While discussing marketing theory with a colleague from Melbourne University – lecture Jeremy Apsey, he came up with a cool quote:
“Theory is nothing more than the accumulation of our historical knowledge.”
He then went onto say… “We need to be able to think both ways, theory into practice and practice into theory”
As entrepreneurs I’ll word it as follows:
‘We must be able to think then act, as well as act then think’
I took this photo in a local mall in Melbourne on August 9th – The coldest part of winter.
Anyone who lives in or has been to Melbourne knows it’s still very cold until November. Yet the clothing retail chain above already has summer clothes only in the display window. And they’ve already started their winter clothes clearance – in the middle of winter!
The top temperature on said day was 11ºc / 55ºf with snow falls down to 400m.
Here’s the weather forecast for Melbourne for the coming week:
This is retail gone mad – for a few reasons:
They are selling their ‘winter’ stock ‘during winter’ at a 70% discount?
Consumers don’t care about their buying seasons, just what the weather’s like – right now.
Melbourne people don’t care what the weather’s like in Queensland.
People’s lives are too busy to buy clothing 4 months in advance.
They are letting their supply chain get in front of what consumers actually need and want.
No prizes for guessing the store was empty.
If we buy hot soup on cold days, and ice cream on hot days, why should clothing be any different? It’s not. And is less so, as time becomes the finite resource.
If you’re a start up in the retail arena.
Startup blog says: make your range, match the ‘real’ world. You’ll be far ahead of any retail chain.
Many including startup blog predicted the death of Mother Energy Drink before it was launched. By the way this was Coca Cola Australia’s 4th attempt to get a share of the energy soft drink market. Other attempts included Lift Plus, Burn and Sprite recharge. All of which bombed.
As predicted ‘Mother’ should have been called ‘Dog’. So they’ve burried the old stock on hand and Coke have re-launched Mother with an all new fix all flavour. Which has lead to the following badvertising:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvgIopzPflI]
Memo to Coke Marketing team: Taste has nothing to do with it. Half of Red Bull’s consumers even admit they don’t like the taste. Consumers know the same people developed the flavour profile of this launch too, and yes they know it’s made by Coke.
The energy space is already occupied in the minds of consumers. The market is already dominated by two powerful brands with strong identities & distribution depth. Save your money on advertising and put it towards buying Red Bull gloablly or V for the Asia Pacific market – because this category is already game set match. The two horse race which all categories become has been run and won.
One more thing – this spot is so contrived, your target market would be laughing at you.
Kind regards – Startup Blog.
Note to start ups – if you’re launching a me too, without a price, distribution or technology advantage – best to re-think the launch plans. If Coke can’t do it – why can you?
I took this photo at a random eyewear retailer in Melbourne Central.
The list of darling brands over expanding is long. And invariably it leads to the same place – over exposure, brand erosion and ultimate financial decline. And Tiffany & Co is about to enter the realm of it’s own undoing if the eyewear foray is any indication of future brand plans.
In publicly traded stocks as Tiffany & Co is – management are never satisfied with solid return on investment. They tend to have an unrealistic hope of something different – to outperform the market. Especially when they have done this for a number of years previously. (Tiffany & Co has been a share market darling through the 1990’s and early 2000’s) Management & investors alike soon develop a false sense of infallibility. And so when growth in the brands traditional categories and channels wanes – the brand extension tomfoolery begins.
Irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand is omnipresent for uber successful brands. This most often ends in the same result – diminished brand equity in the core part of the business, and eventually declining revenue.
The naysayers would now be getting ready to provide examples like Armani, D&G and Versace who are all selling eyewear. Truth be told, none of said brands have the allure and history of a Tiffany & Co. The Tiffany brand is clearly stepping down and over extending in the chase for growth as the share market investors demands.
This blog entry is more about success than start ups. It’s also about what happens when public pressure influences strategy, about the difference on decisions with multiple owners (shareholders & fund managers) versus being run by a single minded smart person or a handful of smart people. But when you start up starts to rock, or you hit the big time remember this parable.
Guitar Hero is quite clearly a cool product. It’s super fun and intuitive to use. I think anyone who has used it can agree on this. I knew this before I owned one, now I understand why. Beyond the fun of playing the game does two key things:
– Mass customization
We often here the buzz of mass customization, but it’s rare for a very mass market product to hit the high notes that Guitar hero does on the customization front. Here’s a picture of my custom Gibson Les Paul Axe.
You’ll notice I’ve strategically placed the stickers in a symmetrical fashion which suits my style and design preferences. While going for a clear Mid-late 1980’s rock look by using the stars and flames only. For me this design rocks. While my friend Reg has plastered every sticker available on his guitar. Such a simple sticker pack creates a real personalised guitar.
The store is also a very cool feature where players can buy everything from new clothes, different guitars (personally I prefer the Gibson flying vee), buy new songs, heck you can even buy actual new guitar bodies for the controller guitar.
It then goes beyond fantasy and steps into a physical reality for the players. Having on-line guitar battles and starting a band. You then build a career in the game which transports guitar hero to a special place. It creates a microcosm which closely relates to the rock star reality. The microcosm is the future of gaming.
Often exclusivity in distribution is a winning strategy. Not in gaming. Smart brands which need companion products, and companion products which are expensive (as consoles are) need to ensure they have the broadest possible number of entry points. Guitar hero has done this by being available on Playstation, Wii, Xbox, PC and even Mac.
Guitar hero rocks, simply because it does all the stuff we hear about in new marketing so often.
Here’s a link to my latest article in Anthill Magazine
It’s a thought experiment of what we ought really consider if we want to ‘dream chase’, and the reality that we aren’t really risking much at all.
