“But what IS a kitchenCRATE?”
It’s a question we get asked often. So here’s the answer:
From Service to Product
Our idea for a kitchen remodel product started right around 2010. We were used to selling services, but products are easier to define, visualize, market, analyze and implement. So we wanted to take a stab at developing one.
And like any successful product, kitchenCRATE originated with customer needs: Kitchen remodels are too expensive. Kitchen remodels take too long. Kitchen remodels require hours of design and decision. Kitchen remodels are not easy. Kitchen remodels make you angry at the world. Kitchen remodels are not worth the stress. And on, and on, and on…
Then inspiration of other products began to creep in our mind, like:
Ikea furniture. Children’s play structures. Vanity/sink/faucet combinations from the big home improvement stores. Garage storage systems. Mushroom farms. (Yes, mushroom farms).
What do all of these have in common? They come in a box. Ready to assemble. By the purchaser.
“But what is the purchaser really buying?” we asked ourselves.
Are they buying the chance to assemble something? No. In fact, putting one of these purchases together is usually the least-appreciated element of the above items.
No, there is something else. There is something much deeper than that that makes these “packaged” products so fun and easy.
The Aha Moment!
And then it became painfully obvious: when buying one of these items, we are buying convenience. We are buying from well-defined yet limited choices. We are buying something we know will work. We are buying value. We are buying a solution that is easy and even fun to shop for.
So that’s where it all started. How do we make a kitchen remodel easy, fun to buy, limited in selections and then turn it into a pleasurable experience?
There was only one way to do this. We had to create a prototype with limited, controllable selections. We had to reduce variables.
So what if, we thought, we could sell a kitchen in a crate? A kitchen all ready to build. A kitchen where all the materials and tools were in one spot and all we had to do is install them? What if we could create a kitchen in a crate?
So that’s what we did. In fact, you can see the “crate” at the top of this post.
But Kitchen in a Crate sounded a bit too, well, “fast foody.” So we shortened it to Kitchen Crate. Then that didn’t look quite right, and it became KitchenCrate. And then kitchenCRATE. And we were done, ready to launch, and here are the results.
KitchenCRATE is a 7 day, $15,000 kitchen remodel offered in Northern California. If you’re interested in learning more, just fill out the simple form on the contact us page, and we’ll get back to you immediately.
Scott Monday is co-founder and CEO of kitchenCRATE and bathCRATE. Follow him on Facebook, Google+ or Linked-In.
