I have to confess.
Inspite of all the cribbing in my earlier posts about how rentals is not exactly a great market and how the market signals aren’t great, I have been hooked onto the idea of Tapprs (mind you, not to the idea of rentals).
The reason is, I feel Tapprs could be woven into a nice brand if done well. Not necessarily rentals, could be anything else too. I have stuck my neck out on Tapprs. I can’t explain why. Perhaps, its because it’s your baby, even if its ill-conceived. Or perhaps, I feel that it needs to be given more time and patience.
I have put all my tech ideas on hold to give Tapprs some concentrated effort in the coming 1-2 months.
Whatever, I am here now. Looking at re-branding Tapprs. I don’t want Tapprs to be identified as a rental place and would love to create a brand out of it.
I want Tapprs to be attributed with a few characteristics. And that means change from the ground up.
I’ve tried to work things out towards that effect. So here goes.
Brand positioning:
The Why!
I thought about why Tapprs should exist. What should be the motivational factor for Tapprs (money motivates, but really, it is the end result of your work).
No, that answer is NOT about photography or travel!
If you woke me up in the middle of the night and asked what does Tapprs do, I would love to say it exists
- to help people realize that ‘Life is beautiful’.
- to help people experience the cheerfulness and happiness filled in this world.
Yes. It is a heavy statement to make. And Tapprs is a rental place today. Where the heck in the world does the above get done?
Well, Tapprs will change. And will align itself with these key characteristics:
- cheerfulness
- happiness (Tappiness? How Tappy are you today? 😉 )
- explorative, curious & inquisitive
- accepting failures as corrective feedback mindset
- ?
The How!
Well. The how has to align with the why.
And that how is
- by helping people visualize the world better (and hence photograph better?).
- by helping people see the beauty that is aplenty (by travelling better ?).
- by helping them experience the joys of life better.
- ?
Clearly, Travel & Photography are just means to meet our reason of existence. To make people realize that ‘Life is beautiful’.
Tomorrow, it could expand to areas outside Travel & Photography. Or maybe, Tapprs may even exit Travel & Photography if it doesn’t meet the ultimate goal.
Any change in future will be with the idea of serving the purpose of its existence.
The What!
What is pretty simple to answer once your Why and How are defined. Tapprs may or may not do things listed below and may do things not listed below. Just to give you an indication, here’s a list.
- Rent Travel & Photography equipment to people.
- Sell gear (cameras, lenses, backpacks, fishing rods, tours, etc) to people.
- Organize workshops / tours (well, I am currently not too happy with the clutter in this space. But mentioning it here as it is a space Tapprs can potentially be in.)
- Tie up with wonderful home stays and quality guides.
- Figure out other areas that help people ‘live life’ and experience ‘beauty’.
- Promote beauty and its art forms (photography, theatre, music, movies, etc).
- ?
Feeback please:
The above is just a worksheet as of now. It’s a work in progress. Your feedback will help iron out wrinkles. Please do leave a comment!
Hi Prem,
Now Tapprs objectives ( providing happiness, exploration, curiosity ) seems to be in harmony with what people need today which is great as I think money is very important but so is objective/intentions behind any idea/start up and once we put our passion and customer’s needs first then this is the first step towards lasting success as money follows that ( obviously with well planning and accounting each coin going in or out which I’m sure you already do 🙂 ).
Again wish you good luck with Tappers !
– Arpit
Thanks Arpit.
I am a total newbie in this and am trying to experiment. Hope it goes well. 🙂
Prem,
Just a piece of suggestion, thought I am not one to advice or even to suggest!
And before I suggest, my question is – why re-branding so soon?
“Accepting failures as corrective feedback mindset” is really good. It good to fail fast, accept it, move on and do something better!
Coming, back to my suggestion – my thought is why not give the brand some time. I feel it is a bit too early for re-branding. Well that’s me. You have all the rights to ignore my question, though 🙂
Would love to know your thoughts at a bit deeper level.
Regards
Pramod,
Thanks for asking those questions.
My reasoning.
Why so soon?
– People have started identifying Tapprs as a rental place and treat rentals as just an add on service in the photography value chain.
– after a while, making changes will be expensive.
– I really want to have a brand positioning plan for Tapprs. As of now, there’s none.
By rebranding I only mean
– identify a core value as part of your brand
– add products / services that reflect the core
– promote the core value more than the product / service
So, I might still rent photography equipment.. but the reason why I do that is aligned with the brand idea.
Its not really a product / service change. Its more like a skeletal idea based on which future moves could be based. Also, all advertising will focus on the idea of helping people discover the beauty in life.. not just renting stuff to them.
Dont know if it makes sense to you now.
Again, wont be a big bang. But experimenting with a few ideas for now.
Would love to know your opinion. 🙂
Sounds like a good idea.
“all advertising will focus on the idea of helping people discover the beauty in life.. not just renting stuff to them” is indeed a nice theme and plan to work on.
I think, making changes is a constant process. Personally, I would not call this re-branding.
This is brand evolution than re-branding. As I see it, all brands realign their business regularly. Generally it is logarithmic. As a start up, indeed it is needed for you now. I do understand your intent of getting away from stereotype of getting branded as ‘another rental store’. You are the best judge 🙂 as you know your vision better.
Hope Tapprs 2.0 would have a nice face lift and some exciting add-ons!
On a happy note, good luck for your changes. Do keep us posted about the same 🙂
Cheers!
Thanks Pramod.
Actually by rebranding, I meant the core idea around the brand will change.
Of course, it may change in future too. So, like you said, change is inevitable. The current theme of focusing on beauty around us is just one brand idea.
If I find it hard to market or fail to market properly, I may try with another theme after a while. So there really is nothing thats concrete.. everything is a trial and error thingy.
Let me try to figure out some ideas to implement this for now ;-).
cheers,
Prem