CLEAN BOTTLE

Today was the first stage in the high mountains.  Its crazy how back ended the Tour has been.  It seems like I have been chasing it around forever and this is the first day with a true mountain-top finish.

The phrase that Alan and I taught ourselves today was “Darling, will you marry me?”.  Unfortunately, since I am actually married and Alan has a girlfriend, we probably won’t be trying this one out on people too much.

It has been an incredibly rainy Tour and our drive in the night before the stage wasn’t any exception.  It was raining frogs and snails and the temperature got down to 42 degrees by the time we parked.  42 in July?!

We found a huge parking lot halfway up the Tourmalet, the same parking lot I camped out at last year.  We ended up pulling in next to a camper van full of Americans.  What are the chances?

The next day dried up, thankfully.  But it was still vey cold in the morning.  Being the highly prepared person I am I had neglected to bring any type of cold weather gear whatsoever.  So I chattered my way about 12 kilometers down the base of the climb.  Alan was kind enough to lend me his socks that I could use for gloves.  Then Reed, Alan and I spent the next few hours climbing the 17 kilometers to the top.  On the way we came across some epic views and also spotted the Devil!

Even the Devil Rides Clean!

I then chattered my way down to the car, quickly washed off, and went down the hill to find a good “runway” for Bottle Boy.  It took a little while and we ended up finding a spot about 5K down the hill, which meant I had to tow the dang thing up 5 kilometers after we finished.

I didn’t do as much climbing as the peloton, but it felt like a lot.

Proof that I actually did the climb.

We’re off to find some food now before we head up to the Aubisque.

Now that we have Alan with us, our two-man wolfpack has grown to three.  Alan is a great guy, even though he wears Capri shorts.  He is a cyclocross and road racer down in Southern California.  He came up to race in Northern California last year.  I raced with him and then afterwards I dressed up as Bottle Boy to cheer on the riders (my wife loves it when I bring the costume everywhere and randomly throw it on).  He saw Bottle Boy and got his photo with me and we started talking from there.

Alan and I know zero French.  Reed speaks French, but he leaves in a few days so Alan and I have been trying to learn a bit.

I have a translation guide and I was looking through it only to discover an entire section dedicated to the most ridiculous pick up lines I’ve ever heard.  These include:

• “I am horny”
• “My place or yours?”
• “I’m married . . . but”
• “I’m lonely tonight”
• “I am rich and single”
• “Lets have fun like idiots”
• “Can I change your mind?”
• “How does this feel?”
• “You are my most beautiful souvenir”
• “Darling, will you marry me?”

I am not making these up.  I am just not that funny.

Alan and I did a bike ride on the course before the riders went by.  Being bored and American we decide to make asses out of ourselves.  Every time someone shouted “Allez!” to us (which means “go”) we had to get out of our saddle and sprint as hard as we could.  Then, when we saw a woman on the course, we had to use my favorite pick up line in the book: “I am disease free!”

So what ended up happening is we’d sprint up to every woman on the course, totally out of breath, and then yell “I am disease free!”.  The reactions were pretty comical.

Maybe it was the oxygen debt, or maybe it was that I was dehydrated, but when we got back to our car I also told the 5 retirees in RV next to us that we were, in fact, disease free.  For some reason they really responded well to this!  They invited us over to the table they had set up, gave us coffee and we chatted / used hand signals to communicate for the next half hour.

Us with the retirees.

Since I didn’t have any diseases to give them I hooked them up with a Clean Bottle instead.  I explained that the Clean Bottle is also disease free.

We got a good run in, and got on TV, so all in all it was a good day.

Wish me luck for the rest of the stages and that I can stay disease free!

Its been raining almost every day this trip.  Not the kind where it rains for a few hours and then it is done with, the kind that rains, then clears, then rains, then clears . . . .

One minute it looks like a beautiful day and the next it looks like Seattle in February.  This makes it difficult when you are trying to get in a bike ride before the stage, or worse yet, trying to keep a 5 foot tall mascot clean and try so that it looks like a bottle running along the road and not a giant soggy turd.

Thankfully today the weather cleared up a bit.  Reed and I had a good run and are now headed out to enjoy a well deserved rest day.  We are also going to pick up my buddy Alan from the train station.  Reed is only here a few more days so Alan is going to help m out for the rest of the time.

Thanks for reading!

Here is a little known secret of the Tour de France: there are two Bottle Boys on the course.  Yes, like all comical looking mascots: Ronald McDonald, Mickey Mouse, the Olsen Twins, there are more than one of them.

