Tommy Saunders and FEWDM Fitness are a few weeks away from making their national TV debut.
Saunders, the creator of the Rock 360 ab-exercise device, will be featured on “Sweat Inc.,” a reality TV competition for fitness entrepreneurs. The show, hosted by celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels, is set to debut Oct. 20 on cable channel Spike.
Tommy and Kacie Saunders talked about the show and their company during the Sept. 2 edition of 1 Million Cups at the Kauffman Foundation.
Tommy Saunders, a former Mizzou wide receiver, got the idea for the device back in 2010, and the development process took about three years. The Saunders have been refining their marketing and getting the word out about the product. At first, that meant focusing on national trade shows and expos, though they’re working hard to make more online sales.
A recent 90-day Facebook campaign led to more than 2,600 Rock 360 devices being sold, with a $182,000 gross and a 2.73 percent conversion rate. (They take Facebook very seriously. Kacie Saunders responds to every comment on the company’s Facebook feed, even the posts that attract 5,000 comments, her husband said.)
The Saunders experimented with a range of price points, but the conversion rate was basically the same no matter how deep the price cut was. Basically, people just wanted some kind of discount. Their website now offers three different price points, with add-ons such as a 10-DVD exercise system, nutrition guides and a knee mat available for a little extra money.
“I think adding value is more important than the specific price point,” Kacie Saunders said.
Appearing on “Sweat Inc.” will be a great opportunity—it’ll expose the product to an exponentially larger audience—but it’ll also force the Saunders to scale up their operations, including capital and inventory, very, very quickly. “It speeds up everything,” Tommy Saunders said.
The show also has led them to rebrand away from FEWDM (which stands for “For Everybody Who Doubts Me”). The Saunders are also preparing to launch a second product, OmniBalls, early next year.
