Category: Ideas

The symmetry of hindsight

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

We’ve all read the stories about how great start ups and emergent brands got their mojo. In hindsight it always seems so strategic, symmetrical and single minded.

 

This issue is hindsight. It will be something single minded and symmetrical that works. The problem is this: If we’re single minded from the start, and we get it wrong where does that leave us?

  

An old Chinese fishing proverb applies here: Cast the net wide.

 

Try everything.

Try everything quickly.

Find something that works.

Then stick to it in a single minded fashion.

 

Contrary to most modern marketing and entrepreneurial theories, we need to ‘get single minded, not start single minded.’

 

We never read about the 100 things any hero brand tried and failed with, only the winning strategy. So it all seems so perfect and well thought out. The truth is, most of the strategic wisdom arrives in hindsight. The more things we try, that greater probability we have of stumbling upon the right strategy – the one that works. But we should never fall in love with the plan before we commence.

 

It will all seem very strategic, symmetrical and single minded in hindsight.

Permission marketing in action

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I recently spoke about newspapers being a good forum for simple permission marketing.

We’ve just done exactly this for our start up rentoid. We approached the local western district newspaper called “the Leader” and discussed the community and environmental benefits of the rentoid service.

It worked and the article can be seen here.

The other reasons we started with a small newspaper is it’s in line with our clustering strategy and it gives us experience before we approach larger circulation media.

Simple Permission Marketing

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a really simple way to execute some permission based marketing.  Get a story of your business in a newspaper. 

Pages need to be filled. Business writers are interested in reporting on new businesses. Start with a small local newspaper. Tell them why the local community needs to know about your business. We must focus on what’s in it for them – not us. 

Most big newspapers are also interested in start ups these days, and even run entrepreneur and enterprise specific sections. So why not go for some big fish:

  • The New York Times? 

  • The Australian Financial Review?

  • The Wall Street Journal?

  • The London Daily Telegraph? 

It’s permission based marketing because people choose to read or choose not to read the article. If they do read it, they’re engaged and obviously interested. The article title tells the reader if it’s for them. It’s content, not interuptive advertising. Simple permission marketing.

                  

                                                                                                                                                              

Here’s the trick: It’s got to be news worthy.

Momentum

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Momentum is the key to the success for any start up. 

In classical mechanics, momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. P=mV

 momentum.jpg 

The start up blog definition is a bit simpler: 

Momentum  = How big you are X How quick you do things. 

Hence, the momentum of anything will increase if either of the above factors increase while the other factor remains constant. That is, you don’t need both factors to gather momentum.

 

A small thing moving fast can gather momentum. A big thing moving slowly can gather momentum. This is why big companies (although they react slowly) still have momentum, their mass helps them maintain their forward motion and ulitmate power.

 

The lesson for start ups is simple;

We want to gather momentum

We are small

We must focus on speed

Zingara Cucina

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

In Australia there’s a great example of a non technology firm going viral.

Zingara Cucina – Italian for Gypsy Kitchen.

 zingara.jpg 

Here’s a short summary:

  • You can’t make a booking – you must be referred by a previous diner
  • They have only one sitting per week
  • The location is a mystery – from the exotic to the rustic.
  • The menu is also a mystery (location & menu both change weekly)
  • Diners are advised by text message of where to go shortly before the ‘event’

A more detailed report is here.

 

As you guessed, it’s the hottest restaurant in town. The only trick is finding it!

Thanks for getting in touch!

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Got this email back from a company that sells custom t-shirts on the web called Neighbourhoodies after I sent in an email query. 

Dear Steve,

We at Neighborhoodies think Curiosity is an underrated virtue, so thank you for writing in. This email is merely to confirm that your question or comment has been successfully received. 

Here is your ticket number:

 http://www.neighborhoodies.com/ticket_view.php?tlid=8L4Q4I 

Ticket Number: 8L4Q4I0s3E8uxyt  

It is a meaningless number and you do not need it. Nevertheless, please print out this number, memorize it, then shred the number into pieces and eat it. Chew first. If at that moment your phone rings, it’s us. Let the phone ring twice then speak the code in Swiss-German, or make guttural sounds to indicate you are choking on the shredded bits.

Thank you. 

Sincerely, Neighborhoodies 

It tells me so much about them, their values, that they’re human and they have a sense of humour. All the things that ‘real people’ have and corporate facades do not.

Cost – zero. Value – infinite.  

Kudos Neighbourhoodies.

Tomorrow’s hero brands

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

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

craftsmanship

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. herringbone-shirt.pngherringbone-shirt.png

 

herringbone-shirt.png

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?