Why?

Well many times stuff happens from preventing you from getting on TV.  There could be a commercial break, the camera could be focused on another group, the camera could be on the wrong side of the road, a drunk Basque teenager could be running right by you totally naked . . .

This is the Tour.  The main event.  The world’s largest travelling Baguette Festival.  You need to take every precaution to maximize your chances of getting on TV.  The mortgage doesn’t pay itself and if you don’t get on the bottles don’t sell.

So to give myself a little insurance I bring along a friend who also dresses up and runs about a kilometer away from me.

Travelling with someone for two weeks can try your patience a bit.  Last year I traveled with my friend Lei, and almost ended up choking him out on the Tourmalet.   Lei is 6 inches taller and 50 lbs heavier than me so that wouldn’t have ended well. There is nothing wrong with Lei, or the current friend I am travelling with, Reed.  I just think that two people aren’t meant to spend 24 hours a day together for two weeks straight.  Especially when showers aren’t involved.

Still, Reed and I have had a good go at it.  We’ve managed to agree on pretty much everything.  Well everything except:

• Where to eat
• When to eat
• What to eat
• Where to ride
• When to ride
• How far to ride
• When to stop for photos
• Who drives
• What music we listen to when we drive
• How fast we should drive
• When to stop
• Where to stop
• What cheese to buy (in France when there are more cheeses than Paris Hilton ex-boyfriends, this is a major arguing point)

That’s all I can think of right now, and that’s actually pretty good!

Joking aside, Reed has been a great sport and I am really lucky to have him along.  He is a great driver, a great Bottle Boy and he speaks some French.  What more could you want?

Today Reed and I camped alongside the climb leading into Super Besse.  Super Besse, it goes without saying, is FAR superior to the town of Besse, which is just down the road.  That’s why they named it Super Besse.

The stage was the first mountainous stage of the race.  The road gradually went up hill all day until the Cat 2 Col de la Coix Sant-Robert.  Then there was a descent until about 5 kilometers more of climbing to the finish.  We were about 5 kilometers from the finish.  Close enough to be seen by the fair weather cycling fans who just watch the last 10k of a race, but not too close to have to throw elbows at little French kids to get a good run in.

We got on TV as well, so it was a great day!

Thanks for reading!

We had a relatively short drive to the Normandy region where we camped out on a beautiful hillside next to the last climb of the day, the cat 4 Cote du Billot.

As beautiful as the Brittany region is, Normandy is simply spectacular.  Rolling hills, perfect countryside and unbelievable views.  We camped out in a cow pasture.  Here is the view.

This is the view!

Reed and I did a short ride through the countryside where we ran into a British guy.  I asked him if he was rooting for Cavendish, and the guy said “Cavendish is an ass”.  If you laughed when you read this imagine how hard I laughed when I heard it in a thick British accent.

Everywhere I’ve gone in France I’m amazed by the perfectly matched clothing everyone is wearing.  Just as Apple has to approve every app before it is released to ensure it is up to Apple’s standards, I’m convinced that there is a government entity in France that approves all clothes before before it can be sold in France.  Every time I see a pair of Crocs or an ugly shirt I get my hopes up that I’ve found a Frenchman that has less fashion sense than me, only to find that it is a guy from Holland.

The Americans at the Tour are easy to spot.  We all dress like we’ve stolen one article of clothing from every major pro sport: a brightly colored baseball cap, an NFL jersey or sweater that you could pitch a tent in, super baggy basketball shorts that look like they can hold 10 baguettes in each pocket and bright white tennis shoes that really do look ugly when compared to the pointy loafers that the Europhiles seem to sport.

With my tennis shoes and baggy shorts I am definitely not going to be mistaken for a Frenchman.  But I figure its better this way; at least anyone I meet already knows I don’t speak French.

Reed and I positioned ourselves on the 2 kilometer climb.  We ran as fast as we could and I think we got on TV!  Of course the rain started falling just as we started running, but that’s how the weather on this trip has been.

We’re now camped outside of Le Mans, which is the start of stage 7.  I think we may be interviewed by someone from Versus.  Wish us luck!

Now this was one beautiful stage.  It went along the coast of Brittnay.  I had always had a negative view of Bittnay.  I don’t know why.  Maybe because I once had a crush on a girl named Brittnay but she didn’t feel the same way.  Whatever the reason, I apologize Brittnay.  You are beautiful and have no right to have been pre judged by me (the region, not the girl).

