making of

lessons learned: You never know until you did it and things you should not ask before

So, yes: Hurray! We have an Explorer Set, and you can get it: 15 ml each, 3 scents, your choice, free shipment. As we are just starting, the number of scents at your choice is still limited to the best sellers, but more’s to come if all goes well. The same is true for some minor bugs on the shop software side.

It took me a while to get there, get the bottles, the labels and even more important and complicated: getting the concept and the pricing and making sure that I don’t fool myself. I did so without asking much, and without discussing, because this is a lesson that I learned: You cannot really ask for advice there. Pricing, design, and the overall concept cannot be discussed and is not an area where the crowd is more intelligent than you alone. Hard as it was sometimes, I learned, that conceptual work and pricing is not a collaborative intelligence matter. And trust me: I was for a very looooong time thinking about the concept.

I learned it the hard way, over the last few years: You can discuss new products and product ranges, you can try to get a feeling for what might work, and I am always looking for light in the fog of uncertainty, but you cannot really build your decisions on new products based on what others, especially clients, tell you. The biggest flops that I did over the years, were products and ideas where I got super, super enthusiastic comments and support from potential buyers, who in the end did not buy. You cannot ask for advice when it comes to new, not existing products. Steve Jobs knew this.

Thus, you never, never really know.You can always ask but should never take the input too seriously when it comes to decision making. I guess it is in the end a gut feeling. A vision. But you never know, really, before.

Thus, being completely clueless, I am curious how this Explorer Set will do,  over the next few months, as it is positioned at an interesting intercept point: It is not cheap, and per volume you pay a bit more (about 15-20% on average), yet you can get more than just one scent at a time, in a volume that last a long while. And for some regions, it is the only way to get a Tauer in larger volume than 1.5 ml.

And because of all this: This Explorer Set is a Tauer online exclusive. Enjoy your start into the new week.

Picture today: A detail of the Explorer Set flacons, 15 ml, spray, glass vials.