Method

Use the FSA Store as a D2C acquisition channel for boring health products

Steph Smith points to fsastore.com — where millions of high-intent shoppers rush to spend expiring pre-tax FSA money — as an acquisition house for reinvented versions of boring health products like Welly Band-Aids.

“And so what I found interesting about this is there's all these other kind of product lanes that you can just like walk down and CVS or something like that and be like, oh, that's boring. That's boring. I haven't seen that reinvented. And actually one of, um, people have probably heard of Eric Ryan. He's the founder of Welly, but he's also done Ollie Gummies, which people are probably familiar with, and Method Soap. So he's basically doing this, but I think there's a lot more room for other people to do the exact same thing and use the FSA Store as almost this like really interesting acquisition house for your store.”

Steal thisPick a boring health-aisle category, build a beautiful D2C brand around it, and acquire customers through fsastore.com's expiring-money rush.

Sea of sameness: find the boring aisle where every product looks identical

Shaan relays Method/Welly/Ollie founder Eric Ryan's repeatable playbook: walk any retail aisle, spot the 'sea of sameness' where every bottle looks the same, then differentiate with a better shape, color, name, and pronounceable ingredients.

“And what he described is his method that he's used for Method Soap, for Ollie Gummies, and for Welly, which is he goes, walk down any aisle. What you're looking for is what I call a sea of sameness. And so he put up this photo of the soap aisle and it was just like all a bunch of green bottles.”

Steal thisPhotograph a retail aisle, find the sea of sameness, and ship a differently-shaped, differently-named version with benefits on the label instead of ingredients.

Eric Ryan's 'sea of sameness' playbook for differentiating commodities

Shaan describes Method founder Eric Ryan, who walks store aisles looking for a 'sea of sameness' (55 identical green soap bottles), then differentiates with new shape, color, risque marketing, and a chemical-free angle. He repeated it with Olly vitamins and Welly band-aids.

“he goes, I walk down the aisle in a grocery store. He goes, anywhere I see a sea of sameness, like an ocean of the same thing. And he showed a picture of the soap aisle and it's like 55 green bottles of liquid that are all shaped the same and all look exactly the same.”

Steal thisFind an aisle where every product looks identical, then differentiate on shape, color, and brand personality.

Eric Ryan: the serial chemical-free brand builder behind Method, Welly, Ollie

Sam celebrates Eric Ryan, who built Method Soap (chemical-free soap in Target), then Welly (cute Band-Aids), then Ollie (bullshit-free kids' vitamins) by repeatedly applying the clean-alternative playbook to old categories.

“this guy named Eric Ryan, he started Method Soap, which you've seen in Target. Maybe Target bought him actually, but you see him in Target all the time and it's basically soap without chemicals. I buy it, I love it. Then he started Welly and then he started Ollie.”

Identify the culture shift first

Shaan relays Eric Ryan's (Method, Olly, Welly) line that you must spot the cultural shift before the products that serve it: consumers started reading ingredient labels, which enabled Honest Company, Native deodorant, and Method to take off.

“He goes, you have to identify the culture shift first. And, um, you know, the culture shift happens first, and then the products and services that, um, that meet those cultural values come second. So let's say for Method Soap he was saying, you know, consumers now, they turn their— everything they buy, they turn to the back and they read the ingredients. And so they care about what they're putting in their body, they care about what they're putting in their homes, they care about what they're putting in their babies, etc., etc.”

Steal thisBefore building a consumer brand, name the underlying culture shift it rides; the product is just the vehicle for that shift.

Sea of sameness + culture shift: Eric Ryan's brand-building formula

Shaan recounts Method/Olly founder Eric Ryan's repeatable playbook: find a 'sea of sameness' in a retail aisle, then pair it with a cultural shift the old 50-year-old brands don't understand (e.g. readable, non-toxic ingredients for Method).

“he had this talk that I thought was the best talk there, and he said something at the beginning. It's like, yeah, he created Method Soap and like, you know, won in the soap category. Then he created Alli Vitamins and he won in the vitamin category. Now he's doing Wellii. He's going to win in the Band-Aid category. It's like, "Okay, what's the formula here? Is it just like walk down the aisle and pick one of Target?" He said, "Yeah, pretty much." He's like, "I look for a sea of sameness."”

Steal thisWalk a retail aisle, find the 'sea of sameness,' then attack it with a brand built around the current culture shift.