Most of us live our lives in two very different worlds. There’s our digital life, where our notes, photos and receipts are kept neatly in place, bound by the constraints of pixels and bytes. Then there’s our physical lives, where we still own a box full of old photographs and stuff random papers into a half-hearted filing system. It’s a weird continuum that tends to lend itself to disorganization, lost documents and the far too common game of did I write that number on a sticky note? Or was that in an email draft?
>"From a brand perspective, we want to push out onto the fuzzy edges."
Evernote has already worked small miracles in helping the disorganized organize, but with the launch of the Evernote Market, the company is taking a giant step in extending that influence beyond just the digital. Launched last week, the market is full of devices that seem very much in line with Evernote’s goal: a digital scanner that uploads documents to your account, a fine-tipped stylus that pairs perfectly with the company's Penultimate app, even the capability to photograph Post-It notes and file them into an organized, color-coded system. Really great, organizationally focused stuff. But they’re also selling a backpack, rucksack, t-shirts, a wallet and...socks.
“From a brand perspective, we want to push out onto the fuzzy edges of what an app developer and an app could normally do,” says Jeff Zwerner, vice president of branded products for Evernote. “We already make things that are highly crafted and really smart, but all of that work goes into app—the software experience. We hope people feel that care and that craftsmanship, but we also wanted to do things where it was easier and more explicit for people to feel that craft.”
Socks aside, Evernote has been working towards a market place of sorts for years. After a successful partnership with Molskine that helped translate the contents of their leather-bound notebooks into digital archives, the Evernote team realized that there was some serious demand for digitization products. “We were all taken aback by how many people wanted a physical product that allowed them to work in both modes,” he says. It's true—even a quick glance at Kickstarter makes it clear that bridging the gap between the analog and digital is a growing trend. That's the way we live now; in one hand we have our iPhone and in the other we have a pen. It just so happens that Evernote is in a distinctly great position to take advantage of that.
One of the cooler products in this initial line is the ScanSnap Evernote edition scanner. The company worked with longtime partners ScanSnap to create a scanner that integrates the Evernote way of thinking into both the hardware and software. “Building a scanner experience from the ground up has been something that we’ve wanted to do for a really long time,” Zwerner says.
Evernote wanted to create a device that was more efficient, streamlined and easy to use than was already out there. Once connected, the ScanSnap software is passed over the web, meaning no CDs or extra steps are necessary to start using the device. “It makes it an incredible efficient set-up experience,” he says. “I think Phil [Libin] said on stage, this is the one product you can actually buy your parents, because it’s just that easy.” The best part though? You can put in a mixed stack of documents (think a jumble of photographs, receipts, business cards, legal papers) directly into the feeder, press a button and the intelligent auto-filing software will detect each different type of document and file them appropriately.
>The company threw in a wild card just to make its ambitions clear.
The partnership with Post-it’s parent company 3M will allow users to photograph the sticky notes and file them into a color-coded system, breathing new life into an age-old product. “Why can’t we just work with this and make it better and make it have a digital life that’s uncompromised,” Zwerner explains of the partnership. “It was really kind of born from that desire to treat the Post-it note with respect and make people’s use of that better."
Though there's an odd mix of products, all of them fit into a highly-controlled visual theme. “What we did was put together a tightly curated and directed set of materials, finishes and colors to be able to use across all of these products,” he explains. “So that when we launch these products and put them all together in one photograph to represent the entire collection, it looked like they were all from Evernote.”
With their grey fabrics, soft touch paint and aluminum detailing, the marketplace does have a cohesive aesthetic. And aside from the t-shirts which scream, “I write code for 15 hours a day!” they actually look pretty stylish thanks to working with fashionable partners like Paris' Côte & Ciel.
But really, back to the socks. It's a seemingly strange move, but you get the sense that the company threw in a wild card just to make its ambitions clear. It was basically a way to announce: Hey, we’re more than just a software company. We’re a lifestyle. Will it work? That's yet to be seen, but Zwerner says the company's new path is already treating them well. “These aren't things that would ordinarily be found in this world," he concedes. "But I think proof is, we’re selling a lot of them.”
