Category: Marketing Insight

Most Expensive

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

There is a real dichotomy emerging in most consumer markets. Ultra cheap and ultra expensive. Although it’s fair to assume that something that is 3 times the usual price should have three times the utility, chances are things aren’t so symmetrical.

In real estate a house that is twice the price is often 4 times the size and far more than twice as good. However in consumer goods, something that is 3 times more expensive, might only be 50% better.

Maybe the fact that it is the ‘most expensive’, justifies the price. The price becomes the defining feature.

Bugaboo pram

A great example of this is the Bugaboo Pram. I am sure they are better than the average pram, but how much more effective are they in real terms? Are we really going ‘off road’ with our bundle of joy? Or do we want to advertise to the world that we have spent as much as possible on a pram for our child?

Trust

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

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

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

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.

Getting Rich

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The difference between investing and entrepreneurship is this:

Investing is a game designed for the accumulation of wealth.

Entrepreneurship is a game we take for the journey itself.

If we’re planning on starting a business simply to accumulate money, we’ve got it wrong. We wont enjoy it. It’s too hard. If we’re driven only by the financial rewards, we’d be better off learning to become great investors. Investing isn’t as hard. There are tried and true investing methods that civilizations have been using for millennia to generate money. If you stay the course on them it’s nearly impossible to fail.

rolls-royce.jpg

If an entrepreneur has great success the rewards can be financially significant. In fact, the biggest financial prizes are won this way. But it’s the wrong path if that’s why we take it.

Pricing Dubiety

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

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.

Losing interest

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

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?