Display Stand

From beginning to end:

















* Special thanks to my dad for helping me with the construction.

The past two weeks...

while watching one of my favorite shows (Lost), I noticed something that I found rather interesting.

For those of you who have never heard of Lost or know nothing about the television program, it’s about a group of strangers whose plane crashes on a random, unknown island. They are stuck on this island, and the vast majority of the show takes place in the wilderness.

What I found interesting, however, has little to do with the show and everything to do with the first commercial of certain commercial breaks. For two weeks straight now, one of the first commercials in a commercial break has been set in the wilderness.

Last week and now this week, when this occurred, both my girlfriend and I were wondering, “Is this a commercial?” And we continued to pay rather close attention until our suspicion was confirmed that it was in fact a commercial.

If you know anything about marketing though, you know that creating commercials that people pay attention to is a very difficult task. Consequently, I am very curious to know if the creators of the wilderness commercials have done this specifically to trap people into thinking that the commercial is part of the show (in order to obtain the viewers attention). Or, was it a mere coincidence?

I forget what commercial last week was set in the wilderness, but I know this week it was for Jeep. It’s not out of the ordinary for a Jeep commercial to be set in the wilderness, so I’m not quite convinced that the creators have done so to trick the audience into paying attention.

But, I do think that this is something for marketers/advertisers to think about. If you know your commercial is the first in the lineup, and you know that the show typically is shot in a certain environment, or with a very particular filming style, it might make sense to adapt that style into your commercial so that the viewer’s attention actually carries over from the show to the commercial.

More marketing stuff

When CMU freshman arrive to campus they receive a bag with various school related information. As part of my marketing plan I had the orientation committee put a flyer for my product in each of these bags.

The flyer:



I think the idea worked relatively well. Although my facebook marketing effort and PR effort were probably the most effective. The problem with the bag stuffer was that I was unable to test its value. With my facebook effort I could potentially calcute how effective it was by comparing sales from those students that were exposed to it with those that were not. Moreover, I've heard lots of kids on campus say to me that they saw my product on Facebook, and I've seen people walk by my display stand and say "I saw those on Facebook." I will address my facebook effort in an upcoming blog.

PR is a must

Here is a link to the article where I am interviewed about my product. It appeared in the first issue of The Tartan, the CMU newspaper.

"Catching the Entrepreneurial Bug"

Positioning: an excerpt from my business plan

Dorm Slippers must be positioned against items in the collegiate apparel industry as well as non-collegiate slipper products. Essentially, our consumer needs a reason to purchase our slipper instead of the other items in the University bookstore, such as the ever-popular hooded sweatshirts, as well as sweatpants, t-shirts, hats, etc. Moreover, they need a reason to purchase our slipper and not some other slipper product in the open market.

Our Products Purpose vs. The Competition

The positioning strategy in regards to the problems posed in the previous paragraph is actually quite simple. We believe the reason students should purchase slippers and not some other collegiate item is because slippers are notorious for being comfortable. As opposed to other clothes sold in the University bookstore, slippers are the only item made almost primarily to keep you comfortable when you’re in your house, dorm, apartment, etc. When you think of a hooded sweatshirt, for example, you don’t think, “Oh I bet that is comfortable.” So if someone likes the idea of being comfortable when in their dorm (which we believe is an appealing notion), they should purchase our item instead of the others.
Furthermore, I think inherent in the name Dorm Slippers, is the idea that when you’re in your dorm it’s probably a good idea to be wearing slippers and not walk around in your bare feet. It’s cleaner and it’s healthier. And we will also demonstrate this fact through our marketing efforts, but the primary distinguishing factor from the other items will undoubtedly be their comfort.
Our positioning against slippers outside the University bookstore is equally simple. Students should purchase these slippers instead of other slippers because Dorm Slippers are the only slippers that have their school name written on them, and consequently they are the only slippers that will allow the student to show school spirit.
The ideas mentioned above are explicitly expressed in the tagline, which I will now reveal.
Dorm Slippers: The comfortable way to show school spirit.

Email Response

The other day I received this email:

Hi, Greg!

I found your June post about the Chinese manufacturer you're
working with via Alibaba, and I'm curious about how things have been going since you wrote.

I'm consulting on a similar venture involving a wristwatch.

Have you moved on to the ordering/fulfillment phase yet? How has that worked out? How do these companies get paid?

I'm also wondering what your experience has been like with the US Government. Has it been easy to find people who can help you comply with import and licensing regulations, customs clearing, record keeping, et al?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts . . .

Mary Baum
http://www.marybaum.com

Thank you for the email Mary, much appreciated.

As my last post indicates, (which was not written when Mary sent me her email) I have obtained the product. And the ordering/fulfillment phase worked out very smoothly. They delivered the product right on time and met all of the requirements we had arranged and that I specified in the purchase order (which is a very important document to fill out when you are doing a project like this). A purchase order pretty much states everything you have agreed on in great detail, you send it to the manufacturer, and they sign it and send it back.

I think the main point to note is that I went through a very tedious process with my manufacturing company in developing my product. I worked relatively closely with them for several months. Through this experience I gained a trust for them and that is why I felt comfortable sending them the money for a larger shipment. However, I personally would not send money overseas to a company that I have not worked with, whether they have signed a purchase order or not. I would start with a sample order, and if the product is exactly what you requested I would still have my first order be as small as possible and then work my way up to larger orders.

In regards to payment, I wire transferred them the money before they sent the shipment. Had it been a larger order, I may have worked out a different agreement where I paid half before and half after, perhaps.

Addressing the US government, I really did not have to deal with them at all. I worked out an agreement with my manufacturer where they paid all freight fees (including any customs fees). This is referred to as CFR, and there is a glossary of shipping terms for your use here.

Furthermore, my shipment was not valued high enough that I needed to go through a customs broker. Sample product shipments are never held up in customs either, they can be delivered directly to a business or residence without any problem.

What I recommend to someone in Mary’s situation is contacting the manufacturer and asking them who they normally use to ship products. The last thing you want to do is contact a shipping company in the US and have them contact a branch overseas to pick up your product. You could end up paying double if you were to do that.

So find out who the manufacturer typically uses to ship things to the US, then contact them and they will put you in touch with a customs broker from their company. From that point on the paperwork really isn’t too bad.

I suppose the last point that may come in handy to someone in Mary’s position, is to make sure that the manufacturer declares the item as inexpensively as possible. The lower the item is declared the less you have to pay with customs. The manufacturer should have some experience with determining what the cheapest price is that a product can be valued at without customs giving you trouble. However, if you don’t inquire about that they may end up valuing it higher than needed.

