Lessons Learned Selling on the iPhone App Store

[The following interview was conducted by David Armano of Logic + Emotion and originally published in his blog on June 3, 2009.]

David Armano: With Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference coming up on June 8-9, it's time to check in with L+E's favorite iPhone App developer, Roger von Oech.

Earlier this year, Roger turned his Creative Whack Pack card deck into an iPhone App called the Creative Whack Pack. Roger refers to it as "the App's store's premier creative thinking/innovation tool." I did several posts on it the week it launched in March.

So what's happened with the Creative Whack Pack app since you launched it in mid-March?

Roger von Oech: I've learned that visibility is everything at the App Store — there are 30,000+ apps all competing for attention but only a few get noticed; the rest get buried. Selling an app is like having a booth at a huge bazaar. You probably won't get noticed unless you're near one of the entrances or on a corner.

David Armano: How did you get visibility for the Creative Whack Pack?

Roger von Oech: The blogging community was vital in my launch. I've been blogging since 2006, and I was able to turn to a number of fellow bloggers for help in promoting the Whack Pack and get the word out.

You were kind enough to post about it. Chuck Frey of Innovation Tools did an in-depth review. Guy Kawasaki tweeted about on Twitter. Robert Scoble had me on his TV show for forty-five minutes. Mark McGuiness and Paul Williams did interviews with me.

These posts led to about twenty-five other posts about the product and generated a lot of good word of mouth. I worked hard at this, but I felt that this was a better strategy than buying ads or relying on iPhone review sites. I'm really grateful to the bloggers who supported my marketing efforts.

David Armano: What did that do for product sales?

Roger von Oech: It helped enormously. Within several weeks, the Creative Whack Pack rose to the Top Ten of the Business category. This was crucial. Far and away the best exposure you can get for your app is on the App Store itself. There are a limited number of places where apps are high-lighted on the store: "New and Noteworthy," "What's Hot," and "Staff Favorites." Each of these has room for only 32 Apps.

The only other place for visibility is the Top 100 of your category, e.g., Games, Lifestyle, Sports, Utilities, etc. One media firm has said that there's "an order of magnitude" difference between being on the Top 100 and being buried further down. And obviously being higher up, i.e., in the top 20 or top 10, is better.

David Armano: What happened then?

Roger von Oech: At this point I get very, very lucky. I was ranked #6 in Business. This got me enough attention for Apple to place the Creative Whack Pack on the front page of their "What's Hot" listing. Most of their selections are games, but the Creative Whack Pack is different enough that I guess they wanted to add some variety.

Basically, the "What's Hot" section is four pages of 8 App icons each. If you're selected, you spend one week on page one, one week on page two, and so on. The impact was immediate: sales jumped to a thousand units a day for the first days and then slowly declined over the four weeks I was there.

The best part was that the Creative Whack Pack was ranked #1 in the Business category for two weeks.

David Armano: What happened after your app went off the "What's Hot" list?

Roger von Oech: This is when I learned  some important lessons about price sensitivity on the App Store. "How much should I charge for my app?" is one of the biggest questions developers have, and I'm not sure there's any one right answer. I will, though, share my experience.

For the first two months, I charged $4.99. I thought this was a fair price because I had a similar product in the real world — the Creative Whack Pack card deck — that sold for $16. I was able to get away with this price because my early traffic consisted mainly of blog referrals, and these people were positively predisposed to the Whack Pack and thus prepared to pay a premium.

When I was on "What's Hot," I was able to keep my price at $4.99, again because Apple said this was a good product.

But after I went off "What's Hot," sales dropped significantly, and the Whack Pack fell to #10 in Business. I quickly realized that without a lot of blog referrals (these were all a month in the past and we all know how ephemeral the blogosphere is), I could no longer command a premium price.

At this point I cut the price to $2.99 (which is where it is now), and my unit sales immediately went back up. I decided that it was better to have more units sales (although with a smaller margin). I was getting an instant lesson in pricing!

David Armano: What does this tell you about price sensitivity on the App Store.

Roger von Oech: I think the App Store is quite price sensitive. I think that's why so many apps are free or $0.99. A lot of people just want to play with an app for five minutes or so a few times and then move on. You've got to have a pretty compelling reason to get them to spend more money.

