Here’s a brand that is really into what they do. It’s not about anything, but making surfing possible – anywhere.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqLupl3X4fA]
I bet they’ll make profits possible anywhere too.
Category: Launch
Trust
Today I remembered why brands like Kraft, Nestle, Heinz, Kleenex et al have done so well. It’s because they were trusted. Trusted to deliver a remarkable product experience. The problem is, that what was, remarkable in 1963 is no longer remarkable in 2007.
Their trust was built on being safe, reliable, to have function and form. We wanted to feel confident that our cheese slice was safe to eat, hermitically sealed, made with quality milk, that the factory was clean. But now, that’s just table stakes. Cost of entry. The government has created laws which raise the stakes for remarkable products. This is a good thing. Raised standards on all things makes life better, but it does make entrepreneurship harder.
The problem is that trust has been abused by yesterdays’ heroes. Their products are still safe, but they took out all the good bits to make it profitable. Kraft Singles have reduced the cheese in them to the point that they are officially known as ‘Cheese Spread’ – check the label.
Trust is great, but if we abuse it, we leave the door open for those who are authentic.
4 weeks
Ask yourself this. Could you get your idea to revenue in 2 to 4 weeks?
You’ll be glad you did when it takes 4 times longer than you thought.
Some context: a 6 month idea, becomes 2 years. This is 2% of your life if you live to 100.
Pricing Dubiety
If we’re first to market how do we know a price the market will accept? There’s no precedent.
In the early stages we get knock backs. People are change averse. They’ll often say it’s too expensive. It’s their default response to your sell in, even if it isn’t true. In these times we suffer Pricing Dubiety. The trick is to stay the course, knock on all the doors first. Sometimes we simply need a foundation customer to lead the others to a new paradigm.
If the price does turn out to be too high, it’s the easiest thing in the mix to change. Besides, it gives us a reason to go back and see ‘the rejecters’ again if we do reduce it.
Open Cola
Daneel points us to Open Cola. An interesting flip from the usual. Some insights for start ups.
Losing interest
It’s vital to get our projects to market quickly. When projects drag on, we can lose interest in it. We’re tired, bruised and scared from the battle – the battle of bootstrapping. We often lose interest when it counts most, close to launch. We get sloppy.
Our audience doesn’t care. Why should they? All they see is our offer and our enthusiasm when we engage them. If we’ve lost interest in our project then, why should they be interested?
Single Minded Proposition – V 2.0
There’s nothing more powerful in marketing than this. It allows the other important things to happen. Like being remarkable, sexy, premium, eyeball worthy, first, functional or ‘the’.
There’s another reason it counts. It makes the un-fun part of a start up easier. The administration. It’s far easier to do all the non audience stuff when you only do, make or sell one thing. Accounting, banking, inventory management, production, tax, supply chain, warehousing, distribution, invoicing et al… all become less arduous.
Then we can focus on the stuff that really matters.