I hope this helps. And if you have any more questions you can just ask by leaving a comment for me. Thanks.

I’m Back

Hmmm, I haven’t blogged in quite a while. Where do I begin? How about with this amazing picture of me and my first customer…



It’s been about a month now since my slipper product was first introduced to the retail market. By the way, here are couple photos of my product:





(they come in a khaki color as well)

The product is a memory foam slipper (called Dorm Slippers), with a college logo printed along the side (in this case, Carnegie Mellon, where I am currently a senior). Memory foam is a substance that is very soft and mushy and somewhat molds to the shape of your foot.

"Roadcasting"

In addition to posting about my current entrepreneurial venture I would like to start addressing the music industry in my blog.

I’m going to begin by providing a link to a website I came across while browsing here:

"Roadcasting"

These people developed “a set of methods to transform radio into a community-driven interactive medium. Using collaborative filtering technologies, it enables rich passive and interactive experiences for 'DJs' and listeners in a way that has not previously been possible. Roadcasting matches you to radio stations that play the content that you want to hear.”

So supposedly by 2010 there is going to be this service that lets people have their own radio station that other users can tune into while in their cars or wherever they have a wireless connection (essentially providing mobile P2P). Furthermore, the service tracks your interests similar to how Pandora.com works, and recommends other users stations based first on genre preference and then song preference within each genre.

There’s a bunch of other cool functions as well like voting, in which someone managing one of these stations can poll the audience and have their station play whichever song wins the vote. Any user will be able to manage (passively or actively) their radio station, or listen (passively or actively) to his or her own station or someone else’s station from their car.

Interesting stuff.

Exciting Times/Update

My slippers were shipped from China yesterday, which was Friday, August 11th (300 pairs were shipped, and I will post pictures once the product is available in the store). And my shoeboxes were shipped from California on Thursday. I ended up going with a standard brown kraft gift box rather than a clear plastic box made by another Chinese manufacturer that I found on Alibaba.com.

(examples of tuck top kraft gift boxes)


(the clear box I would have liked to use)


The clear boxes were actually the same price as the brown, but the shipping cost from China made them an unfeasible option. I think being able to see all the slippers on the display stand would have been nice, but the numbers just didn’t add up.

My slippers need to be in the store by the 20th, which is when freshman arrive for orientation, and I still have a lot of work to do. I need to finish my display stand and figure out what I’m going to do to the exterior of all of the shoeboxes. I’m thinking I might have a stamp created with my company logo and stamp the shoeboxes with red ink, or perhaps I’ll purchase stickers.

I’ve started my Facebook.com marketing campaign and it is going relatively smoothly (more on this later).

My orientation packet campaign is on schedule (again, more on this later), and it appears there will be an article written about me and my entrepreneurial venture in the first issue of The Tartan (the school newspaper).

My target market consists of approximately 6,000 students, and I hope to sell about 250 pairs of slippers (which is a lot of slippers, I know).

Lastly, I plan on posting significantly more about my entrepreneurial venture in my blog (probably for the next month or so).

Annoying GAP Employee

Around the middle of summer I had no other option but to buy a new pair of jeans. My olds ones were absurdly worn. The hole in the ass area had expanded to an intolerable width, and they looked like shit.

I really liked those jeans though so I figured I’d buy the exact same pair. But, I thought that I should perhaps get them a size or two smaller.

My old ones were relatively baggy and I figured that if I wanted to be able to wear the new ones out (in a restaurant type setting), or if I wanted to be able to wear them with a dress shirt, I should definitely get something a little less baggy.

So I headed over to the GAP before work one day, walked over to the jean section, and started looking for my old jeans. Found them. Only one problem, couldn’t find the size I was looking for. So I asked the GAP employee for some help and he said, “O no, you can’t wear that size.”

‘I’ll wear whatever size I want to,’ I thought.

But I politely said to him, “Well what size do you recommend?”

I figured I’d let him give the input he desired to give, and then just do my own thing.

So he ended up recommending some size that was like 2 or 3 sizes smaller then the size that was already 2 sizes smaller than what I normally wear. And obviously this dude was wearing his pants in a manner that I would never even dream of emulating, so the last thing I wanted to do was take his advice.

Fortunately, the size he recommended was in a stack of jeans I had overlooked, and this stack included the size I was looking for.

So he gave me the jeans he recommended I wear, and then I just grabbed the pair I really wanted. He then said something like, “Those jeans are NOT your size.”

I replied, “Well I normally wear my jeans kind of baggy so this is small to me.”

And he said, “Well how bout you go try them each on and I’ll show you why the smaller pair is better for you.”

So this is now turning into a really awkward situation. This guy wants me to go into the dressing room and then walk out so that he can show me why I should wear my pants like him.

Nevertheless, I go into the dressing room and try on the pair that I wanted. They fit perfectly (not too baggy, not too tight). I then tried on his pair just to see how they looked. They fit me about the same as the picture below demonstrates.



And that’s just not my style.

Anyways, when I exited the dressing room he was waiting for me and I just told him that the one pair fit me perfectly and told him thanks for the help.

The reason I’m writing about this though is cause it brings up some interesting questions about products and employees. I will share my answers to these questions, and I encourage anyone that may read this to share yours as well.

These questions are:

1) Is there anytime in which an employee should communicate with a customer in such a way that they are not facilitating the purchasing process as best as possible?

I pretty much think the answer to this question is NO. To me, when an employee is in contact with a potential consumer his main concerns should be filling that consumers demands and making his company money. This may be a short-sited viewpoint, but it’s what I believe nonetheless. Helping a customer find what he wants is one thing, but when an employee encourages a customer to make what he (the employee) believes is the smarter purchase, the employee is exceeding his responsibilities.

Is it OK if consumers are using your products in a manner that they were not designed for?

I do not wear my jeans the way they are supposed to be worn. In fact, the annoying GAP employee was probably suggesting my true pant size to me. But I like my jeans a little baggy, and that’s that.
If a consumer likes to use your product in a way that it was not designed to be used, so long as that consumer is happy with what he has purchased you’ve done your job.
The object of business is to create something that people feel is worth the monetary cost.

But what if the consumers are actually changing the nature of your product and brand?
In my opinion that’s fine. You may have to change your business plan, but as long as you’re profitable and can remain profitable you’re doing things right. It’s better to have people using your product the wrong way than not using it at all. If everyone had to wear GAP clothing the way the designers intended, GAP might be out of business right now.

