Easter Eggs — Is the Easter Bunny hitting a home run with his product?
A short not too serious assessment of the Easter Bunny’s main product and how a good product is defined.
At around Christmas time last year, might have had one to ten cups of mulled wine already, we assessed Santa Claus as a Founder. Right after we published that article on medium we got a call from a little, widely known fellow, called the Easter Bunny (In Germany it is a bunny, who brings the eggs around Easter, in other countries it might be a cuckoo, a chick or something else), saying he is sick of always being the cute underestimated pet and Santa gaining all the attention. The only way to calm him down was to convince him, that in December really nobody cares about Easter and when Easter time gets closer next year, we will feature him as well in one of our articles. So here we go.
We could write about “The Top 10 recipes to taste a bunny like you have never ever before”, but we are no chefs, we could also write about “How to sew your own fur coat out of a rabbit fur in 5 easy steps”, but we are no Tailors either and it is also not what we want to be associated with. We as First Momentum Ventures are still venture capitalists and therefore we are always looking for good investment opportunities.
One key ingredient for a worthwhile investment is a good product and since the Easter bunny is heavily relying on his one and only product the Easter Egg, let’s take a (not too) serious look at it. We base our examination on “The 10 Commandments of Good Products” an article by Jeff Davidson, published on “The Startup”, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication. Let’s start.
1. It makes an undesirable task easier
Well, we start of right with a hard one. What is it what an Easter egg does? Is it actually making something easier or faster or more efficient or non-existent? It is already cooked, in case you want to eat an egg you can skip the part of cooking and you do not need a stove. Also thinking of decoration purposes, putting some Easter eggs on the breakfast table already makes it look decorated according to the season without any additional effort. We know, it is a stretch, but since this might be a sponsored post payed for by the Easter bunny, we need to find positive arguments. 😉
2. It has focused value
The key here is to do few things very well. Why? If you try to do everything you will fail fairly certain or at least won’t be as good as specialist are in their respective field. An Easter Egg is there to be eaten. It also can be used for decoration purposes, as part of several games or some other stupid ideas you might think off. Compared to other products out there the focus is clearly there.
3. It lasts
“Great products should aim to last forever.” To be honest, please do not try to have an Easter Egg last forever. It will start smelling quite badly anytime soon, but that is not the key aspect meant by this product quality. It is about the design and its key functionalities and there we must admit that the Easter Bunny did a great job since in its core the Easter Eggs have been the same for years. Sure, they changed colour and its pattern designs, but the essential shape and “ingredients” are always the same. Ok, to be completely fair we probably should acknowledge the hens for it and not the Easter Bunny, but do not worry, we won’t start the hen vs. egg discussion now.
4. It has Aesthetic Appeal
That is an easy one. Easter Eggs do look good. If yours do not, you might either change your grocery store or pay your parents/kids/siblings a drawing course. Because, *careful spoiler alert*, there is no real Easter Bunny.🙊
5. It is Intuitive
A good product is simple and easy to use. There might have been some misunderstandings in the use of Easter Eggs, no more details on that, but in essence their use cases are simple and one does not need any special training to peel and eat an egg or to use it for decoration purposes.
6. It is Efficient
How about the high value:resource ratio of an Easter egg? It is nearly perfect, isn’t it? The egg comes out of the hen nearly completely finished and just needs a quick bath in boiling water, a bit of paint on the outside and finished is an Easter egg. In addition, it combines decoration purposes with food and thanks to its shell you do not even net additional packaging.
7. It is Visceral
Another thing about good products is their stimulus-response compatibility. They feel good and hit the soul. “Good product design goes beyond the eye.” That might all be true, but we, I am sorry, won’t discuss the psychological implications of an Easter egg here. It’s over at some point and some of you might have deeper connections with Easter eggs than others, but we are none of them, sorry!
8. It satisfies the seeking system
“People research for the sake of researching — it’s about the ego. Humans need to feel autonomous even if they aren’t.” We humans have an intrinsic drive to explore and challenge ourselves. Besides the dare of cracking the shell, there is not much of a challenge with a simple egg. Probably that is why the Easter bunny had the glorious idea of hiding the eggs for an Easter egg hunt. If seeking the Easter eggs during an Easter egg hunt does not satisfy our seeking system, what else does it then.
9. It serves as an expression of the User
That is a hard one. “People purchase to project” — but honestly who wants an egg as an expression of their inner ethos? One could argue here that each Easter egg could be painted differently and therefore express something else, but maybe it is again a point to accept that an Easter egg is just what it is…an egg.
10. It helps people
Finally, a good product should help people. In one way or another. Easter eggs help people in many different ways. Think about an Egg hunt on Easter morning. The kids are engaged and the parents can enjoy their time. Eggs also help against hunger, it does not matter if at breakfast in the morning or during lunchtime, boiled eggs are always a nice snack.
First Momentum ❤ the Easter Egg!
To sum it up, Easter Eggs are what one expects, boiled eggs, sometimes even blown-out egg shells. Still they have their purpose and if you consider that for some years now, one can buy coloured (Easter) eggs all year round in (German) grocery stores, it seems as there is definitely a market for it.
Fun fact to end this article with, the most expensive Easter Egg was sold for 12.5 mio Euro. Ok, to be honest it is not a classic boiled and painted egg. It is a small egg made by a jeweller and diamond-studded.
First Momentum Ventures wishes you a Happy Easter and some well deserved days off with your family.
