Theories in action
Here’s a link to my new startup www.rentoid.com:
As the name would suggest it’s a renting portal. At rentoid we:
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Unlock your idle assets – like ladders, bikes, lawn mowers, anything…
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Connect communities & satisfy your temporary needs
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Reduce unnecessary consumption
Laymen’s terms: We rent stuff off each other. That’s it.
The About & FAQ’s will fill in any gaps. Why not check it out? It’s free to join and list as many items as you please.
As the blog title suggests, a few of my theories in action.
The problem with strategy
The biggest problem with the perfect strategy is this: It’s pretty hard to implement the plan, maybe impossible. That’s why business plans can be overrated. The simpler the strategy and therefore plan, the greater the chance of implementation.
Here’s the start up blog view:
Create a 1 page mud map, and make up the rest as you go along. That way we just might keep up with the world.
Brand mythology
Have you ever heard the story of how Ebay started?
The short version goes something like this; Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar built an on line auction facility to help his wife sell and trade her Pez dispenser collection. I believed this until yesterday when I read an excerpt from the Adam Cohens’ Ebay book, the perfect store.
Turns out Omidyar is a bit of a nerd (was there ever any doubt?) and a perfectionist who wanted to build a perfect market, with open bidding and perfect information. He didn’t just stumble upon Ebay.
If we can ignore the irony of perfect markets built on a PR lie, it’s a pretty cool story which has created some sustaining brand mythology. Another brand which has a leveraged a consumer myth was Redbull; speed in a can, illegal in some countries…’Gee, it must work’
If you can build a story at launch, it might just be the exposure your start up needs to get it off the ground.
When the conversation allows…
Ask yourself this: Do you bring up your start up when you get the chance? Every time someone asks you what you’re doing? When you met someone at a party?
If not, why not?
I’m not suggesting you never shut up about it, or bore people with your start up. What I am suggesting is that you bring it up when the theme of the conversation allows. When you get a chance to sell your dream, do it.
You are the brand!
What do these names have in common?
Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Martha Stuart & Arnold Schwarzenegger?
They all encompass their belief systems in what they do. They live and breath what they sell, do or communicate.
Oprah is the queen of emotive issues & media
Donald is the king of ‘real estate bling’ & making it big, the comeback kid
Martha is the queen of aspiration & homemaking
Arnold is Mr Olympia, come Terminator, come Governator
In short, they are the brand personified. They took what they personified and built a business around it.
It’s not so different with a start up. We shouldn’t pretend we have a brand in the early days. What we have is a product, service or name. Brands take years to build. In the short term the only brand we have is ourselves.
What we say, represent, believe and create will essentially be extended into our brand franchise.
This is good news. In the short term it means we’re in control of the initial brand experience, because it’s a personal one. One on one interactions with customers and colleagues. What they think of us, will be what they think of our brand and more importantly, what they tell others.
Conditions apply – Jetstar
A low cost airline Australian called Jetstar has the promotion running pictured below.
* Here’s some of the conditions from the fine print in bullet point form for you:
- The cheaper flight alternative must be available when you call Jetstar
- The cheaper flight must depart within 1 hour of the comparable Jetstar flight
- The cheaper flight must be from the same airport, not just the same city
- The offer is only valid if the cheaper flight was available & identified prior to making a booking with Jetstar
- If you can meet all the above conditions, the ‘double the difference’ payment is made in vouchers for part payment of future Jetstar flights. (So you have to spend more money?)
What a hoax. This is quite possibly the worst consumer promotion I’ve seen.
Seems Jetstar aren’t very serious about their offer. In fact, terms that come to mind are “inauthentic” and “deceptive”.
Sure it’s ‘legal’, but making an offer which is so contingent can only harm their brand. Especially when the target is a price sensitive audience. It says to customers – “we’re cheaper – sometimes.”
If you’re going to run a promotion, be authentic.
Viral Marketing example
Granted, The Simpsons is a well established brand. But here lies an example of something with a strong propensity to spread virally.
As an on line promotional vehicle for the new Simpsons movie, create your own Simpsons avatar. Click on the donut.
It makes this website really sticky, the really clever thing is that your avatar then appears randomly through the website. Very cool. I just spent quite an amount of time making up avatars for all my friends and family members.
How did I find out? Word of mouth, multiple times.
Fear of knowledge
Probably the worst phobia entrepreneurs can suffer from is ‘fear of knowledge’
Epistemophobia, as it is clinically known sounds so ridiculous it’s hard to believe it exists. It does, and we all suffer from it to varying degrees. Sometimes we simply don’t want to change our world view.
As entrepreneurs we quickly learn that introducing something new to the world requires our audience to overcome their ‘fear of knowledge’. When people are comfortable in what they believe, they’d rather not know there’s a better way to do things, or a more logical thought pattern to embrace. Think about the PC and the years it took for it to penetrate households.
Like consumers, we entreopreneurs don’t like to acquire knowledge that contradicts our goals, methods or ambitions either. The trick is knowing whose turn it is to ignore the fear of knowledge; ours or the consumers.
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