Employees
Consumers
Business Strategy

How to Make $$ with Marketing

I know a little bit about the marketing industry cause my parents own a marketing firm and I’ve worked closely with them for several years now. The following blog addresses some opinions I’ve developed during this time in regards to making money within a marketing agency…

Marketing agencies offer a service. They make money by charging clients for their time and for the ideas that they generate during that time.

And that is why marketers don’t make that much money.



Lawyers can charge a lot of money for their time. Business consultants can charge a lot of money for their time. Doctors can charge a lot of money for their time. Even car mechanics can sometimes charge a lot of money for their time. Unless you’re a marketing guru, you cannot charge a lot of money for your time. Companies simply won’t pay it.

A couple reasons they won’t pay the big bucks is cause they think they can do it themselves, or cause they don’t think marketing is a priority, or because it is impossible to link the companies success with the marketing agencies campaigns.

Don’t worry though, I can teach you How to Make $$ with Marketing. Well, maybe not, but I’ll try.

Alright so the first thing I suggest you do is stop thinking, ‘service.’ Marketing as a service kind of sucks if you’re concerned about making money. You need to transform your marketing ideas into products.

A real obvious example would be making money off the printing for a direct mail campaign, or making money off of point-of-purchase signage.

But let’s say you’re working on a campaign for a professional baseball team. Baseball teams are always giving shit away. So, if you develop a campaign that directly links your marketing message to a gift idea, then it will be possible for you to make a profit off of each gift.

Now, this is definitely tricky cause manufacturers know that baseball teams always offer free gifts, so they call on them and try and convince them to buy 15,000 hats, or bags, or whatever.

But if you develop a campaign that ties in nicely with a unique gift, then you can find a manufacturer in China or wherever and sell the marketing campaign as a package deal that includes, say, 15,000 mini checkerboard sets. Assuming you can get each checkerboard for about two dollars, then you might be able to mark them up by about a dollar and make a nice chunk of loot. And there are many companies that give millions of gifts away every year.

I know that one of my parents most profitable marketing endeavors was one where they provided a gift to each of their clients customers who had bought a certain number of products. The customers were able to fill out a form and mail it in with their receipts in return for a free gift. My parents were making a profit off of every gift.

It’s obviously not as easy as it sounds, but the fact is that there just isn’t enough money to be made from ideas. Think ‘products.’

The second method to making money with marketing is to develop campaigns that can be directly linked to an end result.

This is pivotal in making companies realize the value of your work, but also because then you can quote certain jobs in terms of customers delivered. Meaning, if I developed a viral email, for example, that provided a link to sign up for something or purchase something, then I would want paid based on the success of the email. So instead of developing the email and charging the client for your time and for the idea, you charge them say, twenty-five cents per customer delivered. Or you can charge them for both your time and for each customer.

Some companies will not be able to agree to this sort of pay system, but some will. And whenever a company can place a value on a customer you can make serious money.

It all starts with great ideas though. If you don’t have great ideas then no matter what you do you won’t make money in marketing.

Marketing Advice
Marketing Strategy
Making Money
Marketing

Amazon and ‘My Online Business Bookshelf’

I just made an interesting addition to my blog today, which was to add a link to a new blog that I just created called, ‘My Online Business Bookshelf.’

This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a couple days now. Pretty much I became an associate of Amazon.com (which takes about 5 minutes if you’re not an idiot), and then I listed all of the business books that I’ve read on my new blog (acting as an Amazon associate).

So what’s cool about this is that each book is a link to Amazon.com, and if someone where to click on the link and purchase the book I would get 4.0% of the cost of the book. Once 21 books are sold in this manner my percentage gets bumped up to 6.0%. And somehow there is a way to get up to 8.5%.

The money gets directly deposited into my checking account.

The entire process with Amazon was astoundingly easy. The application process was a breeze and from there all you do is type in the name of the product you want to link to and Amazon gives you the HTML. They even have a Highlight button so you don’t have to highlight it yourself.

What an absolutely amazing program.

Amazon Associates
Amazon
Entrepreneurship

Increasing Your Creativity the Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Way

To my recollection I’ve never written a book review before, but it’s something that I’ve been wanting to incorporate into my blog so I figured I might as well start with psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.

I just finished reading this 372-page book a week or so ago. It was recommended to me by Amazon.com along with Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, (which is the book that I believe made this author famous), and Finding Flow: the Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. I’d imagine that all three books are relatively similar because after reading Creativity I understand his concept of flow, how one can find it through optimal experience, and what one must do to stay engaged in everyday life. Nevertheless, I suppose I chose to read Creativity over these other two books because I’ve always been somebody that believes creativity is one of the most important qualities an individual can possess.

But what exactly IS creativity?

Is your mom creative because she can take a random assortment of ingredients from around her kitchen and concoct a delectable dinner? Is Michael Jordan creative because he had his way with the worlds greatest defenders and had a knack for creating moves in midair? Was van Gogh creative despite the fact that his contemporaries saw him as a disturbed man who painted strange canvases? Are you creative because you always seem to be the one at work solving all the problems?

As you’ve probably guessed, the answer to all these questions is yes. However, there are two different types of creativity exhibited in these situations: creativity and Creativity.

Csikszentmihalyi describes Creativity with a capital C as changing some aspect of the culture, and defines it with a systems model. To be Creative, your idea “must be couched in terms that are understandable to others, it must pass muster with the experts in the field, and finally it must be included in the cultural domain to which it belongs.”

So Michael Jordan is Creative, however according to this definition Van Gough’s creativity did not come into being until a sufficient number of art experts felt that his paintings had something important to contribute to the domain of art. Moreover, your mom (the cook), and you (the problem solver) are most likely creative with a lower case C (personally creative).

Since Csikszentmihalyi establishes a concrete definition of Creativity, he is then able to research and analyze the lives of individuals that have met his requirements. Moreover, he incorporates a number of insightful quotes and ideas (from interviews he had with these individuals) into his book.

The interviews he conducts tend to address their thoughts on how they were able to become Creative, as well as general thoughts on the domain in which their Creativity lies. Domains can include anything from physics, to poetry, to painting, to business, to sports, to public speaking (and the concept of a domain is explicitly defined in the book).

Though interesting, these interviews and analyses will not be the focus of my review. Rather, what I would like to do is briefly summarize Csikszentmihalyi’s advice addressing how one can increase their personal creativity (after all, this is the main reason I purchased the book, and it’s probably what you are most interested in as well).

I will present these lessons in order from least important to most important and include some quotes from Csikszentmihalyi on most of the topics. It is important to note that this ordering is only my opinion. The book does not specify levels of importance on each of these matters.

15) Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to.

14) Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised someone else. This is meant to “cultivate interest and curiosity” (or, “allocate attention to things for their own sake”) since, “comfortable routines restrict and limit the future.”

