Start Up Blog

One reason to do anything:

Because it’s worth doing

There is nothing worse than an advertising voice over. (yes advertisers, we recognize it)

Here’s what it says to the audience:

We don’t care who you are

We don’t care where you’re from

We don’t respect your culture

We think we can stooge you

We think you won’t know the difference

We think all our customers are the same

We talk to you, not with you

To me it makes no sense to be stingy on making a TVC worth $500k when you’re spending over $5m on media. It’s a false economy, especially when the media doesn’t work and it turns off the potential audience you’re trying to persuade.

funny advertising is not necessarily…

celebrity endorsement is rarely….

huge budgets do not ensure….

strong cut through doesn’t ensure…

we need to remember the brand not the ad to be…

to spend more on media and less on creative doesn’t make…

doing a voice over doesn’t create…

TV is not the only place for…

TV is most likely not the place for… 

if we the target didn’t buy it, it wasn’t…

just because you don’t like it, it can still be…

global advertising is rarely…

really cheap methods can create…

word of mouth is always the best form of…

Feel free to add yours to the comments

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.

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?

Sampling is the best thing a start up can spend money on when you know consumers will dig what you have.

There is one thing companies often get wrong when sampling a new product. They decide in their infinite wisdom to only give a portion of the actual consumption experience. That way they can sample more people, have wider reach – get the product or experience in the hands of more people.

How frustrating is it to get a little pouch of shampoo that will barely produce a lather on your hair? In this case, all consumers will do is tell their friends about how bad the product is.

If budget is an issue we’re better off sampling less people with the full product experience.

This is where I request the assistance of my loyal readers….

I’ve blogged about the recent launch of rentoid.

Rentoid is very green. The basic concept is to encourage people to rent items from each other, rather than buy them. Net result being same lifestyle with less consumption. The climate crisis is really a symptom, not the problem. Hence, I’d really appreciate a little help in spreading the green word on rentoid

The request is simply to help us get it on the eco radar / blogisphere / community. Sure there’s, something in it for rentoid – but there’s something in it for the community and the environement. Be sure to let us know or comment below on any ideas / actions taken.

Of course the acid test is how many start up blog readers believe it deserves the exposure. This will help us determine if we’ve got it right.

While goofing off watching cable, a great entrepreneurial movie came on – it reminded me of life in a cubicle. So here’s the startup blog top 10.   

1. Startup.com (great documentary)
2. Pirates of Silicon Valley (cheesy but insightful)
3. Office Space (the motivation to escape)
4. Fight Club (bootstrapping, viral marketing)
5. The Corporation (don’t act like ‘em)
6. 7 up Series (life’s journey, dreams & failure)
7. Prison Break (strategy, contingency, alliances) only TV exception!
8. Jerry McGuire (the courage needed)
9. Wall Street (the game – politics of money)
10.  readers choice…

Feel free to add what number 10 should be in comments.

(in case your wondering the movie was Office Space)

Business advice often given to entrepreneurs is how to protect themselves and their business. Think company formations, insurances, trademarks, partnership deals, business names et al.

These are all very costly for a start up. It’s often better to leave these things to the last minute. It’s easy to get excited and just register everything possible so you own all the relevant IP. That way your best friend and business partner Joe can’t steal all your personal assets….

Do it later. Any money spent which isn’t directly going to generate revenue can wait. There is nothing worse than wasting valuable cash on protecting business that never got to revenue.

Once we’re up and running it’s a great investment. But not in the early days, or during the pre-revenue period.

We are modern day entrepreneurs. We cut new ground and bring change. We need to act a little bit like rockstars - rockstars of a new genre. Like rockstars we need self belief which borders upon arrogance.

We need attitude. We can’t fake it.

We can’t act like employees

Employees are conformists

Conformists never change the world

We’re bringing change

We are not conformists

I used to think that it’s better to keep your business idea a secret. Then I read that “secrets kill you” in the Bootstrappers Bible by Seth Godin. It’s very true. You can get a copy here.

Firstly – no one is going to steal your idea. The idea is the easy bit. The execution is the hard part. Truth be told it is more likely that someone else will start doing what you are if they don’t know it’s already being done.

Proof – how many times have you had a great new business idea only to find out it has already been done. Then you simply move on.

By keeping it a secret – it not only chips away at your confidence, you remove the potential for your circle to help you nurture it and bring it to life.