Action / Reaction:
In physics:
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
In business:
For every market there is an equal and opposite market.
Searching for new business ideas?
Chances are there’s a market waiting at the opposite end of the spectrum of an existing product or market.
In March of this year I did a post on a small business gaining some cut through which you can see by clicking here.
And just yesterday local water manufacturer ‘Another Bloody Water’ had a delivery truck driving around with the entire truck covered in grass, which can be seen below.
In the middle of a concrete grey city you know it turned heads and had plenty of cut through.
I know a trend when I see one!
In Melbourne there’s a sporting club called the MCC. The Melbourne Cricket Club. Being a member gives you the rights to attend any sporting event at the MCG stadium (which seats 100,000 people).
Granted they are great seats to watch the football from. It also has a couple of restaurants and old school establishments within its confines. The membership costs about $500 per year…it’s nice enough.
There’s a 20 year waiting list to become a member of the MCC!
You need someone to die before they admit another member. People talk about how long they’ve got to go before they’re likely to become a reserve member.
It’s a rare business where making customers wait is part of the allure. Sure there’s a lot of history as the club is over 100 years old. I wonder how a start up with a premium / unique product could make ‘waiting’ a selling point?
I’m not about to define a brand, I’d be wasting your time as there are plenty of marketing books to do that. I am about to talk about some qualities that many brands used to have, and more importantly the features that tomorrow’s hero brands do have.
function first
reliable consistency
thin product range
you’ll travel to buy it
limited distribution
you found out about it by recommendation
limited if any advertising expenditure
no external branding
you don’t care if people don’t know your using it
often founder defined
An example for me personally is Herringbone shirts. A Sydney based shirt company. Their specialty is shirts. 
They’re expensive, but the quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. Only those who have one would know you’re wearing it. We know the cut, the feel, the fabric and they just sit like quality garments should.
A lot of global brands once fit the above description. Then due to the brand’s own success they simply became ‘corporations’. Once this happens, the rot sets in. They go public, product ranges get expanded, the founder loses control or sells out (as they deserve to), production is outsourced, quality is compromised, distribution is expanded, branding becomes overt and crass, sales targets must be met, prices get cut, customer basses expand, the product adapts to the larger vanilla consumer…. – rinse and repeat. Until their core consumer moves on.
Outrageous commercial success often predicates a brand’s inevitable decline because it is hard to retain the focus that drove the success in the first instance.
What is your – yesterday’s hero brand?
What is your – tomorrow’s hero brand?
This is where I request the assistance of my loyal readers….
I’ve blogged about the recent launch of rentoid.
Rentoid is very green. The basic concept is to encourage people to rent items from each other, rather than buy them. Net result being same lifestyle with less consumption. The climate crisis is really a symptom, not the problem. Hence, I’d really appreciate a little help in spreading the green word on rentoid
The request is simply to help us get it on the eco radar / blogisphere / community. Sure there’s, something in it for rentoid – but there’s something in it for the community and the environement. Be sure to let us know or comment below on any ideas / actions taken.
Of course the acid test is how many start up blog readers believe it deserves the exposure. This will help us determine if we’ve got it right.
Are you prepared to knock on doors, engage everyone you know and sell any chance you get, or would you be too embarrassed to do so?
We need thick skin if we want to champion a start up. And that involves selling every minute of the day, in every conversation. If we’re not prepared to do this, maybe we haven’t got what it takes, or worse, we don’t believe in what we’re doing.
It’s quite difficult. It depends on someone really, really caring about what we have to offer. And then, the person who really, really cares about it has to find someone else who equally really, really cares about it. And so on.
What does ‘care’ mean?
is entertained by,
must have,
must buy,
will make life significantly easier,
will make them money (rich?),
will save them a lot of money
will make them popular
will make them leading edge, cool…
It’s all about ego, impressing ‘their’ permission database, not yours.
If you think you’re going to tell a few friends who will miraculously take your startup viral, generate a zillion orders and distribution deals, then think again. Traditional awareness tools are still required to some extent to get a critical mass, and once this has been achieved, it needs to be worthy, and worthy means our audience really cares.
