Business Opportunities Weblog

November 2, 2007 by Rich Whittle | 2 Comments

Entrepreneur:

It’s called The Trunk Club. It’s a great example of how market, identity, and focus come together to build new businesses that combine new ideas with old-fashioned serving the customer. It’s also a personal favorite because it’s the brainchild of one of my former students.

Three years ago Joanna Van Vleck was a student at the University of Oregon who wanted to build her own personal shopping business. Now she and partner Brie Chapman have built a successful business in Bend, Oregon and are looking to expand nationally.

Joanna and Brie discovered their target market was men, particularly men 35 and older who value service more than low prices. These men were far more likely to want the service of shopping instead of doing it themselves.

Then came an important “Aha! moment:” relatively few men identify with the phrases “personal shopping” or “personal shopper.” “But men join clubs,” Joanna told me on the phone this month. “they join golf clubs, athletic clubs, cigar clubs and hunting clubs.” So the Trunk Club was born.

Focus is magic. Once Joanna and Brie realized they were offering personal shopping services to a high-end older male target market, then the business offering and the marketing followed. The Trunk Club has members who pay annual dues. They get sized and customized with what they like. Then they call and ask for whatever — new suits, new casual, new khakis, new cargo pants, whatever — and the Trunk Club delivers.

Photo by The Trunk Club.

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Tags: Small Biz, Startup, Success