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The Story of a Brand

Blue Kazoo - Elevating Puzzles to Whole New Stratosphere

The Story of a Brand

Ramon Vela

Business, Entrepreneurship

5145 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2023

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.

 

Darin says, “really one of the best jigsaw puzzles on the market and really elevating it to be unilaterally the best product on the market. And really creating a whole new stratosphere within this category. And it's a category that's very ancient. It's been around in its current form for hundreds of years and in some basic form for thousands of years. And to be able to continue to innovate and elevate on something that’s old is a special project.”

 

Today, we interview Darin Hardy, President & CEO of Blue Kazoo. Blue Kazoo is a premium jigsaw puzzle company that focuses on a few favorite 1,000-piece puzzles at a time, artfully designed and conscientiously crafted.

 

We discuss:

 

*We he’s grateful for
* Overview and origin of the Blue Kazoo
* Does being in the military give you special insight to building a brand?
* Blue Kazoo’s success during the pandemic
* His vision for the business
* What makes Blue Kazoo different from other puzzles on the market
* Why we learn most from our failures
* His lessons from his previous experience at the Nasty Gal brand
* How to turn customers into fans
* Working with artist to produce unique puzzles
* And more…

 

Join Ramon Vela and Darin Hardy as we break down the inside story of Blue Kazoo on The Story of a Brand.

 

For more on Blue Kazoo, visit: https://bluekazoo.games/

 

Subscribe and listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand” on your favorite podcast player.

 

*

 

This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.

 

Alright, guys, here’s the deal: I have a gift for you from our primary sponsor — Sendlane. They’re giving away their online course eCommerce Academy - Email & SMS Marketing!

 

This course gives you the step-by-step playbook to drive more revenue and retention with email & SMS. This is typically a $500 package, but for our listeners, it’s entirely FREE when you get started with your FREE 14-day trial of Sendlane. 

 

When you do, chat with their support team and let them know you’re one of our listeners to get full access to hours of course content that will help you make email marketing your #1 growth engine.

 

Visit https://storybrandgift.com to get the details, sign up for a free trial and get your gift!

 

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

when I joined, there was a fantastic brand, right? And there was fantastic customer loyalty.

0:03.7

One of the things that Josh and Abraham did really well is made sure that the company

0:07.1

respected that the customer needed to be happy, right? And so I've sort of built on top of that,

0:12.6

a product that sort of pushes the boundaries of what a puzzle could be, right? So from an art

0:17.2

standpoint, you know, whether we're going to something classical, like this Jolensky

0:22.0

painting and calling it, rumor has it, right? We also, I'm going to unbox here on your podcast.

0:27.8

These are fully biodegradable stickers that we use instead of cellophane. So if you order from us,

0:32.6

your puzzle might come a little bit scuff, but just know you're saving the planet.

0:36.1

We've upgraded the texture on the

0:37.6

box so it doesn't hopefully scuff as much, right? We've eliminated the poly bag in the insides,

0:43.0

so now it's a fully biodegradable paper bag, and we've upgraded the actual pieces itself to this

0:48.7

sort of ultra-premium black FSC certified recycled material, right?

0:54.8

And so it's a much more premium feel.

0:57.2

It's got a satin, biodegradable satin finish.

0:59.3

Everything about it is biodegradable.

1:00.9

Not that you're going to want to throw it in the and in your trash,

1:03.8

but if you do, it's not going to leave a footprint.

1:05.7

They're buried in your backyard and come back,

1:07.2

then you'll have good soil in a couple of years.

1:08.6

So that is sort of what makes us unique. Story of a brand, a podcast that helps people learn the story behind their favorite consumer products.

1:29.1

I'm Ramon Vela, and I believe that people want to know more about the brands and products they

1:34.0

purchase. So each week, I interview the founder of a consumer brand, unpacked our story,

...

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