobster hooping" off the california coast, do you know what lobster hooping is and yes its legal but only in lobster season. I have to e-mail Brendan of " Catch a piece of maine" before he sells the company to red lobster and buys an island some where warm. Thanks Herb Palmer Jr

4. Comment by Troy White — December 8, 2008 @ 6:21 pm

   Thanks for the comments - glad you enjoyed.  If you ever hear these kind of stories out there - let me know! I will gladly interview them and post the comments to the blog.

   There are some amazing businesses out there… and their lessons are incredibly profitable.

   Remember. most really great ideas will not be found in the same old circles. 

   You need to look outside the internet marketing, copywriting, advertising, etc. industries and look to the mom and pop type businesses who are doing great things.

   …THEN bring those ideas (modified of course) into the internet marketing, copywriting, advertising, etc. industries

   THAT is where true breakthroughs come from!

   Troy