Reed and I camped out the night before and then went for a great 2 hour ride along the coast.  Ahhh-maz-ing. If nothing else, this whole Clean Bottle thing has given me some great “business trips”.

The whole route we kept seeing these signs on the side of the road and painted on the road that said “Allez Fabrice!”.  I guess that Fabrice is a local rider and the town had come out to cheer him on.  The whole time I was riding I was imagining what Fabrice looked like.  I was fairly certain the guy looked like some serious euro trash for the following reasons:

1. He is French
2. He is a pro cyclist
3. He is named Fabrice

To my surprise, I came upon a group of especially rabid Fabrice fans who had a sign with a photo of Fabrice.  Here, my prejudice was warranted. Fabrice had all the makings of a euro trash neo-pro cyclist:

1. He was on a team I’ve never heard of
2. he had short but stylish hair
3. he was rocking an earring.

Allez Fabrice!

Allez, Fabrice.  Allez.

So I am dedicating my performance this year to Fabrice, my new favorite cyclist.  Forget Contador.  You can have the Schlecks. Cavendish is overrated.  Fabrice is the man to watch in 2011.  I’m sure of it.

Back to the stage.  Bottle Boy and I watched from just outside of Val Andre.  I did my best to get on TV but the riders were just going too fast, so instead of running I decided to wave.  I don’t think I made it on TV, but we still have many more stages to go until Paris, so I’m not too worried.

Thanks for reading!

I’m sitting here on the road as the caravan goes by.  I must look like a terrorist – large black bag that holds Bottle Boy, sunglasses, hat tucked down and typing away at a computer oblivious to the spectacle going by.  Thankfully, whenever someone gives me the stink eye, I just pull out my iPhone, show them the picture of Bottle Boy standing next to the devil and say “Mascot!” (that and ‘baguette’ are the two French words I know).   After that, I am granted major French street cred.

I arrived in Paris several days ago and stayed with a family friend of my buddy Reed’s.   I talked Reed into coming with me on the trip.  Hey, even Bottle Boy needs a sogneiur, right?

So the guy we are staying with is the French equivalent of the Dos Equis “the Most Interesting Man in the World”.  Here is why:

1. His name is Maxime, but somehow when he says it, it sounds macho
2. He is 62 but he has a 35 year old girlfriend.  I thought her name was “Cherie Amor” but then I realized that just means “honey”.  Either way he sounds like a baller when he says it.
3. He drives a 1982 Peugeot with a tricked out polished wooden steering wheel.
4. He smokes 2 packs a day but his skin glows and his teeth sparkle.
5. Pointy shoes.  ‘Nuff said.

Thats Maxime on the right, the most interesting man in France.

I unfortunately can’t tell you anything about how great Paris was and the sites we saw because my wife has always wanted to go there and she is pretty pissed I chose to take a giant water bottle to visit Paris instead of her.  So, if I want to stay married I am going to skip this part of my visit.

I didn't go here.

Or here

The first stage we went to was stage 4 which ended in Mur de Bretagne, a wonderful town of 2200 people.  Each shop had their windows painted with famous Tour winners – Indurian, Contador, a lot of French winners (who were all wearing inner tubes across their shoulders because that’s what they did the last time a Frenchman won the Tour).  Armstrong wasn’t in any of the paintings though, I can’t figure out why.  The stage ended with a 2KM climb to the finish.

Reed and I were going to run along those final 2K, but French Anti-Bottle-Boy Task Force, aka the Gerdamine, saw to it that the entire 2K was fenced off.

Then it started raining and raining and raining.  We tried to wait it out and when it dried up we walked to another hill about 5K from the finish.  We ran our hearts out but unfortunately we didn’t get any TV time.  We did get some very confused looks from the riders and fans as we ran though.  Little do the riders know that they are going to see more of me on this trip than they will their families.

On to the next stage – I’ll let you know how it goes!

Some people think being the Chief Bottle Washer of Clean Bottle is life on easy street.  Go to France, ride your bike, constantly post on Facebook.

Its no easy gig.

In fact if someone told me how hard it was going to be I don’t know if I would have done it.

The most frustrating part?  Trying to get your product into stores.  Especially bike shops.  Now we have a TON of great bike shops that sell our product.  But a good chunk of bike shops were started by someone who liked bikes or liked to fiddle with bikes and thought that owning a bike shop would be a cool idea.

Unfortunately, there is little correlation between your enjoyment of bicycles and your success as a business person.

So inevitably you have to deal with a lot of very poorly run shops headed by stressed out, short fused owners.

