‘Appliance brands don’t actually have a brand’: Rocco co-founder Alyse Borkan on making mini-fridges a conversation piece

“Appliance brands don’t actually have a brand,” said Alyse Borkan, co-founder of Rocco. “I really saw an opportunity to do things differently than [what] the rest of the category was doing.”

Borkan joined this week’s Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about her new brand and how she’s hoping to compete with the big players like Frigidaire. 

Rocco launched last November with one product: a colorful fridge meant to showcase beverages. It works for both wine bottles and cans, and Borkan said the intention is to have an appliance that could complement a home’s aesthetic. “People really kind of think about it as a little bar in their living room,” she said.

It’s still early days, but the product does seem to be resonating. Rocco sold out of inventory two weeks after launching. Ever since, the company has been playing catch up with fulfilling orders, but plans to be fully stocked and ready for more expansion in the next few months.

But Rocco isn’t only direct-to-consumer. The brand launched in Nordstrom shortly after going live. “We really think this is something that people are going to want to experience in real life before they purchase,” Borkan said. Rather than being one of hundreds in an appliance store, Rocco opted to be the only fridge in Nordstrom’s furniture section. 

The plan now is to continue growing — ideally adding more wholesale partners over the next year. That could mean launching in an appliance store, but it could also mean partnerships with other brands — especially drinks brands. 

“We’re hoping to grow pretty quickly just based on the initial interest,” she said.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.

Making appliances a branded experience
“When I looked at the rest of the category, I very quickly realized appliance brands don’t actually have a brand. And when [Borkan’s co-founder] Sam and I had first met, he was like, ‘What brand of fridge do you have?’ Because, he can geek out about fridges for hours, so he wanted to do that. And I was like, ‘You know what, I don’t actually know the brand on my fridge,’ and I had actually just renovated a home and I couldn’t name the brand that I had chosen… And I really saw an opportunity to do things differently than [what] the rest of the category was doing.”

Why Rocco launched in Nordstrom
“We launched [in] Nordstrom about two weeks after we went live, and we’re in Nordstroms across the country. And the reason for that was because we really think this is something that people are going to want to experience in real life before they purchase. They’re going to want to see it and imagine [it] in their home — and think about it in relation to the rest of their other furniture. So instead of being in an appliance store — where we’re surrounded by these big soulless boxes of steel that don’t really look and feel like our fridge — we wanted to be around things that people might have in their home next to the fridge.”

The 2024 expansion plan
“I think we’re hoping to grow pretty quickly just based on the initial interest. So we’re thinking about things like even out-of-home campaigns and bigger partnerships with drink brands… We definitely want to continue working with editors and creators and home decor enthusiasts to get the fridge out there to relevant audiences as much as possible [to] people who really care about the furniture in their home and want something beautiful. But, we’re thinking a bit bigger as we move through the year and hit Q4, which will obviously be the biggest time of year for us.”