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Earlier this year we ran a competition to boost one lucky startup in their venture to expand. The lucky winner received a bundle of prizes designed to help market their latest product or service.
And the winner is…
Zelter Shelter!
We met up with Lee Price, founder of Sheffield-based company Zelter, to find out more about the company and its mission.
What does Zelter Shelter do?
Zelter Shelter is a unique, wearable personal shelter. It’s a poncho that turns into a tent!
We focus on creating highly functional gear for an outdoor environment. Our aim is to bring together enjoyment and safety.
Zelter gear is durable and effective, highly portable, and made for extreme situations. We’re getting ready to launch our first product, the Zelter Shelter, on a large scale.
Where did the idea for Zelter Shelter come from?
We’ve had past experience with bushcraft (wild camping), and survival training in Canada, and some of the experiences faced out there really stuck with me.
Years later, I felt the need to answer some of the challenges faced in extreme environments with my industrial design experience.
I always wanted to make my own gear – and now I’m making it happen!
Did you use any marketing tools when you first pitched your business?
I created my own brochures for the first product, and they’ve done really well so far. I’m looking forward to seeing where we can take it!
We’ve also printed business cards to for networking: it’s helpful to be able to hand over your contact details really easily.
How important do you feel printed marketing is for your business?
It’s really important: when you’re with people, it gives you something hand over with immediacy and professionalism. It’s a physical thing that people can take away with them to read later and pass on to others.
I’ve found it really important when I’ve been taking the product places for demonstrations, and it really complements digital media too.
What else has worked well for your marketing activity for Zelter Shelter?
The product really is a conversation-starter in itself. People can really see it as a practical and useful thing.
It’s something they’ve never seen before, but as soon as they do, they want it. They immediately come up with ideas on where they’d use it, or tell me about a friend who’d love one.
As I designed the product myself, I quite literally know it inside out and that really helps to sell it.
The brand itself, Zelter, is a great asset. It’s a made-up name inspired by the German word for ‘tent’! It’s a simple and attractive word that’s unique and easy to pronounce and spell if you see it or hear it.
The logo and identity was created by a great agency called The Space People in Leeds, which helped give it a strong look.
I’ve also used modern social and digital media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It helps me to reach people and engage with them.
It also offers so many great ways to show off the product that would otherwise seem a bit amorphous and hard to describe to people. The visual element is really helpful!
We’ll be catching up with Lee in a few months to see how winning the competition has helped to boost marketing activity for Zelter Shelter. Keep an eye out!