13) Love your car. “Cars have become important extensions of self; for many people, the car is more like a castle than the home is. It’s in the car that they feel most free, most secure, most powerful. It is where they can think with the greatest concentration, solve problems most efficiently, and come up with the most creative ideas.”

12) Potentially creative young people have to be recognized by an older member of the field. “If this does not happen, it is likely that motivation will erode with time, and the young person will not get the training and the opportunities necessary to make a contribution. The mentor’s main role is to validate the identity of the younger person and to encourage him or her to continue working in the domain.”

11) Develop what you lack. People are typically “one-dimensional,” while creative individuals are not…. everyone can strengthen the missing end of the polarity. When an extrovert learns to experience the world like an introvert, or vice versa, it is as if he or she discovered a whole missing dimension to the world… to start, it makes sense to identify your most obvious characteristic, the one your friends would use to describe you… When you have identified a central trait, you can begin to try its opposite.” “Breaking habits is a little like breaking bones. What should keep you trying is the knowledge that by experiencing the world from a very different perspective, you will enrich your life considerably.”

10) Find a hobby that takes up a certain amount of attention, while leaving some of it free to make connections among ideas below the threshold of conscious intentionality. “When ordinary people are signaled with an electronic pager at random times of the day and asked to rate how creative they feel, they tend to report the highest levels of creativity when walking, driving, or swimming.”

9) Make time for reflection and relaxation. “Neither constant stress nor monotony is a very good context for creativity. You should alternate stress with periods of relaxation. But remember that the best relaxation is not doing nothing. It usually involves doing something very different from usual tasks.”

8) Shift from openness to closure/Be open and then decide what to focus on. “Good scientists, like good artists, must let their minds roam playfully or they will not discover new facts, new patterns, new relationships. At the same time, they must also be able to evaluate critically every novelty they encounter, forget immediately the spurious ones, and then concentrate their minds on developing and realizing the few that are promising.”

7) Have a special space tailor-made to one’s own needs. “Surroundings can have an influence on the creative process. Again, it is not what the environment is like that matters, but the extent to which you are in harmony with it.”

6) Think about how you use time and consider whether your schedule reflects the rhythms that work best for you. If in doubt, experiment until you discover the best timing for work and rest, for thought and action, for being alone and for being with people.

5) Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. “Money gives relief from worries, from drudgery, and makes more time available for one’s real work. It also enlarges the scope of opportunities: One can buy necessary materials, hire help if needed, and travel to meet people from whom one can learn.”

4) Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible/Try to produce unlikely ideas. “Creative individuals do not rush to define the nature of problems; they look at the situation from various angles first and leave the formulation undetermined for a long time. They consider different causes and reasons. They test their hunches about what really is going on, first in their own mind and then in reality. They try tentative solutions and check their success – and they are open to reformulating the problem if the evidence suggests they started on the wrong path.”

3) Supportive family and friends.

2) Intense involvement in a particular domain. “Acquiring the foundations of math and physics for a scientist, of drawing for an artist, of the classics for a writer is the starting point for any further innovation.”

1) Shaping a future for yourself/Do what you love to do. “It makes no sense to persevere in an activity that gives no joy, or the promise of it.”

I suppose this is less of a review and more of a summary of what I found to be the authors main points. Nonetheless, I do believe that if you understand the principles discussed above and focus on achieving some of them you will inevitably find a surge in your personal creativity. I’ve only been implementing a few of the strategies for a few days now and I’ve already experienced some results that I’m pleased with.
In closing, although I’ve included some pertinent content from the book right here in this blog, reading Creativity will give you a far better understanding of how everything fits together and what one must do to realize a creative lifestyle. I recommend the book to anyone willing to change their current lifestyle in order to realize a more creative and fulfilling one.

Creativity
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Fast Company and Other Magazines

“Fast Company is one of the fastest-growing and most profitable magazines ever.”
- Unleashing the Ideavirus, Seth Godin

Though I know very little about the magazine industry, I cannot help but think that while this magazine may remain ‘popular,’ it will inevitably encounter decreasing profitability.

My reasoning for this postulation is based on two main facts: anyone with a computer and the Internet can obtain the product for free from the Fast Company website, and subscription fees are dirt-cheap.

It is true that you can’t obtain the most recent issue for free, but really, who cares? The articles don’t become outdated after a few weeks.

Bottom line: I read Fast Company online. I don’t pay money. It seems there is a problem here.

Surprisingly, a number of other magazines have this same sort of setup. So it’s very possible that I’m the one thats mistaken. Nevertheless, my minor knowledge of the business models of these magazines leads me to believe that they are all doomed (unless of course, they change).

Because of such low subscription fees I would assume that only a small portion of their income comes from the subscriptions, another small portion from advertisements and sponsored links on their websites, and the bulk from the advertisements found inside the magazine.

I would also assume that Fast Company, for example, is currently able to make a nice chunk of money from magazine advertisements because they have a lot of subscribers that form a unique niche audience. So there are a lot of people with similar interests reading the same thing. This is obviously a great situation and it’s no surprise that they are growing and making money.

But the niche market of businessmen and women that subscribe are smart people. That’s almost the point of the magazine. So will they not, at some point, glance at a new year’s subscription fee, toss it in the trash, and think, ‘I’ll just read it online.’? Or perhaps what is more likely, is that the current generation of subscribers continue reading the magazine while it is still applicable to their lives, but the upcoming generation of businessmen and women (like myself) who are on average a little more computer savvy, never decide to subscribe.

Why won’t my generation subscribe? Because we’ve already incorporated Fast Company into our online experience, and we can obtain every issue for free this way!

I also believe the advent of cellular phones with the Internet, Palms, and wireless Internet heightens the likeliness of my prediction becoming a reality. With a wireless Internet connection you can read the magazine while simultaneously checking email and chatting on AIM if you feel like it. Plus, when you read it online you can forward articles to your friends, which you can’t do with the paper version. This forwarding capability is part of the reason the magazine is so popular to begin with, but it seems to me it could also help contribute to its demise.

So is there any other evidence supporting my postulation? Indeed, I believe there is. Read on.

When I think of a magazine that is similarly focused at a niche market, and that I have confidence will be around for years to come, I think of The Economist.

Now, The Economist charges $129.99 for a subscription, and when I attempt to look at a previous issue of this magazine on their website it says…

This article is premium content. In order to gain access to it please either Log in, Activate your complimentary web account if you are a print subscriber, or Subscribe now.