Each day I spend about 5 hours cold calling these shops.  I don’t know what hell is like, but it can’t be much worse than cold calling shops.  But, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Here are some of the more classic conversations I’ve had with bike shop employees and owners.  I’m sure its the same with any product you try to sell.

So be forewarned.  If you want to start a business selling product to shops you will need to cold call a lot of shops.  And it is a lot more difficult than it looks.

People’s Response when I say “Hello, this is Dave from Clean Bottle, can I speak with the buyer?
“Did you say Dave with Clean Bottom?”

“Did you say Dave with Clear Bottom?”

“Did you say Dave with Green Bubbles?”

“Did you say Dave with Queen Battle?”

“Did you say you are the buyer’s in-law?” (that one i have NO IDEA how they got that)

Yes, all these are ACTUAL responses.  It is funny the first 100 times.  After that you really can’t understand why people can’t understand the words CLEAN BOTTLE

People’s Response when I ask them if they would like to order bottles

buyer “Oh I’ve had a bunch of people ask for them Clean Bottles”
me: “Great, how many would you like to order?”
buyer: “I can’t order any until I sell these other bottles I have.  For some reason they don’t sell”

buyer: “I liked your bottle, does it come with a cage?”
me: “I’m sorry?”
buyer: “Do you sell each bottle with it’s own bike cage.”
me: “Um, right now we offer just the bottles, although they are designed to fit all the standard bike cages.
buyer: “Well, people only buy bottles with a cage.  Call me back when you have a cage.”

me: “this is dave from Clean Bottle. I wanted to make sure you got the bottle we sent you”
owner: “yeah, i LOVE Clean Bottle. They RULE”
me: “okay, can I take down your information so I can get you some?”
owner: “I don’t know. i have to talk it over with my partner”

me: “would you like to buy the Clean Bottle?”
buyer: “have you tried cleaning it out when there is mustard in it?”

buyer: “I gave the Clean Bottle to the owner.  Its his favorite bottle and he loves the concept.  But, no one came up to us and asked for them so until we hear people asking about them we can’t carry them”

buyer: “do you have an insulated bottle?”
me: “no just the regular bottle”
buyer: “no offense, but non-insulated bottles are for Yankees”

buyer “are you on a land line?”
me: “no, I am on a cell”
buyer “I can’t talk.  You aren’t on a secure line”

So before you spend a lot of money developing and patenting a product do yourself a favor.  Call up 50 shops and pitch the product to them.  If none of them thinks its good enough to buy, or you realize you aren’t cut out for selling your product all day every day, then you may want to reconsider .  Or develop it, but then buy a lot of whiskey to keep you sedated throughout the day so you don’t pull all your hair out

I really apologize for not doing any blog posts during the Tour of California.  Bottle Boy was out there in force every stage, I hope you saw us!  When we weren’t chasing around the riders we were pre-riding some of the day’s stages.  I am a hardened Nor Cal loyalist, but I have to give it up to So Cal, they have some EPIC climbs.

Previously I have written a lot about what I did wrong.  People appreciate the humor, but they also ask about what I did right so they can learn from it.  By far, the biggest question I get is “how do you market your product?”.  This is one area where we’ve been fortunate enough to have some success.  And it is also a major passion of mine.

First, let me define what I mean by “marketing” because it is such a vague term.  If you work for a big company it can mean strategy, product roadmap, positioning, etc.  For a small business it basically means “getting the word out about your product in a way that customers want to buy it”.  Its really that simple.

I am dividing this up into two sections.  First for people who don’t like marketing, and second for those two do.

If you DON’T Like Marketing

Hire someone to do it for you or convince a friend to help.

Thats it.

I often see inventors who are naturally introverts, or have no sense of humor try and market their product because they’ve constantly been told its something they NEED to do.  However, they hate to do it, and it comes off looking horrible.  Bad website, crappy collateral, stupid facebook posts.  It ends up hurting their product more than helping it.

I am a big believer in focusing on what you do well and spending most of your time on that.  Stuff that you don’t do well, or hate doing, learn enough about those tasks to be proficient.  Then pay someone else to do them.  By learning enough to be proficient you will know how much you should pay and can do the simple stuff by yourself.

One of the reasons for the success of Clean Bottle is that I was able to hire or bring on people who were very good in areas where I am not.  I hate shipping and packaging, so I outsourced it (to my Dad who does it for free, gotta love the art of the ‘guilt trip’!).  I am no good at product design so I found the best designer I could.  I have no idea how manufacturing works, so instead of trying to figure it out I hired a consultant who could help vet factories and customs.

