Simplicity as Brand

One of my favorite brands is Moots. The company builds bicycle frames and components available in one color: bead-blasted titanium. Think no frills, functionality and simplicity like the iPod. New Moots titanium frames fetch about $2,500, give or take a few hundred dollars. The Steamboat Springs, Colorado company is small, competing in a global marketplace where Taiwanese factories stamp out frames for huge U.S. brands. Moots spends roughly zero on advertising (not even Google ad words) yet has managed to sell in the U.S. and abroad for more than 25 years. That's brand equity. Customers (like me) carry the Moots message without hesitation. It doesn't hurt that the products are beautifully designed and handbuilt. But Moots doesn't just make bike products. It creates relationships. From the first interaction to post-sale communications, a bonding between company and consumer occurs over time. And consumers remember. What other new product today comes out of the box affixed with a tag hand-initialed and dated by the people who had a hand along the way in making it? Two years ago, Moots invited owners to submit essays on what they loved about their two-wheeled machines. The company personalized its annual product catalog through these stories and the faces of storytellers. This week, Moots launched its newly designed website, complete with a riders' forum section. Simple. Like its product. As word spreads, the loyalists will post. The curious will read. And converts will be won. Small can compete with big.