Product Startup

036 - Helping Wildlife & Developing Ceramic Products with Gavin Christman of Green&Blue - The Product Startup: Product development for small business

01.17.2017 - By Kevin Mako of Mako Design + InventPlay

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Gavin Christman is the co-founder of Green&Blue, a product design company based in the South West England. Green&Blue create a beautiful range of innovative, award-winning products for wildlife and nature.

In this episode, we learn about

Gavin's experience working for Dyson as an industrial designer and how it helped him setup Green&Blue

The thought process he took away - understanding a problem and creating a simple yet elegant solution

Looking at the problem through the eyes of customers

Why Gavin thought that Green&Blue could compete in the existing market for bird feeders

Taking things apart and understanding how things are put together to help you come up with new solutions

Gavin and his wife quitting good jobs to take a leap of faith in a business they believed in

The advantage of having some ignorance before diving into a market - Gavin and his wife didn't know the details of fulfilling product

How they presold the product (without using the Internet) to retailers before getting into manufacturing

Getting a feel for product costs by having conversations with your suppliers and soliciting samples

Shelving ideas if the profit margin isn't there

Why they chose to manufacture locally in the UK

How ceramic products are made - and understanding how our own products are manufactured 

Forming relationships with manufacturers

Why Green&Blue  doesn't use a "one stop shop" approach to manufacturing

Taking care to make and package the best product possible - same as any product we would all love to receive

The legwork needed in pitching retailers in the beginning - looking at lifestyle magazines and identifying retailers

The two tradeshows that they attend now and the outreach possible 

The best part of retail - reorders

Keys to maintaining good relationships with retailers - product quality, customer service, product news, soliciting feedback

The advantage of tradeshows and proper follow-up

Deciding to sell more than one item - the process in designing, manufacturing and getting a product into customer's homes is addicting

Talking to existing customers and advocates of current products about new designs

The different types of bees and their role in our environment 

Selling the Bee Brick to business clients and working within the construction industry

Realizing that they cannot make a change alone - partnering with concrete casting companies

Links and resources mentioned in this episode

Website: Greenandblue.co.uk

Special: Use the code startup to apply a 15% discount on the entire product range (valid for 2017)

Social Media

Twitter: @GreenandBlueUK

Facebook: facebook.com/GreenandBlueUK

Instagram: instagram.com/greenandblueuk

More episodes from Product Startup