How YETI Turned Watercoolers Into a $5 Billion Brand

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I love great business stories.  They teach us so much.  From how entrepreneurs come up with their ideas to the ingenuity to make the business go -  a great business story can teach us a lot and help us on our entrepreneurial journey.  Recently, I came across a Twitter post that went through the story of YETI, the cooler brand, that took a commodity and turned it into a luxury, status symbol.  

The post by @chrishlad and goes through the story of how the founders got sick of rigging flimsy coolers to stand on while fishing and decided to change the game.  And they did so by not competing in the red ocean of the cheap cooler sellers in the big box stores, but by creating a whole new vertical at the top end of the industry.  And they changed the game with the target audience they went after and how they marketed it.  

You can read the full story and post here 

These are my 3 most important takaways...

1. Find a stale industry or product vertical and create a new niche.  Don't compete in the red ocean with all the other players.  
2. Get cystal clear on your target market and don't be afraid to focus on a smaller market and give them what they crave.
3. Little innovations over what currently exist can make a big difference.  Go beyond expectation.

What lessons do you take from the YETI story and how can you apply them in your business?