I'm going to preface this by saying this meter looks great and I realize that it's much easier to critique than encourage.
Overall, I think it's an interesting implementation, but I felt the tone of the video did not match the nature of the product. The video feels produced towards something with more breadth and importance than essentially a contractor tool. Not that I'm downplaying what Senic built, but the presentation gives off "toddler in a business suit" aesthetic.
But that's advertising in a nutshell right? They're not using disinformation, they're simply setting a tone for how they wan't their company to be viewed. Coca-Cola makes sugar water, Kleenex makes tissue. But you don't push many units by downplaying your product.
I think the video does a great job of making them seem to take their product seriously. If enough people walk away with a similar impression, it will allow the company to expand within the market and be taken seriously in their new endeavors as well.
Halfway true. Setting the tone for how they want their company to be viewed is the technique that 500 pound gorillas like Coca-Cola and Microsoft use. It's the atillery barrage approach to selling, and works well if your product is in store everywhere. But in all honesty, tell me how often you've walked into a store and thought to yourself "I feel young and hip today, let me buy some coke".
The thing is, these guy's aren't 500 pound gorillas. I suspect even with funding, they're struggling to make ends meet. That's the point at which they should be using more targeted advertising to get their product out.
For example, someone is looking for measuring tape on Google via their iPhone. That is their ideal customer. Now give them an ad to click on and sell them on your product, get them to order one. They've just aquired a customer at the fraction of the cost they would have in conventional media.
I see startups on here all the time that try to revolutionize an industry by doing things differently, but they'll take over their advertising techniques down to the detail, advertising techniques which are completely unsuited for a company at their position.
Actually that is a weird ads. It seems targeted at 'us', i.e. tech guys mostly.
Looking at the spec, it seems that this tool has all the necessary bits inside to compete with Leica tools. Yet the ads is very silent on all that.
IMO I think they neglected the software side when designing their gismo ( by mistake or by strategy ). Now they hype it up with tech guys, so that one of us will eventually create a few killer apps for their hardware so they can compete against Leica.
99$ for a bluetooth enabled, fully featured laser measurer but with a SDK instead of great interface ? Well I guess it is working, count me in.
I'm biased, as I know the team personally, but they didn't neglect the software side. A majority of the team are software engineers, and hackability is very much a part of their design. So definitely, buy one (or more) and make some killer apps!
$99 is ~ half the price of the cheapest leica that I can find on Amazon. For me, thats a great deal. Not to mention the fact that it can theoretically plug right into a drafting application automatically. Count me in.
I wasn't trying to liken the founder to a toddler, I was just trying to paint a mental picture. "College kid in a business suit" isn't very descriptive :)
Overall, I think it's an interesting implementation, but I felt the tone of the video did not match the nature of the product. The video feels produced towards something with more breadth and importance than essentially a contractor tool. Not that I'm downplaying what Senic built, but the presentation gives off "toddler in a business suit" aesthetic.
Having said that, the implementation looks great.