A kids’ binocular was never supposed to be a big product for Vortex. It started with two employees paying attention to something our customers cared deeply about: their kids. In this episode, Joe breaks down the story behind the Vortex Bantam and how a simple idea to create meaningful gifts for customers grew into something much bigger. Less than three years later, Vortex has given away roughly 4,000 Bantams to create rare experiences and sold more than 110,000.
A kids’ binocular was never supposed to be a big product for Vortex. It started with two employees paying attention to something our customers cared deeply about: their kids.
In this episode, Joe breaks down the story behind the Vortex Bantam and how a simple idea to create meaningful gifts for customers grew into something much bigger. Less than three years later, Vortex has given away roughly 4,000 Bantams to create rare experiences and sold more than 110,000.
But the numbers aren’t really the point. The story illustrates a principle anyone can use: make what’s important to the people you serve important to you.
Joe gets into:
• How two Vortex employees turned customer relationships into a product idea
• Why the best ideas often come from the people closest to the customer
• How specificity can make someone feel genuinely seen
• Why creating a rare experience doesn’t have to start with an ROI calculation
• What a binocular-shaped dog toy can teach us about paying attention
The Bantam started as a way to create a memorable moment for a customer and their kid. What followed is a pretty good example of what can happen when you stop focusing on what matters to you and start paying attention to what matters to them.