I'd be curious to see what your readers think about pricing on the App Store.

David Armano: What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about creating an App for the iPhone App Store?

Roger von Oech: I've had a number of people ask me for my advice to help them turn their "winning ideas" into an iPhone App.

The most important thing (from my point of view) is: Don't do it for the money. I think you need to be clear on what your motives are for creating your app. If getting rich is at the top of your list, then you're setting yourself up for a big disappointment.

A lot of people are jumping in because creating an App Store for the iPhone is the "Gold Rush of 2009." I don't have any Apple inside information, but my gut tells me that over 90% of apps that go on sale in the App Store don't make back the money it cost to produce them. I see a lot of Apps "newly released" each day, but few of them show up in the "Top 100" of their category.

These were my motives for creating my App (in descending order):

1. I wanted to learn something.
2. I wanted to put my creativity ideas in a new medium.
3. I wanted to have fun.
4. I wanted to make some money (if possible).

All of these happened for me, but I'm not so sure this would have been the case if I had these motives in the reverse order initially.

David Armano: What's next for the Creative Whack Pack?

Roger von Oech: I've just released Version 2.0 this past weekend. The big new feature is "Note-Taking Creative Workshops." In my years as a creativity consultant, I've found that when attendees write down their ideas and answers to prompts and questions, their inspiration increases an order of magnitude. The result: note-taking leads to more productive creative sessions!

I hope to keep listening to my customers, and add some of their suggestions to future releases.

David Armano: Thanks for your time Roger. Good luck with the product!

Roger von Oech:  Thank you, David. Let me just add that selling on the App Store has been quite an interesting experience. I recommend it to anyone willing to pursue it!

Comments

[Prox]

Good insights into product marketing in general.

[Shelbey]

What you point out about sales/marketing here, and the Web's impact on methods, is really interesting. Word-of-mouth has seemed to be the best method even offline; blogs, tweets, posts, etc., being the online incarnation of these-- seems consistent.

Regarding pricing/the '09 'gold rush'-- I remember having shareware on my little Mac toaster when I was a teenager. I doubt most of those programmers got much of their money back. It's a strange conflict, Internet resources and pricing...I see newspapers and other publications grappling with it. Right now I think people are desperate for a reliable stream of income, and memories of ground-floor opportunities in the early Web days are still fresh. We seem to be in an intensely creative period with apps-- not just as an end in themselves on an iPod, but thinking about how they will be players in the next wave of technology when some are bundled together, some are modular, some are reciprocal or integrated with others...they look to me like a great building block, much as several small shops can make up a mall.

[Roger von Oech]

Good insights, Shelbey! I'm still thinking about pricing. In my mind, there's a tension between many people's belief that "stuff on the internet should be free," and my belief that the "creator should find a way to be compensated for his efforts and property." This story still has a ways to go before it's resolved.

You say: "when some are bundled together, some are modular, some are reciprocal or integrated with others ...they look to me like a great building block, much as several small shops can make up a mall."

I've also wondered what other Apps would complement mine. I'm sure other developers has had similar ideas.

[Shelbey]

thanks, roger-- i've been mulling over your response for a few weeks. as an aspiring writer who has seen blogs, etc. replace the 'writer's market,' i too wonder how creators-- producers-- designers-- developers can be compensated. it's affecting a lot of fields-- journalism comes to mind too.

regarding building blocks, i wonder if your developer-friends have a bit of code they could put in to apps, sort of like a trailer hitch on a car, or an overpass connecting roads...i suppose the types of metaphors to play with [beyond the 'mall'] are types of connectors, ranging from alternate currents to y-jacks. i think i'll go play with a few to see how they could be combined.

[Sue Trumpfheller]

I'm taking some book I already wrote years ago and want to give them some new energy. Pulled out my Whack Pack cards for some inspiration and as always right on target. Then I decided to see what you were up to these days. ....my card are 15 years old I would guess. and the blog post added more inspiration and ideas on where to take my books.

Ever grateful for stimulated me another day!

[Tree Climbing Spikes]

Thanks roger, I appreciate your efforts on selling iPhone App Store its really work these lessons to become a successful marketing person.

[grossesse]

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