Tile

We shortened this case study to accommodate for humanity’s collective inability to focus for long periods of time. For the Full Monty, click here.

DNA: MOther

The Challenge

How to differentiate Tile (the Bluetooth tracker and app of the same name) in an increasingly crowded market, how to connect better with customers, and how to establish leadership.

Mike Farley, Tile co-founder and former CEO, got the idea for the gadget after watching his wife agonize in the wake of losing a family heirloom. That’s when it hit him: everyone loses stuff. “It was clear this was a mass market problem,” he said.

When we first met with Tile in 2013, it was working overtime to manufacture the product and meet the overwhelming demand from its crowdfunding campaign. It was also frustrated by competitors clogging the space and looked to better differentiate itself and broadcast its user-friendly features. Most of all, Tile was eager to communicate the app’s ability to enhance lives.

The Aha!

The positioning and DNA exercises revealed that Tile’s opportunity was not to be a rationally driven hardware product company. Instead, the company would be an emotionally driven software services company offering customers peace of mind—in short, it was a Mother. “Around here it really is all about the customer experience,” said Farley. “We provide peace of mind to people and help them in a time of need, even panic. Again and again we hear from people that Tile has changed their lives.”

All of which led to the following positioning statement, which articulates the company’s role and relevance: Tile is the first wearable for your things and is home to the world’s largest community of people united in helping one another find their stuff. Tile as a “wearable for things” is one of two key phrases. No other company in the space had claimed it. It was the empty spot on the map that Tile could fill, especially as a Mother. The second key phrase further differentiates the company: “world’s largest community of people united in helping one another find their stuff.”

The Tile story outlined thus far is specific to the company when we first worked with the team. Since then, Tile’s positioning has evolved along with its vision. “We now see a huge opportunity in location, which is why we are in the process of powering everything with smart location,” said Farley. He anticipates the company’s software being integrated into popular consumer electronics, all without the need to affix a Tile.

The Result

Cunningham Collective led the go-to-market strategy and execution for Tile’s successful 2014 launch. We also led the creation of Tile’s fundraising materials and provided executive coaching, all of which helped to secure Tile’s $9.5 million Series A financing. By 2018 the company had sold more than 15 million Tiles, and has expanded into the world of built-in location, partnering with Jaguar Land Rover to integrate the tracker within the Discovery Sport’s infotainment system.

No matter where location takes Tile, one constant remains: the extent to which Mother DNA is written into everything the company does. “Knowing our DNA helped shape our culture,” said Farley.

Delivering Peace of Mind

The Full Monty

The Challenge

How to differentiate the company in an increasingly crowded market; how to better connect with customers; and how to establish leadership.

Scroll through the Tile website and you’ll find testimonials lauding the small square Bluetooth tracker and app of the same name that helps users find lost items: a beloved stuffed penguin retrieved in Times Square; a motorcycle recovered in San Francisco, 30 miles from where it disappeared; a laptop left on the roof of a car and tracked to the side of a Minnesota highway; keys plucked from the waters off Long Island; a van stolen in Belgium that turned up in Holland; a wallet repossessed from a Barcelona pickpocket thanks to the “find me” button that set off an alarm.

No wonder Tile calls itself The World’s Biggest Lost and Found.

Tile’s water-resistant tags use Bluetooth Low Energy to locate any item they’re attached to. When a tagged object goes missing, the user fires up the Tile app; if the item is within a hundred feet or so, the app signals the Tile to beep. For an object farther away—even thousands of miles away—it provides updated coordinates for retrieval every time another Tile user passes the item with a mobile device. The app runs in the background of users’ phones, anonymously transmitting a signal to the Tile cloud.

Mike Farley, Tile co-founder and former CEO, got the idea for the gadget after watching his wife agonize in the wake of losing a family heirloom. That’s when it hit him: everyone loses stuff. “It was clear this was a mass market problem,” he said.

When we first met with Tile, it was working overtime to manufacture the product and meet the overwhelming demand from its crowdfunding campaign. It was also frustrated by competitors clogging the space and looked to better differentiate itself and broadcast its user-friendly features. Most of all, Tile was eager to communicate the app’s ability to enhance lives.

The Aha!

The positioning and DNA exercises revealed that Tile’s opportunity was not to be a rationally driven hardware product company. Instead, it would be an emotionally driven software services company offering customers peace of mind. (It was clear to us from the get-go that Tile was a Customer Experience Mother.) First, however, it needed to overcome a public relations hurdle—and do it in a way befitting a Mother.

New understanding of its DNA as a Customer Experience Mother encouraged the management team to view its exasperated customers as a community—even before the technology that enabled that community was up and running—and Tile began to incorporate community-building into its daily business practices with regular communications and updates. Not only was the outreach effort a success, serving to mollify customers, it also laid the groundwork for future community-building initiatives.

Before long, the company delivered on the delayed Tiles and turned its full attention to its Mother role. “Around here it really is all about the customer experience,” said Farley. “We provide peace of mind to people and help them in a time of need, even panic. Again and again we hear from people that Tile has changed their lives.”

All of which led to the following positioning statement, which articulates the company’s role and relevance: Tile is the first wearable for your things and is home to the world’s largest community of people united in helping one another find their stuff. Tile as a “wearable for things” is one of two key phrases. No other company in the space had claimed it. It was the empty spot on the map that Tile could fill, especially as a Mother. The second key phrase further differentiates the company: “world’s largest community of people united in helping one another find their stuff.”

The Tile story outlined thus far is specific to the company when we first worked with the team. Since then, Tile’s positioning has evolved along with its vision. “We now see a huge opportunity in location, which is why we are in the process of powering everything with smart location,” said Farley. He anticipates the company’s software being integrated into popular consumer electronics, all without the need to affix a Tile. “Right now, maybe .1 percent of products have location built into them. I think there’s probably about a trillion things on this planet that people want location built into. Our goal is to make Tile the solution that all those things run through for location.”

The Result

Cunningham Collective led the go-to-market strategy and execution for Tile’s successful 2014 launch. We also led the creation of Tile’s fundraising materials and provided executive coaching, all of which helped to secure Tile’s $9.5 million Series A financing. By 2018 the company had sold more than 15 million Tiles, and has expanded into the world of built-in location, partnering with Jaguar Land Rover to integrate the tracker within the Discovery Sport’s infotainment system.

No matter where location takes Tile, one constant remains: the extent to which Mother DNA is written into everything the company does. “Knowing our DNA helped shape our culture,” said Farley. It shows up everywhere: relying on “gut” when it comes to deciding whether a potential hire will fit into the company’s caretaker culture; on the company website and in newsletters; and in a feature embedded in the app that offers network users the option to anonymously thank one another for help recovering lost items. “Just by running the app you're participating in the Tile community; you're being a caregiver yourself,” said Farley. “When someone reports an item missing and you walk by their Tile, you'll update its location. That person will get an update from our servers that says something like, ‘Hey, someone in the Tile community just updated the location on your Tile.’ And then they have an opportunity to thank you.”

Even stepping into the women’s bathroom at Tile’s Silicon Valley office underscores how thoroughly Mother DNA has permeated the company dynamic. On the day we visited, it featured a cloth towel, a colorful rug, lotion, a lighted candle, and a basket filled with feminine hygiene products.

How’s that for a Mother’s touch?