I was watching the Bears–Rams playoff game a while back and heard something I’d never heard before in my life.

This game was brutally cold and windy.
Actual temp was 10 degrees, with a “real feel” (whatever that actually means) of 3.

Winds were gusting between 30–40 mph.

The sideline reporter was talking about the things players do to try to stay warm during a blustery cold game like that Bears–Rams matchup, and she mentioned that several players dump cayenne pepper into their socks to keep their feet warm.

The same cayenne pepper you have in your spice drawer at home.

They just dump the stuff right into their socks.

I’ll admit—it piqued my curiosity.

It seems like it would make a terrible mess, so I don’t know that I’m actually going to test the theory, but I really do wonder if it works and how effective it is.

And who was the first player—or person—to think of that in the first place?

Which then got me thinking about a lesson I learned from Dan Kennedy at some point.

The lesson was all about targeting and packaging.

He talked about how eye drops are almost always marketed as just that—eye drops.

If you’ve got eyes and they get dry, use these eye drops and they’ll feel better.

But being the brilliant marketer he is, he laid out how an eye drop manufacturer could target a specific person, change the name of the product, and drastically raise the price.

Eye drops sell for about $5 per bottle.

But rename those same eye drops something like “AeroVision” or “High Altitude Eye Lube” and market them specifically to airplane pilots?

Same exact product.
Different positioning.

Turn the features into pilot-specific benefits.

Now they sell for $8–$10 per bottle instead of $5.

Because if you’re a pilot with dry eyes, which bottle are you going to grab?

The one formulated specifically for you and your situation—or the generic one made for any Tom, Dick, or Harry?

See where I’m going?

If this cayenne pepper trick actually works, how could we rename and reposition it for athletes trying to keep their feet warm in cold weather?

Gee…

I don’t know…

Maybe something like:

Cleat Burn
Hot Socks
Toe Torch
Sock Spice
Devil’s Dust

I mean, that list could go on and on, right?

Then you pick a name, have some packaging designed, throw up a simple 1–3 page Shopify site, run some Meta ads, and see what happens.

Here’s what ChatGPT just spit out for me in terms of packaging ideas for something like this:

Now, I imagine there would be some FDA hurdles to get through since this would involve direct contact with skin—so it’s probably not quite as simple as I outlined above.

But you get the idea.

Hopefully one of you likes this idea enough to actually do something with it.

That’s it for today.

C-ya tomorrow.