商业往事丨第79话：老产品的新生命

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老产品的新生命

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丝薇儿(S'well)是一家可重复使用的保温水瓶公司。丝薇儿的创始人莎拉‧卡丝(Sarah Kauss)用一个可重复使用的三重绝缘17盎司保温水瓶开始了她的生意。根据公司官网宣称；这个保温水瓶可以让液体保冷36小时，保温18小时。

2009年时，当卡丝和她的妈妈在亚利桑那州徒步旅行时，她想到了一个高档、可重复使用的保温水瓶的灵感。因为她注意到她自己随身携带的水瓶看起来像一个露营配件。当时，卡丝是一名税务顾问和国际房地产开发商，在华盛顿特区和纽约市工作。她需要参加许多重要的活动。这时一个商业想法开始在她的脑海中萌芽。她想：「我的包、鞋和西装都变得讲究了（因为她的收入增加了），但我的水瓶，让我看起来仍然像是研究生。」

在意识到水瓶与她的个人风格和专业形象方面都与她的生活方式不匹配之后，卡丝将她对时尚的热情与她整天都要保持适当水分的愿望相结合，针对那些有相同需要的人，创办了一家公司。她于2010年创办丝薇儿(S'well)公司。由于卡丝的父母都是企业家，商业本能一直在她的血液中流漟，即使她并不真正知道这一点。她说：「我不知道我长大后会成为一名企业家，但我不认为当我开始自己的事业时，我会感到震惊。」

卡丝告诉福布斯杂志；如果她能以某种方式制造出比标准产品更好的东西，她就有信心说服人们使用它。「如果我能说服一个全新的客户对我的产品感到兴趣~~一个新的市场区隔就会出现。」卡丝说；「我认为这可能是我一直在寻找的大创意。」

2010年，卡丝41岁，她用自己的三万美元积蓄开始创业，并推出了她的第一个保温水瓶。几年后，丝薇儿的产品已经从保温水瓶和化妆水瓶扩展到食品，酒具和配件，具有不同的颜色，印花，图案和纹理，现在公司已经拥有200多种设计。2016年，丝薇儿的年收入超过1亿美元，比两年前公司只有1000万美元的收入增长了10倍。

保温水瓶是随处可见的产品，因为人们出外时会携带它们，所以一旦人们使用它们，就相对容易将它们放在公众视野中。但是，如何让人们首先购买妳产品呢？丝薇儿在其产品在欧普拉杂志上(Oprah)展出时获得了突破。在那之后，它的生意起飞了，这种现象被称为「奥普拉效应」。丝薇儿的产品彰显了时尚宣言。它的许多客户都是回头客，使用不止一种设计。考斯说：「老实说，这对我来说是一个惊喜。她补充说：「客户真的成为了品牌的拥护者，[他们变成了]收藏家。

「这不一定是你留在家里的东西，但你带着你去工作，在学校和健身房。这是一个可以邀请别人对话的产品。我们品牌的故事真的是在人与人之间生动地传说着和销售着」她说。

丝薇儿的保温水瓶也被当成是送人的好礼物，因为它们的许多设计都是限量生产的。丝薇儿保温水瓶被《建筑文摘》评为「塑造世界的25种设计之一」。更重要的是，它是热情的客户可以与人分享丝薇儿提供环保产品的使命的一种方式，因为它的产品是可重复使用的，不像一次性水瓶用完就被丢弃了或需要送去回收，这是一个能源密集型过程。根据维基百科维基的描述；迄今为止，其可重复使用的水瓶已说明取代了超过40亿个一次性塑料瓶。

每个人都喜欢使用好的产品。如果一家公司为其客户提供一个好的产品，它必须清楚地传达其产品的价值，以便其客户能够了解产品的优势。时尚的可重复使用的保温水瓶是一个伟大的商业理念，因为它们满足了人们对时尚的渴望，以及他们对环境负责的愿望。丝薇儿没有发明可重复使用的水瓶，但它使它成为一种时尚配饰。

备注: 卡丝在2022年将S'well出售给Lifetime Brands 集团。

A New Spin on an Old Idea

to be an entrepreneur, but I don’t think that I was shocked when I did start my own business.”

Kauss told Forbes that, if she could build something better in some way than the standard product, she was confident that she could persuade people to use it. “If I could convince an entirely new customer—a new segment of the market—to be interested,” says Kauss, “I thought that could be the big idea I'd been searching for."

In 2010 at the age of 41, Kauss started up her business with US$30,000 of her own savings and launched her first water bottle. Some years later, S’well had expanded beyond bottles and hydration into food, barware and accessories, in different colors, prints, patterns and textures, and now has more than 200 designs. In 2016, annual revenue for S'well topped $100 million, up 10-fold from two years earlier when the company had just $10 million in revenue.

Water bottles are highly visible products since people carry them outwardly, so it is relatively easy to get them in the public eye once people are using them. But how do you get people to buy them in the first place? S'well received a break when its products were featured on Oprah. After that, its business took off, a phenomenon known as “the Oprah effect.” S’well’s products made a fashion statement. And many of its customers were repeat customers, using more than one of its designs. Kauss said, “That was a surprise to me, quite honestly.” She added “Customers really became advocates for the brand and [they became] collectors.”

"It's not necessarily something that you leave at home, but you take with you to work, in school, and to the gym. And it's a product that invites conversation so very early on. The story of our brand was really being told and sold organically person to person," she said.

S'well bottles are also make for great gifts, because many of their designs are produced in limited quantities. S'well bottles were named as one of 25 designs that helped shape the world by Architectural Digest. What's more, they're a way for passionate customers to share S'well's mission of providing earth-friendly products with others, since its products are reusable, unlike single-use water bottles that are either discarded or need to be recycled, an energy-intensive process. To date, its reusable water bottles have helped to displace more than 4 billion single-use plastic bottles.

Everyone likes to use good products. If a company provides a good product for its customers, it has to clearly communicate its product’s value such that its customers can understand the product’s advantages. Fashionable reusable water bottles are a great business idea because they meet people’s desire for style with their desire to be environmentally responsible. S’well didn’t invent the reusable water bottle, but it made it into a kind of fashion accessory.

Note: Kauss sold S'well to Lifetime Brands in 2022.

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原文标题：商业往事丨第79话：老产品的新生命

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