Try to get others to do what you can't or don't want to. Parents are a great place to start because you don't have to pay them.

Sound expensive?  It is.  But if you can’t afford to do it right, you shouldn’t do it at all.  Sure, perhaps someone could climb Mt. Everest in Birkenstocks, but that shouldn’t be your plan going into it.

If you can’t afford to hire people, you can always give them a percentage of your business.  Or better yet, find friends in these areas who can help out.

As I learned in Boy Scouts: "Be Prepared". For a company to succeed you have to have excellence in every operational area. If you don't think you can cover an area yourself, find someone who can.

If You DO Like Marketing

I love marketing Clean Bottle.  Honestly, half the reason I invented a product was to get the opportunity to find creative ways to get the word out about it.  Every ride I do, every shower I take, every visit to the bano, my head is working on ideas.  Its just what I do.

I don’t think I have a natural talent for it, but I do have a total passion and dedication to it.  And that passion allows me to constantly work on it because it is fun for me.  Genius is overrated, it is all about constantly working and improving.  And it is much easier to do that when you genuinely like what you are doing.

So, I think marketing is almost like an equation with a few parts.

Yes, even marketing has equations.

1) How many eyeballs can you reach by what you are doing? Everything you are doing you should ask ‘how many people will see this?’.  If it is an ad – figure out the circulation.  If it is a facebook post, know how many people are following you.  That is the beauty of those mediums, it is so easy to track your audience and target it.

2) How many of those people will actually hear what you are saying? This is the most important part, in my opinion.  I’ve put an ad in Velonews and have gotten maybe 30 online orders.  When Velonews did a review of my product I got maybe 300 orders.  Why such the difference?  They are both in the same magazine.  Roughly the same size.  I think it is because we are constantly innundated with ads that we subconsciencely screen out EVERYTHING that looks remotely like an ad.

People hate ads.  People hate commercials.  People hate billboards.  Why?  Because they are getting in the way of the content we want to see.

So, the key is presenting your content in a way that doesn’t appear like an ad, so you can get people to actually digest the content.

You can't look like an ad, or people will likely ignore you. You have to looks like something people actually want.

Another way to get people to listen to you is to provide content that is useful.  Don’t be the ad, be the content.  What content do people like?  Stuff that is funny.  Stuff that gives them informative information.  Stuff that gives them an emotional reaction.   The best ads have these types of qualities so they become just as valuable to the consumer as the article they are reading or the show they are watching.

Why was this campaign so memorable? For the same reason most campaigns are: it made us laugh in a way that got the message across.

3) Do these people want your product? In other words, you need to have the right audience.  I can have a great Clean Bottle ad, but if it is in Harley Davidson Enthusiast magazine, it will be a lot less effective than in Bicycling Magazine, even if the circulation is the same.

Probably not my target demographic.

4) How easy is it to buy your product? Sure, you can have a great ad, but the goal is to sell product.  You need to make it easy for the viewer of that ad to take action and make a purchase.

Everything I am thinking of doing I subconsciencely plug in variables for each of these components.  If the math works out, I go forward.

Here is one example of what I did at the Wildflower Triathlon, a 3 day triathlon and outdoor expo, to maximize my exposure.

So, we had a 10×10 booth at the race, but we were in the corner and I wanted to make sure we had more visibility.  So I did a few things.

• I Put up posters in all the porta potties.  They said “some things in life will always be gross . . your bottle shouldn’t be one of them”.  They also had a hang tag that people could rip off to get a discount.  Here is how I scored it on each of my criteria:

The poster that I put up.

1. # of eyeballs.  HIGH.  Everyone at the event is hitting the porta potties at some point, especially the racers who want to ‘lighten up’ before their race
2. will they listen?  HIGH.  People get marketed to in a lot of places.  But a porta pottie is not one of them.  They are actually looking for something to do to pass the time and don’t have their ‘anti-marketing force field up’ to ignore messages like they would when they are watching TV or looking through their race goodie bag.  It is also a funny ad, so you are getting people to laugh and have an emotional connection with you.  If you can get someone emotional you’ve given them something.  People pay $10 a ticket for a movie to make them laugh, cry or get scared.  If you can entertain them that is real value.  Plus, it made a pretty powerful point by associating their bottle to a nasty porta potty.
3. Target audience.  HIGH.  All triathletes who use bottles
4. Easy to buy.  MEDIUM.  I had hang tags that allowed people to buy the bottle at a discount with a promo code online or at our booth.  So, they did have a call to action.

