Building Enduring Brands: Key Lessons from GoPro, Sonicare & George Foreman Grill

When I graduated college with a biology degree, I had no idea that in a few short years I’d be building a brand that went from zero to $75 million in sales in just four years.

The path there was a winding one.

• After graduating from college, I knew I didn’t want to go on to dental school.
• I got my real estate license instead.
• I bumped into a real estate agent who was doing seminars.
• I started helping him promote the seminars both locally and nationally.
• I found out I had a knack for marketing.
• In 1989, I started a company called Trillium Health Products.
• Within four years, we were doing $75M in revenue.
• Trillium eventually sold to a Chicago-based company called Salton Housewares.

After Trillium sold, and I had some free time on my hands, people started calling me and saying,

And so my second career in marketing and branding began.

I started an agency, and the very first company we worked with was one called Optiva – the makers of the Sonicare Toothbrush.

Which leads me to an interesting story…

How to Sell Dental Health Like Candy

Many of the household brand names we know today – they didn’t get it right on the first try.

Sonicare was in this boat when we started working together.

Their $150 toothbrush wasn’t selling very well. It was a tough sell to start with, as most toothbrushes on the market were only $2-3.

The problem was that they didn’t have the right:

• Branding.
• Positioning.
• Value proposition that solved a problem for the customer.

We knew there needed to be a unique selling proposition – and in their case, it was the sonic technology and the ability to clean beyond the bristles.

To the customer, neither of those things are very interesting.

But when we positioned the product as a tool for fighting gum disease (because it could reach the nooks and crannies most other toothbrushes missed) – that was when sales took off.

No other toothbrush could tout that value, and so they gained a unique foothold in the marketplace.

But Sonicare wasn’t the only company we helped solve this problem.