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.
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.
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?
If you could offer entrepreneurs one piece of advice what would it be?
Start up blog’s is this: Don’t die wondering.
I’m sure all 20,000 monthly startup blog readers want to hear yours. Add them to the comments or email them to me and I’ll post them on an upcoming blog entry with your name / blog beside it.
According to startup blog….Based on lyrics, some which will require some interpretation.
Bonus song: We want your soul – Adam Freeland
Bonus info – Some you might not know – great I’ve done my job. All are available for purchase on itunes, or free on many on-line download sites if you are that way inclined.
What to do next – get your hands on them, create a playlist, burn a CD, put on your MP3 player and listen to your future and get excited.
Suggest your songs in the comments.
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]
This blog is full of contradictions. Mainly because we must embrace the many contradictions our market place constantly presents us. So when you read them remember its all about context.
But in the spirit of symmetry here’s a few contradictions you’ll never find:
Bias for doing over planning
Bias for speed over perfection
Bias for niche over mass market
Bias for authenticity over spin
Bias for passion over ability
It pays to have a bias for what you stand for.