Cleveland Heights foodie Michael Ruhlman is exactly the kind of guy you’d expect to create an awesome iPhone app.
He’s an avid blogger, where he shills in a way that doesn’t feel like he’s shilling. He never tells you to buy his books. You just kind of do it after reading. You might pick up a few kitchen supplies as well, which of course he offers.
He tweets frequently, engaging readers. And you see him trying out tips from culinary nobodies who give him suggestions via Twitter.
Somehow, without working in a restaurant, he’s become the go-to guy for out-of-town chefs or Food Network personalities looking to get a tour of the well-known and the lesser-known Cleveland treasures.
But while he thought an iPhone app could be cool, he never really pursued it. After being contacted by a half-dozen readers suggesting he create a mobile application for his latest book, Ratio, he took one of them up on it. The reader offered to develop it for free and split the proceeds of the $4.99 sales.
There’s a lesson here for business owners — both in his approach to spreading his brand and how he does it in a way that you don’t even realize he’s doing it.
The app has become wildly popular. And if you don’t own Ratio the book, after paying $4.99 for the app, you’re pretty much guaranteed to lay out the $27 for it.
“The book added something new to the discussion: a new way of cooking,” Ruhlman says. “The application gives you a way to apply that information.”
And it’s one more way the Ruhlman brand becomes a part of your daily life.
Basically, Ratio explores the relationship between individual ingredients. This allows you to augment recipes easily whether you’ve decided to cook just one serving of pancakes for your son, like Ruhlman now does, or whip up a larger batch for the whole family without leftovers.
Ultimately, the app enhances the experience of the book. It does not replace it.
That’s important from a business perspective, Ruhlman says, but he didn’t do it intentionally. It’s a model he’ll follow in the future, though, and one other print media should have figured out earlier. He points to one of the most devastating old-media failures for foodies: Gourmet.
IB: So what could Gourmet have done differently to save itself?
MR: Had Gourmet created a new form of magazine website, they’d still be around. Instead, it was just a reflection of what they already did really well, but for free. Websites and iPhone applications must do things that the product that initiated them can’t.
IB: Had you thought about creating an iPhone app before?
MR: It certainly occurred to me, but I didn’t know how to go about doing it. They’re expensive to create, and I didn’t have time to figure out how to get it done. I was lucky that people also saw how appropriate this could be in an iPhone application.
IB: Critics are saying the Ratio application is as good or better than your book. How do you feel about those kind of reviews?
MR: It certainly changes my book. I’m really proud of the application. It takes the information from the book and gives it a new application. It actually does something that a book can’t do: calculate amounts of ingredients. It’s a useful application as opposed to a recipe application, which just stores recipes or makes a shopping list. Those are fine, I guess, but this one really adds something new.
IB: Has Ratio changed the way you cook?
MR: It’s changed the way I bake. I used to be one of those people who was afraid of baking. Didn’t understand it. Never turned out well. Wasn’t very good at it. Doughs and batters are where ratios really shine. Once I realized it’s all part of the same continuum, I stopped fearing batters. I stopped fearing making cakes.
IB: Does the success of this application mean it will now be part of your writing process?
MR: I’m working with a digital company in Cleveland to produce a digital cookbook for the tablets that will soon be appearing. So, yes, we’re already thinking digitally. I think there is an extraordinary opportunity in the world of cooking and publishing. The possibility is mind-bending. To be able to click on the word “saute” and get a demo or click on “a small dash” and see how small a dash we’re talking about. Or to click on “final dish” to see a soup being strained through a chinois and be able to click on that chinois and purchase it if you needed it. Or if you don’t know what Bourgogne is, to quickly understand what it is. The potential for learning is extraordinary.
IB: Do smart phones change our business models?
MR: They’re going to. We don’t know how, though.
IB: So whoever figures it out becomes the richest?
MR: Um, maybe? I still think the person who creates the best content will be the richest, or ought to be. That’s the challenge: how to make quality what’s valued and paid for.