Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Ok, don't all you anti-gun folks go nuts.  I'm not a big gun guy--have a few around the house handed down from father to son type stuff and we live in the country so dispatching a few copperheads is in order once in a while but no, not a gun nut. 

This is more about a gun company that has resurrected itself so it is a business story and falls into the undermarketed category and is about Smith and Wesson.  My favorite undermarketed company story is the purchase by Quaker Oats of Stokley Van Kamp.  I'm sure you don't even know that one but I do because I worked for Quaker when we bought Stokley.  I was pretty much on the periphery but figured it out pretty quick.  Figured out the acquisition but sure didn't figure out why.  That took awhile and today looks great but back then I thought it was pretty stupid.  Quaker bought Stokley because Stokley owned Gatorade.  Gatorade back then was tiny and marketed almost exclusively through Nascar which also was tiny.  Sitting in Chicago freezing in February, I thought buying Gatorade was pretty stupid.  Then the marketing guys took over, timed it to the personal fitness boom, hired Michael Jordan and the thing took off with Quaker eventually selling out to Pepsico because they were willing to pay, and they did, for Gatorade.

But back to Smith and Wesson.  Smith and Wesson is a handgun company famous for the gun carried by Clint in all his Dirty Harry movies.  And that is it--handguns.  Or at least it was until a new guy got hired and did a little market research.

The new guy figured out that Smith and Wesson was a strong brand name.  People thought they made shotguns.  They didn't so the guy set up a shotgun division.  People thought Smith and Wesson made rifles.  They didn't so they bought a high end rifle company. 

Years ago Smith and Wesson thought police departments would not buy plastic guns but they did.  They bought Glocks so Smith and Wesson started making light weight pistols.  What cop wouldn't want to carry a pistol with the name Smith and Wesson?   

People even thought Smith and Wesson was an insurance company.  Actually, in Texas, it is.  Many a truck down here carry a bumper sticker saying "This truck insured by Smith and Wesson."  The guy must have heard about that because he started a Smith and Wesson insurance company.

What the guy figured out that the old guard didn't was that Smith and Wesson was not a handgun company.  Smith and Wesson was a protection company.  The brand name meant protection which opens up a lot more markets like the ones already mentioned but also things like home security, safes, clothing, and some more that I can't think of right now.

Diversification is a dangerous game.  You can easily lose your identity.  But sometimes companies don't even know what their identity is.  The new guy at Smith and Wesson figured it out.  And I bet he is making a lot of money.  Take a look around your company and try to figure out the identity.  If you can't you may want to consider making a career change.  Or you may try to change it from within and make a lot of money.