Mark and Sara Croteau have some interesting hobbies.  Sara is an accomplished artist, as well as a massage therapist and Mark breeds exotic reptiles; a hobby he picked up while working in the Banking industry.  Although the pair's hobbies don't sound like they would logically complement each other, they do show the many dimensions this couple bring to their business, The Slithering House.

What started as a hobby for Mark quickly turned into a profitable business.  Both Mark and Sara were driven by their desire to share their fondness for reptiles with children and adults alike.  They started touring trade shows in their spare time and visiting other breeders.  As their personal collection of animals grew, they found that their was whole niche of the market not being served.  With this in mind, the Slithering House of Reptiles was born.

The Challenge

During the initial engagement with sharp i.t., Mark and Sara outlined some of the difficulties they faced as small business owners.  Although their "products" were a departure from the more traditional clients sharp i.t. had served in the past, our team was up to the challenge.  Working as a small business, Mark made it clear that their resources were limited.  After a number of meetings, sharp i.t. presented the Croteau's with a recap of their biggest points of pain.  Based on this, Slithering House needed:

• ...to develop their brand.  They also needed creative ways to market their product, since many people are afraid of reptiles.
• ...a community that could inform potential owners, while also supporting existing owners.
• ...a feedback mechanism for tracking industry changes and customer needs.
  
• ...a virtual store front to safely display their products, as well as items on consignment.
• ...a Point of Sale (POS) system for handling transactions with their customers, both on the web and while they are on the road at trade shows.
  
• All of this needed to be implemented in a way that prevented overlap with the existing web communities / purveyors already available on the web.

The sharp i.t. Solution

One of our first steps was to organize a photo shoot with several of their more exotic animals.  The day before the shoot, Mark met with the sharp i.t. team to discuss proper behavior around the animals.  During the shoot, Mark proudly arranged each reptile, sharing its history and behaviors with the group.  With a variety of Pythons, Boa's, and Bearded Dragons captured on film, the digital photos were sent off to a graphic designer in order to create the company's look and feel.

Several days later, sharp i.t. met with the Croteaus and presented several concept logos of various themes.  Everyone in the room was excited about the high quality of the designs, as well as how accurately the new brands captured their core ideals of Slithering House.  After narrowing down their brand to a single logo, we iterated as group to refine it.

With a brand in place, sharp i.t. conducted Market Research to better define the needs of the budding Slithering House community.  After reviewing the results of the market research with Mark and Sara, sharp i.t. developed the functional design for what would become a new Slithering House web community.  Prototypes, or Wireframes, were developed to demonstrate a typical user experience.  After a number of small refinements, the functional design was signed off and the engineering team began development.

To mitigate the costs of implementing the Slithering House community, sharp i.t. suggested using a Content Management System (CMS).   By using DotNetNuke (DNN), an ASP.NET-based CMS, the engineers could leverage pre-written security, persistence, and theming subsystems, concentrating their efforts on customizing the user experience. 

Before the "paint even dried", Mark and Sara were anxious to get their hands dirty.  To meet their curiosity, a sharp i.t. engineer met with the Croteaus, as each of the major functional areas were completed, providing examples and repairing defects.

Almost as quickly as it began, the Slithering House of Reptiles site was complete and Mark

The Result

Several months later, Mark and Sara are all smiles.  They now have a regular community of contributors helping them follow their vision, to share their fondness of reptiles with others.  Among the contributors, are several leading animal husbandry professionals that have volunteered their time to contribute to the growing Slithering House community, proving that Mark and Sara's vision is applicable to the not just the new owners, but also seasoned professionals.

Another surprising success was their segway into advertising and co-branding.  Almost instantly after launching their site, the Croteau's began receiving unsolicited offers for advertising on their site.  Although they have continued to carefully choose what product placement makes it to their site, the Slithering House Community has exceeded their expectations and proved to be an important catalyst for their business.