I’m not suggesting that Fast Company copy what The Economist does. But to me it seems The Economist, unlike Fast Company, has a viable business condition: they have a product, they have confidence in their product, and therefore they charge a lot of money for their product. On the contrary, I look at the five dollar subscription fee for Fast Company and I think, 'thats pathetic.'

Marketing 101: Price is an indication of quality.

What about Time magazine or Newsweek? After all, subscriptions for these magazines are pretty cheap. Yeah they aren’t expensive but they each have about 4 million subscribers, they have a huge target audience, substantial financial backing, and they have a reputation that’s been established over decades. Fast Company has none of the above.

So as a new generation of businessmen and women arises I think that Fast Company will suffer (assuming they stick with their current strategy). Sure the magazine may remain popular around doctors’ offices and waiting rooms because of how inexpensive it is, but if they lose a part of their niche market like I'm predicting, this will cause their magazine advertisement spots to lose value. And this will in turn ruin the company.

If Fast Company wants to be around in the future they need to raise their subscription price, and only grant access for non-subscribers to certain parts of their online archives. As their market moves to a more web-based lifestyle, Fast Company needs to make sure their website encourages you to subscribe, not the reverse.

Fast Company

For whatever reason...

I haven’t included any pictures in my blog. Nevertheless, this past Monday night I watched a documentary on an artist named Chuck Close and I thought his art would be a nice addition to my blog.

The documentary was an hour long (I started watching about 20 minutes in), and it was on a station called Ovation. The programs on this channel are truly hit or miss. I’d say once every ten times I try the channel I find something good on. However, when it’s good it’s real good. This is the same situation with BET Jazz. I’d say once out of every eight times I check BET Jazz I find an amazing jazz performance of some kind. Otherwise the programs are complete shit.

Anyways, this guy Chuck Close is pretty much a living legend. He went to University of Washington in Seattle for undergrad and then Yale for his MFA. He became fascinated with drawing faces early in his career, and they have remained the primary focus of his art since that time.

His earlier faces were painted to look exactly like they do in real life, and later in his career he’s developed this unique style were he paints in blocks. You can see this block style of painting in the pictures (of his self-portrait) that I’ve attached below.

What’s cool about this is how as you get further away from the painting it becomes a clearer image, while up close it seems more like a bunch of different shapes and colors.

As you can imagine, a painting like this requires complete concentration for several hours a day, and normally takes around a year to complete (especially since it's so big; 102 x 84 inches).





Not all today’s art is that modern hippie bullshit after all!

Chuck Close

When I start my first web-based company...

it will find customers for other merchants. I won’t have to develop products, pay for warehouse space, ship products, deal with unsatisfied customers, pay hundreds of employees, or sell a single thing. Nope, I’ll leave that grunt work to someone else.

Take techbargains.com, for example. This is one of many successful websites that does exactly what I’m talking about. It searches the Internet for bargains and provides you with links to various products. That’s it.

So how do they make money? Simple. Whenever you click on one of the links and buy a product, they are paid a commission from the vendor.

This has to be one of the greatest business models of all time. It’s low risk, really straightforward, and can prove to be absurdly profitable.

I believe the key to success with something like this is smart marketing (as always), and finding a niche market (similar to how the majority of these websites seem to focus on tech products).

If you’re an entrepreneur looking for something new to get into, I’d definitely give this some consideration.

Red Cross Marketing Lesson

I recently did a little pro bono work for the Red Cross through my parents marketing agency (On 3 Creative Group). The Red Cross is starting a campaign focused on increasing the frequency of type O blood donations. Accordingly, they’ve created something they call the, “O TEAM,” (made up of people who are type O blood donors).

My job was to write a letter that will be sent to existing type O donors, encouraging them to donate more and mentioning the existence of this O TEAM. Here’s what I came up with:

Dear (Donor Name):

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
- Albert Einstein

There are in infinite number of ways that one can contribute to the common good of society. Many people devote their entire lives to deeds of this kind, while others find themselves in old age, looking back at their time on earth and wishing they had done more.

As a blood donor, you are already aware of the wonderful effect your contribution can have on a patient, their family, and their friends. This is what makes a blood donation a truly unique event. It is a gift that impacts the world in a remarkable way.

Because you have inherited type O blood, you are able to give this gift to almost anyone, and you can help others in a special way. For example, type O blood is especially important in emergency situations, when there’s no time to determine which blood type the patient has. And since type O is the most common blood type, more patients require it. Plus, type O patients can only receive type O blood. For these reasons, it is the blood type that is always in the greatest demand, and sometimes the type that is in the shortest supply.

As an O blood donor, we consider you part of a special team that we call, the O TEAM. Everyday we receive calls from area hospitals requesting type O blood to treat emergency patients, and we need your help to answer their calls. At the same time, we are trying our best to make it as convenient as possible for O TEAM members to donate. We know that you want to help make a meaningful difference in the world.

So please join us for an O TEAM blood drive at the following location:

***

Writing this letter was a pretty unique experience. To my recollection, it was the first time I ever had the opportunity to market something that was truly beneficial to society. For once, I wasn’t trying to get people to buy something they didn’t need, watch something they didn’t want to see, listen to something they didn’t want to hear, or sign up for something they’d forget about in a month. Instead, my objective was to motivate people to sacrifice time out of their day to help others.

John W. Gardner, college professor and founder of Common Cause and Independent Sector, is cited in Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, saying:

“… Reach people in other than a rational way, which [is what] you have to do if you’re going to influence them. If you’re going to move them, you have to reach their motivations, you have to get below the surface of their thinking into what moves them, what affects their enthusiasms, their concerns…”

As I began writing this letter this is exactly what I had in mind (after all, it’s the obvious route to take with this type of assignment).

I wanted to focus on emotion by articulating the fact that you only have so long to make a difference in the world, and that donating blood is unique because it is a relatively easy way in which you can have a remarkable impact on the lives of others.

The reason I am writing about this in my blog is twofold. One, I hope that it encourages anyone reading this to donate blood. And two, because I think it teaches a valuable marketing lesson:

With an assignment such as this, focusing on emotion came naturally. It was an obvious and straightforward route to achieving the marketing objective.
What I am suggesting though, is that in one way or another, you must ALWAYS view emotion as the route to achieving the marketing objective.

In Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale, he mentions repeatedly how important it is to believe in what you’re selling; you must believe in your heart that if your potential customer does not buy your product he or she will be worse off. He says that if you do not maintain this belief you will never be convincing. The reason you won’t be convincing is because you will lack the emotion necessary to make the sale (since your emotion is unconsciously expressed and transferred to the client).

Above, I cited Gardner stating that in order to influence you must reach people’s motivations, what moves them, what affects their enthusiasms, and their concerns. These are all consequences of having an emotional impact on somebody.