Probably every 4th person at the event came to the booth and said “I saw your ad in the porta potty, and I loved it!”.  I could have probably paid $200,000 to be a title sponsor and have had posters of my logo up at every mile of the bike and run but still wouldn’t have gotten the recall I did with the porta potty posters.

• We also had our Clean Bottle mascot on the course, cheering on the riders and runners.  Here is how I evaluated this:

1. # of eyeballs.  HIGH.  This is everyone who is racing
2. will they listen?  MEDIUM.  People aren’t expecting a giant costume to be around the corner from them on a race, so when they see it, it is remarkable.  Especially if they have seen it at the Tour de France.  So there is the humor.   I am not just an ad, I am content that they can get a laugh out of.  But,  I think more importantly, is that when I was in the costume I was cheering on each person and giving them hi-fives.  Clean Bottle was taking the time to support the athletes.  We weren’t trying to sell them anything, we were just cheering for them on a very big day for them.  You wouldn’t believe how appreciative people were.  The one downside with the Bottle Boy costume ist that if people hadn’t heard about Clean Bottle, they would have no idea who this was and what I was doing.
3. Target audience.  HIGH.
4. How easy is it to buy?  LOW.  There is no real call to action.

How can you NOT smile when this guy is cheering you on?

• At the booth we also had a big sign that said “No More Moldy Bottles” and we gave out free water.  We also had a great discount going on.  I won’t analyze every aspect but the “No More Moldy Bottles” sign really had people coming up and asking how they could get rid of mold.  And the free water was really of value because a lot of the athletes were thirsty and hot – again, providing content that people want instead of just being annoying.

In the end, the booth was a hit.  We sold 220 bottles over the course of the weekend.  And between our booth, our posters and Bottle Boy, we definitely got the word out in a effective way.  And we had interacted with people multiple times before they even saw our booth – another key part of marketing.

Most small businesses don’t have the $$ to do traditional advertising.  I was shocked when I found out how expensive it was.  A full page ad in Bicycling Magazine for 1 month is $80K!  Who can afford that?!

But fortunately, there are other things you can do that rank highly in each of the metrics I laid out that can get you traction.  Here are a few:

1. Product reviews.  An ad in bicycling costs $80K.  And people will probably glaze over it.  But a product review is free and people actually read those.  Go to every magazine and website you can and ask for a product review.  These are tough to get so you will have to be persistent.  My approach is to read the magazine and start writing to the authors of articles I like to start up a conversation.  Websites and blogs are easier because they aren’t space and time constained.
2. Facebook.  Start posting on Facebook and advertising your page to people.  But here is the deal – make the content interesting.  Remember, it is all about giving something useful to the viewer.  There are only so many times I can talk about how the bottom unscrews from a Clean Bottle.  And guess what, that isn’t very interesting.  What is interesting?  Training tips are interesting.  Funny videos of my children are interesting.  Jokes are interesting.  Anything to make people laugh or be more connected with you.
3. Twitter.  Twitter is a great tool because you can see who is talking about your product category.  With CLean Bottle, for example, I search for anyone who posts about triathlons or cycling.  And then I try to respond to EACH person if it is appropriate.  It takes a lot of work, but it is worth it.  But what I DON’T do is try to pitch people my product.  That is slimy and people get turned off.  Instead, I just have a dialogue.  If someone tweets that they are going to race this weekend I wish them luck and ask them which race.  Its a lot of fun to make friends on Twitter and people genuionly appreciate that I am asking.  I don’t even tell them about Clean Bottle unless they ask, and then I give them a discount.  Once people tweet with you for a while they will want to check out your profile and there they will find all they need to know.  Again, it is all about providing content instead of trying to beat people over the head with an ad.
4. Get out to events. Hit the road and set up a booth.  People will appreciate that you are supporting the event and it will give you a chance to have conversations with people from your target audience.
5. Target key influencers. Find the most influential people in your market, give them product and tell them your story.  For me, I reached out to triathlon and cycling coaches.  Their recommendation goes a long way.
6. Look for good ideas in other industries and copy them. Why re-invent the wheel?  If you see a great marketing approach someone is using copy it and make it better.  Like I said, I don’t think I have any special marketing talent.  It is just a very big passion of mine so I am constantly observing about what works and what doesn’t when companies market to me.  The stuff that works I just copy and re-purpose.  As a consumer you are constantly marketed to, so if you put your antenae up you will find out what works and what doesn’t.

Thats all for me.  Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.  You can reach me at dave at cleanbottle.com

Ride Clean!