Mesu: Inspired Design Spreads the Word
I attended the HOW Design Conference yesterday in Chicago and one of the sessions profiled a few great design ideas – all inspired, created and developed by talented women (and several of which were for senior thesis projects…(!)
Mesu, portion measuring nesting bowls, was one that really struck me. They were designed by a young woman who found portion control to be key to her successful weight maintenance. She knew that many others could use an easier/more aesthetically pleasing way to measure smaller portions than a measuring cup, so she used her incredible design talent and gumption to launch the line.
Her initial market was very focused, but her personal passion along with the great emotion tied to weight control in general, has generated word-of-mouth and press coverage not to be believed.
The point was not to serve everyone everywhere, but to serve a very specific need that stemmed from the designer’s personal concern and deeply seeded inspiration. Their simple, spare design makes the bowls beautiful, while a similarly straightforward and fine-tuned business concept makes the marketing all the more effective -with women and men making a dietary life change.
Mesu has dialed in to serve a very narrow market segment in an edited way. Still, I’m betting a lot more people in the country are suddenly realizing that portion controlled bowls as beautiful as these could be incorporated into their lives and positively affect their own eating habits.
Voila. Narrow focus/passionate core = word-of-mouth generated thriving market.