I’m sure you can see it in your life too, and in the lives of those around you. Emotion is a prerequisite for influencing the actions of others.

Marketing Ideas
Marketing Advice

Agenda

My slipper company is set to launch August 17th and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before that time. The majority of this work is marketing oriented. I need to have my display stand built, complete my Facebook.com marketing campaign, become officially licensed with Carnegie Mellon University, complete my PR campaign, have more professional pictures of my product taken, finalize my direct mail marketing agreement with the orientation committee, finish my shoe box design, and determine how I’m going to collect email addresses from students that purchase my product.

I’ve also recently taken on the responsibility of managing a local jazz band (named Common Ground), and before the end of summer I would like to have approximately 10 gigs scheduled for them and a well thought out marketing plan.

Plus I have a summer job. Although it simply requires that I sit at a desk and stay awake, it’s a 36 hour/week job nonetheless.

So assuming I can observe some self-discipline and keep my attention focused on my immediate responsibilities, I will most likely be posting significantly less between now and the end of August.

However, at the end of August I intend on publishing a number of blogs that address the launching of my company. For instance, my opening numbers, details from each of my marketing efforts, and other basic information associated with the entrepreneurial process that I believe people would find interesting or helpful.
Truthfully, at this time I don’t feel comfortable writing about the majority of topics surrounding my company because it hasn’t been launched yet. I don’t want to divulge information that could in anyway weaken my entrepreneurial effort.

So stay tuned. There will be a lot of appealing posts published in the near future.

Blog Advice

I respect Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki very much. They’re two of my favorite business authors.

I’ve read five of Godins books (and plan on reading the remaining four sometime in the near future), I drop by his blog on a relatively frequent basis, I consider All Marketers are Liars to be my favorite marketing book, and Godin has certainly supplied me with countless insights into the world of marketing (as you can probably tell from reading my blog).

I’ve also read Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start, I really enjoy his blog, I think he is an absolutely amazing public speaker, and I plan on reading some more literature from him in the near future as well.

Both Kawasaki and Godin, nevertheless, have written posts that address the issue of how to increase traffic to a blog, and these are probably two of my least favorite posts from blogs that I enjoy.

Here’s why:

When Godin and Kawasaki write about business they are writing from experience. They’ve worked with many people, on many different projects, and they’ve proven themselves successful and made lots of money. Consequently, they can relate to a vast number of circumstances in the business world and offer their expert advice. That is why they are popular authors.

When it comes to blogs though, neither of them have had to start one from ground zero. Because of their successful careers as authors they each had an audience for their blog before they even created the account.

Kawasaki provides evidence for this fact in his 30th anniversary post (30 days from the time he started his blog). In addition to a number of other staggering statistics, he writes that 1,479 sites maintain 2,843 links to his blog, the site has had 268,060 unique visitors, and is ranked #289 on Technorati.

That’s correct, #289 on Technorati within 30 days. To give you a comparison, I am 884,123 after 26 days and probably won't be moving anywhere significant for another year to two years.

So Kawasaki pretty much has no idea what it’s like to be in the same position that 99.9% of bloggers are in when they start their blog. I’m assuming this is the same scenario with Godin, and therefore it would seem that their strategies might not have the same effect for a standard blogger.

Additionally, I think that the content of their ‘Blog Advice’ posts is fluff.

fluff n.
3. Something of little substance or consequence, especially:
a. Light or superficial entertainment
b. Inflated or padded material

A couple of Kawasaki’s recommendations are to link to blogs, acknowledge and respond to commentors, and to, “make sure you have something worth saying.” I guess some of the other advice he gives, like, “Be Bold,” “Make it easy for others to join up,” and “Supplement other bloggers with follow up entries,” is OK, but it’s certainly not very informative.

Godin’s post is meant to be satirical (in a way), but a few of the things he says to do are, “Write about Google,” “Write about blogging,” “Include poles, meters, and other eye candy,” “Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention,” and “Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.”

To me, this is fluff.

I’d like to think that these posts were written because Godin and Kawasaki have a sincere interest in helping people with their blogs, but I don’t think this is the case.

These two guys know that a lot of their readers strongly desire to increase the traffic to their own blogs. So (like many others) they gave Blog Advice because they knew people would be receptive to it; fluff or not.

When it comes down it, basically all popular blogs are geared towards a specific topic that the author enjoys and knows something about, they’re well written, they are linked by a number of other popular blogs addressing a similar topic, and they are listed on Technorati.com.

I think I’m going to try and stick to this simple strategy and leave the poles, meters, and gadget writing to someone else.

Blog Advice
Blogging
Seth Godin
Guy Kawasaki

My Thoughts on Marketing – Part Cinq

In my last blog on marketing I wrote, “Your product or service is most likely roughly the same as a number of others. And if it isn’t then at some point in the near future it will be. Once you realize this, you can stop focusing on the insignificant attributes that you’ve been trying to sell people on, and come up with a good story.”

I still believe this statement to be true, but I think it is ambiguous. I thought of an example from my company that might help clarify this point.

Early on once I had decided I was definitely going to start a slipper company, I was pretty certain I was going to use this material called Memory Foam for the interior. Memory Foam is pretty cheap, and is currently used in a couple different types of slippers. A lot of people really like this material for its softness.

Because of its softness Memory Foam in and of itself is a marketable feature. A couple companies in particular focus solely on the fact that their slippers have memory foam. I however, think that there is an interesting fact about Memory Foam that makes it even more marketable, which is that it was invented by NASA (for astronauts) to combat the G-Force suffered when entering and exiting the earths atmosphere. The slipper companies that currently feature Memory Foam do not mention its origin (except for one company that does briefly on their website).

Now I don’t think people are going to buy my slippers simply because they have a material that was invented by NASA, but I definitely think this adds to the story. My general, “story,” is one of comfort. And if my customers know there is a comfortable material in their shoe called Memory Foam that was invented by NASA, they might repeat this to a roommate, friend, etc. It’s a fun fact, and I think it might create a little WOM buzz.

But again, a number of slipper companies have Memory Foam. It isn’t quite an “insignificant attribute” as of yet, but it’s close. What I’m trying to do then is package that attribute in a more exciting way; a way that will grab my customers’ attention and increase WOM.

The perfect “story” for a product is one that changes the actual nature of the product in such a way that the product becomes far more unique and appealing then it really is. Here is an example (from All Marketers Are Liars):

A company creates a healthy type of potato chip. Now, there are certainly other healthy potato chip products, but this company decides to sell their chips in the vegetable section of the grocery store instead of the snack section. Consequently, the product is perceived in a completely different and more favorable manner.

