What Is Your Contrarian Idea?

Yesterday we launched our annual, 48-hour charity auction. I invited 10 tabletop content creators I admire to select a charity of their choice, and we put together a package of recent (and upcoming) Stonemaier products to send to the winning bidder of each of the 10 auctions. The entire winning bid is then doubled by Stonemaier Games and donated to the matching charity (Fulfillrite generously matches the single highest winning bid of all auctions).

This is the eleventh year we’ve held this auction; in the last 10 years, we’ve donated a total of $121,670 to 95 charities. And this year we’ve added something new so anyone can participate: We made sets of golden Wingspan eggs (painted metal) for our webstore, and for each set we sell during the auction, we’ll donate $1 to each of the 10 charities. With that combined with the winning bids and money matches, we’re on track to make a total donation of around $40,000.

If I step back and look at this from a business perspective, this is quite the contrarian concept, yet it still feels like the right thing to do to leverage some of our success to offer support to great charities (and the content creators who selected them). This concept of contrarian ideas that work has been on my mind for a while thanks to this video, which discusses the value of finding the right contrarian idea and executing it.

I brought up this topic with Brandon at Fulfillrite to see if he had any thoughts about it. I always enjoy Brandon’s guest posts and insights, and I’m happy to share the platform, especially given Fulfillrite’s generosity in matching the single highest winning bid (currently $1100).

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Most online business advice sounds the same. Or at least close enough to where it starts to run together.

Ten people shout “think outside the box” and one seasoned marketer whispers “do some market validation first.”

Naturally, when clichés fall flat, it’s tempting to seek out hot takes for contrarian advice. But a lot of that is contrarian for a good reason!

So what actually moves units? In my years of working with Fulfillrite, I’ve seen some products do really well and others struggle. Here are two contrarian-sounding observations I’ve made about the businesses that are doing well.

(If you’re a seasoned professional reading this, I have a sneaking suspicion that neither of these will shock you.)

1. Turn away work (so you can focus on what makes you special).

Turning away work feels like the scariest thing ever. It’s also extremely important.

With service businesses, this means telling potential clients that they aren’t a good fit. At Fulfillrite, for example, we generally turn away companies that are shipping less than 100 orders per month or have fewer than 500 orders to ship for crowdfunding.

This helps us keep costs down on both sides. There’s always an expense that comes with onboarding any client of any size. That can add up.

But it’s also important for the client too. More so, in fact. Turning away low order volume clients prevents them from overpaying for a service that can be done just as well and less expensively at home.

Once that order threshold is reached, hiring help with fulfillment can help save money. But before then, not so much!

If you’re making a game, though, that can mean picking a defined niche and knowing that you’re not going to please all players. Yes, do market research and play-testing, and all the things you are expected to do. But ultimately, make sure that when you have to make a tough call, that you always prioritize your target audience of gamers with specific tastes.

2. Kickstarter is overrated (compared to eCommerce and retail).

OK, before the pitchforks come out, I should say that I still love Kickstarter, Gamefound, and crowdfunding in general. Both as a business model and a consumer.

But from my observation, with the exception of some truly massive Kickstarters, the creators who are really moving units have strong eCommerce operations. It makes sense when you realize that it takes a little over 7 weeks for “20 orders per day” to add up to more than “1,000 orders all at once.”

This isn’t even getting into retail distribution either, since we don’t handle many B2B shipments in our warehouse. But if you make good in-roads with gaming stores, especially major ones, that can add up to having a bunch of mini-Kickstarters happening over and over. 

Kickstarter tends to draw a bunch of attention, and it only makes sense to want to win big on the platform. But it’s important to have recurring revenue if your end goal is to create a long-term, sustainable business. 

Final Thoughts

From what I’ve observed seeing clients succeed over the years, two factors that stand out are clear target audience focus and long-term revenue planning. That’s why I think businesses tend to do better when they don’t try to please every potential customer. I also think that’s why the ones who focus on retail and eCommerce tend to sell more than those who focus on crowdfunding.

These may not be tough points to understand, but they do take a second to explain. Especially if you’re a new entrepreneur!

Now with that said, I’m curious – what advice have you heard that sounds superficially bad, counterintuitive, or contrarian that actually works? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments!

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Brandon Rollins is the Director of Marketing at Fulfillrite. His main areas of expertise are online marketing and supply chain management.

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Thanks, Brandon! I’d love to hear other thoughts in the comments about contrarian ideas that work. And if you’d like to get some golden eggs or discover some fantastic content creators, check out the auction list here.

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