In the words of their customer, KontrolFreek pwned 2010. The company has established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the gaming community and has set itself up to experience another year of impressive growth. For those who are unfamiliar with the gaming industry, there is a whole new niche of products that gamers demand called performance gaming gear. KontrolFreek has blown this market wide open with its array of products that help gamers from many genres improve their skills and comfort while playing their favorite titles. Their product that got this whole train going was the FPS Freek, an attachment to the joystick on an Xbox360 or PS3 controller that lengthens the joystick to give the gamer more leverage and precision, in addition to added comfort and lessened fatigue.
Just search KontrolFreek in YouTube to see how passionate their fans are about their products. This past year, the KontrolFreek team put together and executed on some truly innovative social media promotions, the strength of which can be seen by the unprecedented growth on Facebook from around 3,000 likes to well over 55,000. It doesn’t end there; the company has converted its consumers into an army of KontrolFreek advocates with over 1600 YouTube videos produced by their customers and fans.
So how has all of this activity benefitted KontrolFreek? The company’s sales grew over 350% in 2010, experiencing over 13,000 orders per month, or over 20,000 items ordered per month. And all of this was achieved with limited investment and with a small, tightly knit, and highly gelled management team. Ashish Mistry, the company’s CEO, says that part of their success has been their hyper-responsiveness to the customer, with most service requests addressed within 24 hours. He explains that not only has their team created a market for their products and executed to satisfy demand, but also they’ve created a brand that consumers trust and enjoy.
So what’s in store for KontrolFreek in 2011? Well, as 2010 saw them increase their product line from 3 SKUs to 8 SKUs, keep your eye out for a new product or two. Also, as KontrolFreek has proven the power of strategic partnerships — from celebrity gamers and YouTubers to other performance gaming gear companies — it will be interesting to see who KontrolFreek partners with next. Mr. Mistry explains that their success is an exercise in execution and all signs point to KontrolFreek continuing this high level of execution in the new year.