Category: business

Pulling Power – Beckham

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Last night at Stadium Australia two lower tier football teams (Sydney FC and LA Galaxy) played in front of a crowd on 80,000 fans.

The reason the crowd was so large was because of the person in the picture below. That’s it. 

 David Beckham.png 

Start up blog isn’t big on celebrity endorsement, but when someone has that kind of pulling power the possibilities are endless. Especially when the person in question is inextricably linked to the event – the football game – ie David Beckham is a football player. It’s not quite the same as getting an Olympian to sell a car.

The Beckham brand is one of the few sponsorship properties that may just be worth the money. Especially, when it involves the biggest sport in the world, which happens to be a minnow in the worlds largest economy.

Start up lesson:

Don’t get someone to endorse. Get someone who is embedded.

Inventing Jargon

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

 sethgodin.jpg

web 2.0

permission marketing – Sethsethgodin.jpgsethgodin.jpg

interruption marketing – Sethsethgodin.jpgsethgodin.jpg

bootstrapping

startup

SPAM

BACN

badvertising (startupblog)

radvertising (startupblog)

goodvertising (startupblog)

longtail

Blog

ideavirus – Seth

Purple cow – Seth

Cutting edge

TV industrial complex – Seth

……

People like jargon for a few reasons. It puts them in the inner circle, it makes them feel smart & exclusive. When it’s great jargon, it simplifies an important explanation.

But jargon’s a bit like fashion. Things come and go and it’s important you’re using ‘fashionable’ jargon and avoiding the old embarrassing terms like ‘thinking outside the box’.

Seth Godin is a master at ‘inventing jargon’. There’s a little “Seth” next to his ones.

Taking the lead from Seth we’ve invented some jargon to explain important concepts for rentoid.com the place to rent anything including:

Unlocking idle assets

Conuserism

Digital networking of temporary needs

Go on and invent some jargon to sell your story.

Did you build it?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Did you build the website? Yes

Did you build your blog? Yes

Did you design the property development? Yes

Did you renovate your house? Yes

Did you launch the product? Yes

Did you manufacture the product yourself? Yes.

Did you landscape your own garden? Yes.

Did you make that advertisement? Yes

Did you self finance the business? Yes

Yes you did all these things, and more, every bit of them. You orgnaised the project, you had the idea, you got the finance from the bank, you conceived it and you made it happen. Never mind if the advertising agency made the creative, the PHP programmer coded your website or the bricklayer built the house.

You did it with your mind, your management skills and your ability to execute the project. None of it would have even started without you.

So whenever anyone asks if you did it? You say “Yes”.

Best way to differentiate your online startup

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Have an actual phone number listed on your site where you can be called. Anytime.

A real phone number, with a real person answering, in real time, for real customers / members / web surfers. Real easy.

Why? Have you ever tried to call Yahoo, Google or Ebay?

There’s no easier way to differentiate your start up and outdo a big guy.

Sultans of Swing and start ups

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Listening to my itunes while working away the Sultans of Swing by Dire Straights starts playing… some lyrics struck a chord. (as always, pun intended)

 

mark-knopfler-fender-guitar.jpg

“… and Harry doesn’t mind if he doesn’t… make the scene….

                                            He’s got a day time job, he’s doin’ alright.”

Feel free to comment.