So this little nugget seems to be making the rounds on social media these days.
For those of you that decided to skip the video, whats being sold here is a cocktail shaker-app combination which measures how much of a fluid is being poured into the shaker. After selecting what kind of cocktail you want in the app, it runs you through each ingredient, taking in data sent by the cocktail shaker and telling when to stop, ensuring perfect proportions.
Now, I want to take a step back, and explain, in no uncertain terms, that this is an awful idea, but not as a snobby mixologist’s, but from an entrepreneur’s point of view. I trust that, should you wish to hear a bartender’s thoughts on the product or if you’re in the mood to learn some inventive ways of describing a pile of shit, many of my colleagues would be happy to oblige. (Seriously though. Check out how much gin the creators think should be in a single martini. That guy poured out at least 6 ounces)
The core weakness of this product, or rather, venture is simple. A good business needs to be sustainable, and to be sustainable, it needs to be able to grow. For there to be growth, there needs to be a core value in a product that either draws in new users, keeps existing users paying for continued use, or can be translated into new areas for the company to explore. The B4RM4N shaker (On top of its other failings, that name is a fucking pain to type out) makes a crucial mistake in reconciling the value they offer to a customer, and what a customer actually wants.
First, lets have a look at the business model. The company, founded by a married couple named Raphael and Charlotte Terrier, intends to sell a product, bundled with an app. As far as I can tell, this opens up four sources of revenue; payment for the app and shaker accessory, in-app purchases for seasonal or special features, advertising, or sale of user information to third parties. The first revenue source is pretty straight-forward, and quite reasonable, we still live in an era where people are willing to pay for physical goods, but fewer and fewer people are willing to pay for apps these days. Not that it really matters, the shaker should have enough of a margin built into it anyway. The second, in-app purchases seems like an option, but I’m hard-pressed to come up with ideas for extras that people can be charged for. One option might be to sell recipes for seasonal cocktails or from famous bartenders, but a certain amount of collaboration needs to come out of that (read: royalties). Advertising is always an option, but that only becomes worthwhile if your app is downloaded by millions. Unlike superstar apps like Flappybird or Candy Crush, B4RM4N limits its audience to a very specific portion of the population (that is, people who have a bit too much alcohol in their homes). Finally, third party sales seems unlikely, as there isn’t much information that you can milk out of this app that can’t be found elsewhere, and the information you can get isn’t all that useful.
Nothing particularly wrong with the plan as of yet. At least they’ve set themselves up some way to make money.
But what about the customers? Who is Ralph and Charlie trying to sell to? One can assume they have in mind a particular kind of person. Someone who drinks at home, and wants to have a decent drink every time. Fair enough. When is this home bar warrior supposed to use the app?
When you want to drink by yourself? Sure, why not.
When you’re settling in for date night with the missus? Hey, what ever sets the mood.
When you’re entertaining guests at a party? ….Hold up for a sec…
Whipping out this cocktail shaker with training wheels at a cocktail party is tantamount to serving your guests bacon and boiled eggs for dinner, all the while proudly displaying the egg slicer you bought on the home shopping channel for two payments of $9.99. When you entertain guests, you want to be able to project confidence and skill, not look like a fuddy granny trying to work out how to send an email. Quite frankly, the use of this product actively embarrasses its user in front of his or her friends.
I suspect that tends to slow down adoption by the masses.
Honestly, most people don’t have enough products at home to make more than a handful of cocktails, and the ones that are doable with the ingredients on hand tend to be simple anyway. Would people really suffer the embarrassment of having their friends watch them ask their iPhone to walk them through a three ingredient cocktail?
On top of that, I would suggest that people who would benefit from the app would not have the resources in their home bar to take advantage of the entire library of recipes. What drinks they can make would be quickly ingrained to memory after making the drink no more than three times. The people that do have more extensive home bars know what they’re doing anyway. There is absolutely no reason to spend $159 (you read that right. Their MSRP is 160 bucks US) on an app to automate something that could be learned with a $25 shaker and jigger set and a quick stint on Google.
In conclusion, this product fails to accurately address a need. It fails to set itself up for adoption by the market by burdening itself with social stigma, as did pocket protectors and Segways. It fails to present enough value to its target customers, by just being too damned expensive compared to the old-fashioned way of doing things. Oh, I’m sure there’ll be a market for the B4RM4N (GOD its such a pain to type out), but it’ll be relegated to in flight magazine catalogues, and the useless-gadget section of thinkgeek.com. Certainly not bringing in the kind of money Terriers are hoping for, I gather. Fortunately, the internet seems to agree with me. To date, less than 400 people have funded the project on Kickstarter, and the project is a lo0oong way from its 100k funding goal. With luck, this will slip into the darkness of history and never darken my news feed with its shadow again.