So creating the “story,” in essence is changing the product. It makes the insignificant attributes significant again, and separates you from the crowd.

Marketing Ideas
Marketing Advice

Organizational Behavior I

Here are two (relatively obvious) pieces of advice for any kind of manager. I learned this information in Organization Behavior (one of my all time favorite classes):

1) Make sure your employee understands or has experienced the entire process that his specific duty contributes towards.

People inherently feel good when they are confident that they’ve helped achieve an objective. Consequently, if employees aren’t familiarized with how their job fits into their company’s overall action, it will be hard for them to feel a sense of accomplishment.
For example, let’s say you own a marketing agency that specializes in print ads. Additionally, you have a number of divisions in your company, one of which does preliminary market research.
If the people that specialize in market research only get to experience this part of the company process, and they never get to see how their work is utilized, or what the resulting ad is, for instance, then these employees are at risk of becoming unsatisfied with their occupation. This isn’t a great example, but you get the point.
To resolve this problem you must allow your employees to experience each stage that occurs in addition to their own, or ensure that they are at least familiar with each stage of the company process that occurs before and after their part.
This simply helps your employees feel like they are a part of something, and that they've achieved something worthwhile.

2) Don’t have your employees do the same thing everyday.

This definitely seems obvious but I’m sure a lot of managers still do it. Clearly, the reason for variety is simply to keep your employees more alert and less bored. So if you’re running a McDonalds, don’t have someone only cook French fries. Let him cook hamburgers or work the cash register, or get drinks, etc. Or if you’re running a factory, train your employees so that they are efficient in more than one task (and rotate them).
This principle also extends to things like having dress down days (which I think are absurd but whatever), or a company doughnut day, or allowing your employees to switch offices with one another, or even having the office repainted with a different color, etc.

Goodwill

is absolutely amazing.

I never really went into a Goodwill to buy clothing until recently. A couple years ago I had gone to one to buy a couch for my dorm room, but I really didn’t look around at the other items. To me, Goodwill was always the place where rebellious public school students that listened to punk music went to buy tight t-shirts.

Anyways, about four weeks ago I realized I didn’t have enough basketball shorts for working out in. Since I’m currently poor from having to put all my money towards my company, I figured I’d drop by and see what my local Goodwill had to offer.

This Goodwill happened to be one that specializes in, ‘dress attire,’ so unfortunately they didn’t have any basketball shorts. I looked around a little though and I ended up finding two real nice button down dress shirts and one Polo short sleeve collared shirt. I think I got all three for about $16.00.

The one button down shirt was a Stanley Blacker and I found it online selling for $50.00, and I’m sure the Polo was probably at least $45.00.

As I was driving home from work today I randomly decided to stop in again. I wasn’t necessarily looking for anything in particular, but I’ve already worn both dress shirts that I got the last time, so I considered them to be a good investment and I thought I might be able to find some similar bargains.

As I was walking through the store I found about four shirts that I thought were decent, but when I tried them on I didn’t really like them. So I put them all back and right as I was about to leave I noticed a nice shirt I had passed over. I walked over to the stand to check it out, and I realized I hadn’t looked at any of the clothes on that rack.

In addition to the shirt, I ended up finding a really nice navy blue Brooks Brothers blazer that fit me perfectly. I bought both for a total of $9.00. The blazer alone is probably worth at least $250. And it’s legitimately in great condition.

I also ended up getting this real big, framed mirror. It was marked at 24.99 but I got the woman to sell it to me for 20.00. I don’t really need a mirror but this thing definitely looks like it’s worth around $150.00.

In closing, Goodwill definitely seems to have something for everyone, and obviously the prices are amazing. Plus the money they make goes towards disabled people (from what I understand). So if you’ve never shopped at a Goodwill cause you don’t think they sell nice stuff, or if you think they’re for poor people, or for punks, you’re dead wrong.

Me, an expert?

When I started this blog I had no idea where it was going to go. I now have about 10 posts, and if I read some of them objectively from the viewpoint of a complete stranger to the site, I think to myself, “Why do you present yourself like an experienced and knowledgeable business consultant? You’ve never even had a real job.”

It’s true; I have not had a real job. So I then must ask myself these questions:

If there are experts with a proven track record out there with blogs directed towards the same businessmen and women that my blog appears to be targeted to, why should someone visit my blog over theirs? Am I trying to compete with experts, or pass myself off as one? And more importantly, is this the direction I want to take my blog in?

Here are the responses I generated in my head while tackling these questions one at a time.

1) If there are experts with a proven track record out there with blogs directed towards the same businessmen and women that my blog appears to be targeted to, why should someone visit my blog over theirs?

I think my blog would prove helpful to businessmen and women if they visited it as a supplement to the “expert” blogs (primarily the one’s listed in my links), and real business literature (cause a blog just isn’t the same as a book).
Moreover, I think my blog supplements the others well for the exact reason that some would say my blog is useless; I am only 21. As a 21 year old though, rather than writing from experience I can write as I experience. I’m starting at ground zero, and this will provide me with unique insights into the business world.

2) Am I trying to compete with experts, or pass myself off as one?

No and no.
Essentially, I am incapable of providing the quantity of insights that the experts provide on their blogs; I do not have nearly as much experience, or the sheer knowledge that these bloggers do, nor do I have the resources that they do. For instance, Guy Kawasaki does interviews with experts of their field. And Seth Godin talks about business situations he’s discovered through the vast amount of email he receives from people across the globe, or from the many companies he’s helped to start. Obviously, these are luxuries that I cannot currently acquire, and to attempt to compete with these informative blogs would be senseless.
I am also not attempting to present myself as an expert, although as I write certain blogs this is the impression that I unintentionally demonstrate. I simply think this happens because I am confident in my ideas.
Though I do think big, I’m certainly not trying to pass myself off as an expert

3) Is this the direction I want to take my blog in?

Yes I think it is. I enjoy writing about business, and I have enjoyed my blogging experience thus far. Additionally, I like having a record of some of my random thoughts on business related issues, and I enjoy reading the little feedback that I receive.
I would like, however, to focus more on topics that relate directly to the experience of a young entrepreneur/business student.

Oakland Helicopter

There is this helicopter in Oakland. And I often hear people complain about how noisy it is, and how it wakes them up in the middle of the night. I don’t even spend that much time in Oakland and I too have acknowledged that the helicopter is very annoying.
The general complaints regarding this flying machine appear well suited because the location where the helicopter lands (multiple times a day, and night) is directly next to a number of college dorms. These Pitt students are often awoken in the middle of the night, restricted from achieving the recommended 8 hours of sleep per 24 hour cycle. This is simply unacceptable. These students have a long arduous day of academics ahead of them. How could they NOT complain?

