AI prompts to escape the price race (how Touchland hit $700M)

This article was originally published by Dani Kimble in her email newsletter and is reprinted here with permission. Dani is an expert brand marketer with a ton of lessons on how to elevate your company and product brand.

TL;DR: A hand sanitizer company just sold for $700M by borrowing ideas from the beauty industry instead of competing on germs. You don't need their budget to use their remix strategy.

Let's break it down, and explore how AI can help you find and test these opportunities in your business.

Touchland recently sold for $700M.

A hand sanitizer company. That charges $10 per "bottle."

Ok, so what the heck does a unicorn exit have to do with your business?

Stay with me here...

This strategy move doesn't require venture funding or a massive team.

It simply requires seeing your business differently.

...and AI can help you see those opportunities faster than ever.

Let's breakdown Touchland's strategy.

Before Touchland, hand sanitizer was brutal.

Sticky residue.
Hospital smell.
Boring bottles.

Everyone competed on one thing: "kills 99.9% of germs."

Purell Ad Campaign :: Behance
Sound familiar?

How many businesses say the exact same thing as their competitors?

Accountants promise accuracy.
Contractors promise reliability.
Agencies promise leads.

When everyone makes the same promises, price becomes the only differentiator.

And we all know price is a race to the bottom.

Touchland's founder asked one question that changed everything:

"What if we stopped competing with other hand sanitizers?"

Instead of making a better germ-killer, she looked at beauty brands - an industry where people happily pay $40 for moisturizer that costs $2 to make.

Then, she borrowed their playbook.

The Remix That Worked:

What every hand sanitizer offered:

→ Kills germs
​→ Convenient size
​→ FDA approved

What Touchland borrowed from the beauty industry:

→ Scent as self-expression (15 fragrances)
​→ Sleek packaging
​→ Moisturizing "skincare" benefits
​→ Sold at Sephora, not pharmacies
​→ Premium price positioning

The result? They grew from $12M to $130M+ while everyone else fought over pharmacy shelf space.

And all the cool kids started creating videos about 'em. Here's my daughter's version, ha! 👇🏻

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Here's How You Apply This (with AI as Your Research Partner)

1 / Map your industry's standard promises

Instead of guessing, use ChatGPT or Claude to get good insights:

Prompt: List the 10 most common value propositions, promises, and marketing messages used by [your industry] businesses. What does everyone claim?

Then prompt: Now identify which 3-5 of these are so common they've become meaningless to customers.

This gives you clarity on what to AVOID competing on.

2 / Discover your "donor" industries with AI

Leverage AI's massive access to data to determine pattern recognition across industries:

Prompt: My business is [description]. My customers also spend money on [list a few things you know they buy]. What are 5 industries where my customers happily pay premium prices? For each, explain what emotional or experiential value they're really buying.

3 / Use AI to brainstorm specific borrowable elements

Prompt: I run a [your business]. I want to borrow successful elements from [donor industry]. Give me 10 specific things I could adapt:

3 language/positioning shifts
3 experience or service delivery changes
2 packaging or presentation upgrades
2 pricing or offer structure ideas
Make them practical for a business with [your revenue size] and [team size].

4 / Generate test campaigns quickly

Once you pick what to test, AI helps you move fast:

Prompt: I'm testing positioning my [your service] more like [donor industry]. Write 3 different ways to introduce this to existing customers.

5 / Create A/B test materials in minutes

Prompt: Create two versions of [website copy/email/social post]: Version A: Traditional [your industry] positioning Version B: Borrowing experiential elements from [donor industry]. Keep the core offer the same, just change the framing.

Your 15-Min AI-Powered Value-Mixing Session
1. Open ChatGPT or Claude

2. Run the prompts above with your specific business details

3. Pick the ONE borrowed element that makes you think you might be a little crazy if you decide to move forward with this... ha!

4. Generate test materials

5. Try it with 10 customers this week

So, to close this one out:

You don't need venture funding to borrow brilliant ideas.

You need a willingness to test and experiment, and 15 minutes with AI.

The magic happens in the unexpected combinations - just like hand sanitizer and beauty.