Category: Customer

‘Oh, by the way’…pricing & fuel surcharges

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The latest trick of many airlines is to segregate elements of their product cost

 

–        Introducing the “Fuel Surcharge”

 

Apparently this provides pricing transparency. Thanks Mr Airline, but we know the price of oil is rising. 

 

 

Isn’t fuel a fundamental input cost for airlines? (30%)

Do they think we care what their input costs are?

Do they realize that we’d rather the total price – no tricks?

Do they know it reduces ‘trust’ in their brand and industry?

 

And just to show my total disdain for fragmented and aggregated pricing here’s a few questions I’d like to propose to the airline Industry:

 

Does Nike have a shoe lace surcharge?

Does Ford charge extra for the steering wheel?

Does Coke have an aluminum can surcharge?

Does Nokia charge extra for the buttons on the cell phone?

 

Fuel is not an ‘optional extra’. So work it out, include it and charge us a price. That’s what business is…. Businesses are meant to be working this stuff out to reduce the complexity in our lives. That’s what business does.

 

No wonder airlines have the highest business failure rate of any industry, and the worst profitability of any Industry in history. (which by the way is a net negative over the past 100 years)

 

Start up blog says: Consumers hate ‘Oh, by the way’ charges. Avoid them at all costs.

Innovation is quite forgiving

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

All twitter users know that it’s not the most reliable website out there. At the time of this post, it’s currently ‘down’ and gives you the message below:

 

 

2 things:

 

1.      They told us about it before hand.

2.      We forgive it, because we love it.

 

If you’re a ‘me too’, chances are your customers would be less forgiving. If you’re a new killer app, service or widget then the lesson is simple: Innovation is quite forgiving.

 

Launch now – improve later.

Barenaked Ladies embrace new world

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Here’s an example of an organization who’ve embraced the new world to absolute advantage.

 

Rock band the Barenaked Ladies, achieved a reasonable level of commercial success in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. A song of theirs you may know is ‘One week’ – you can click here to watch it and jig your memory.

 

Their success enabled them to do what most bands can’t – secure a record deal with the large record label Warner. But in 2003 they sacked them. They thought they could a better job – and they have. They just cut out the middle man and began to have a direct relationship with their passionate fans.

 

Here’s some of the cool stuff they’ve done:

They have a ‘dynamic’ websites & myspace– not static pages

They blog ‘daily’

They include fans in ‘every’ film clip

They built a permission database

They provide ‘free’ downloads of their music

Allow ‘free’ sharing of their music (Youtube / File sharing)

They sell their records direct and collect all revenue

They have ‘band days’ and ‘invite only concerts’

They provide photos of the days events

They run cruiseship holidays for fans

(Yep, 300 of their fans socializing, eating, relaxing with them for a week or so, where they provide the entertainment for them every night)

 

 

The net result is this. Their fans feel like they have a real connection, which they do. Their revenue per album sold is now approx $6.00 to the Barenaked Ladies, versus the previous $1.00 while with Warner. They have pure creative control of their work and don’t have to worry about being dropped by their record label.

 

Their site link is here: http://www.bnlmusic.com/default2.asp

 

Kudos BNL.

Mass customization

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a few categories or Industries which have been revolutionized by Mass Customization:

 

T-shirts (Threadless & Neighborhoodies)

TV (Youtube & Joost)

Handbags (Elemental Threads)

Journalism (Blogs & podcasting)

Newspapers (RSS)

Job Seeking (Aggregation & feeds)

Book publishing (Lulu)

Tourism (the web in general)

Luxury goods (fractional ownership)

Music (itunes)

Networking (facebook & social apps)

 

In fact there’s just too many to mention.

 

But the real question is this: If it hasn’t hit your industry yet, why not and what are you doing about it?

Ahead of their time

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a meme from the Cluetrain Manifesto guys.  It was written some 9 years ago and still rings true. The predictions herein are still evolving today, and yet some corporations still haven’t got it.

Start ups out there; invest 5 minutes with the ideas below, embrace them and you’ll be well ahead of the game.

[slideshare id=7027&doc=cluetrain-28722&w=425]

Entrepreneurs are like footballers

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Footballers (or any sports person) have good form and bad form. Some are heroes and always play well…. others have fleeting moments and some are inconsistent but sometimes brilliant.

 

As entrepreneurs we ought aim to be like ‘the’ footballer… not just a footballer in the league… But the MVP.

 

It’s hard to understand why some footballers have got the raw talent, the opportunity in the big league, but never seem to reach their potential.

 

Chances are – we too are that person – but in business.

 

We’ve been told by our friends and colleagues that we’ve got the talent to make it happen. They believe in us, but we’re not there – yet. That said, we should refer to ‘that football player’ we all have in our mind already. The guy who could be an absolute hero if he just pulled it all together… The training, the preparation, the diet, the mental application, the team effort, the professionalism. (free feel to name / discuss him in the comments) It’s the same with our start up. The idea, and our potential is only part of the equation. In fact, it’s really just like getting drafted. We’ve got along way to go.

 

 

If we’re going to play, we may as well behave like the MVP. Do it all. Aim for perfection and strive to extract every ounce of the gifts we’ve been given. As we know the MVP is never the guy with the most raw talent. It’s usually the guy who maximizes their potential.

 

Let’s do all the stuff we know we should in order to be the best. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Don’t be like Georgie

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

English football savant George Best was once asked what happened to all the money he earned as the worlds greatest player. In classic Georgie style he responded:

 

“I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars, the rest I just squandered.”

 

         

 

 

If we’re in an early phase start up or we’ve just made bank, the principles don’t change. If you can control your spending, you can control your business and your life. It’s easy to justify expenditure at either end of the business spectrum. A start up can convince themselves they’re investing for growth. Likewise, a booming business with big profits can fly first class and hire private yachts to impress clients themselves.

 

Quite often over spending is due to a real lack of creativity and an inflated ego.

 

Startup blog advice is this: Cash flow is vital and by being creative we can ultimately conserve cash flow, yet generate similar results.