Wellll, the helicopter is one of those medical rescue helicopters.

Every time that thing flies by someone is fighting for their life, assuming they’re not already dead. Every time it flies by there are family members rushing to the hospital, and people are presented with possibility of losing a loved one.

I didn’t give any sincere thought to this fact until today. Now that I have I definitely feel ridiculous for saying it was annoying.

Overall, I think I'm not as thankful as I should be for simply being alive. The fact is, it legitimately could be me in that helicopter tomorrow.

My Thoughts on Marketing – Part Quatre – WOM Marketing

I mentioned very briefly in one of my previous blogs that word of mouth (WOM) marketing is my favorite form of marketing. In this blog I’m going to answer some basic questions concerning WOM, and speak briefly about how you can cultivate it.

Why does WOM marketing exist?

Because people like to talk. People like when they are perceived as informed individuals with something interesting to say.
Furthermore, over time certain topics have become standard for conversation. For example, people often talk about their kids, or school, or what they’re doing for a summer job. WOM then exists because conversing over products and services has become a popular topic for discussion in a number of cultures.

Why is WOM marketing so effective?

Well just think about it. Let’s say a new soda comes out. Are you more likely to buy it if a commercial says that it is delicious, or if your friend tells you it is delicious?

You typically speak with people that you know relatively well (friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, etc.). So when WOM marketing occurs it is normally between people that have developed some sort of trust for one another. Word of mouth marketing is then effective because you are receiving a marketing message from someone you have a relationship with and can trust, in contrast to receiving it from marketers.

Does WOM spread?

Yes, very quickly.
Think about the last big movie that was released in theatres. If you didn’t see it within the first day or two, during that time I bet you heard from someone whether or not it was good. It is likely that you then repeated this to someone else, “I heard that movie was…”
This can be great for marketers for obvious reasons. If your product or service is not living up to expectations, however, it can also be a nightmare. Negative WOM exists, is powerful, and is said to spread just as quickly, possibly quicker, than positive WOM marketing.

Cultivating WOM

They say the best way to cultivate WOM is to create a product of service worth talking about. Unfortunately that’s not so easy to do, or even plausible for many companies.
I do think as a marketer you must always ask yourself the question, “If you bought this, would you tell someone about it?” But cultivating WOM goes way beyond that simple question. I think that question is more suitable for people in product development rather than marketing (while I do believe that marketers and product development people should work together more closely within companies).

Continuing on though, in order to create WOM marketing for your product or service, you must package your marketing message into a cohesive “story” for your consumer. After all, if you want your consumer to talk, why not give him an interesting story to tell? This has proven difficult for me to explain how to do without giving a million examples, (it’s not, however, extremely difficult to do), so I am simply going to give you one quick example, and tell you that if you are interested in packaging your marketing message into a story type format, read All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin (a must read for anyone interested in marketing).

Quick Example:
A couple smart businessmen (who I believe were owners of an electronics store) rented a U-Haul truck and packed it full of products they sold (computers, stereos, speakers, etc.). They then visited college campuses known to have affluent students, parked the U-Haul in an inconspicuous location, and as students (mainly male) walked by the truck, they would lean out of the back and whisper something like, “Yo, you interested in buying anything here.”
All the students assumed they were getting stolen goods at a reduced price, and these businessmen sold their inventory faster than they ever thought possible.
Now think about how this makes for a great story. The student returns home to his frat with a new set of computer speakers, and obviously the first thing he’s going to do is tell his friends how they were stolen and how he bought them out of the back of a U-Haul truck. Then everyone that hears the story wants in on the action, and before you know it the U-Haul truck is empty.

Another thing you must do to create WOM is keep your story (marketing message) simple, and as I said before, cohesive. The more detailed your marketing message the less likely it is to be repeated. So determine what it is you would like your consumer to talk about, create a story that includes this message, and keep it simple.

It also helps WOM if you deliver your story through a number of different mediums. This helps receptivity of the message and makes your story seem important.

Lastly, in order to achieve WOM you must realize that your product isn’t as good as you think it is. In theory, the path to WOM is found in creating a product or service, “worth talking about,” but to me that’s unrealistic.
There are too many options to choose from in today’s market. Your product or service is most likely roughly the same as a number of others. And if it isn’t then at some point in the near future it will be. Once you realize this, you can stop focusing on the insignificant attributes that you’ve been trying to sell people on, and come up with a good story. A good story, to me, is the most powerful means of making your product or service truly unique.

WOM Marketing
Word of Mouth
Marketing Ideas
Marketing Advice

A Perspective on Company Culture

It is my belief that hiring entrepreneurial-minded individuals and encouraging them to explore this personality trait is the key to success in any business. I suppose it is likely that there are certain positions within a company where an entrepreneurial mind may not be the best fit. Holding all else constant though, I think hiring someone that thinks like an entrepreneur over someone that does not will prove to be far more beneficial in the long run, assuming management knows how to deal with this type of personality.

How am I defining an “entrepreneur?”

An entrepreneurial-minded individual is one that has a greater inclination to resolve problems based on a personal solution. Am I saying that entrepreneurs are better problem solvers?
No, I’m simply saying entrepreneurs prefer acting on their own ideas and solutions to those of another individual/system if they believe there solution is better; they experience a unique satisfaction in pursuing a personal belief. After all, aren’t these the obvious factors that would lead one to start his (or her) own company?

To a certain extent this can be difficult to deal with if you are in a managerial position. I am indeed suggesting that an entrepreneur may work better if he were doing things his own way (again, assuming he thought his way was inherently better).

It is even possible that the entrepreneurial-minded employee’s work could suffer if he were facing a situation in which he believed there was a better way of doing things, but yet he found himself bound to the traditional solution.

But what would you rather have? Someone that is likely to have a revelation and a sincere desire to pursue that revelation, or someone that is satisfied in perfecting the way things have been done. Which person do you think will help move your organization forward? The answer is obvious to me.

I think the key is to hire these entrepreneurial-minded individuals, give them a solid understanding of the culture, mission, and vision of the company, give them specific objectives, and most importantly give them freedom. Allow the employee to be his own boss, to evolve with his employed position. Simply put, encourage your employees to explore their own unique solutions to the objectives that have been given to them. They are the ones dealing with the day-to-day responsibilities of their employed position, they know their own strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else, and consequently they should know (better than management) how their time and effort should be spent in order to have the best impact on the company as a whole.

If you hire the right people and give them freedom, I believe your organization has the best chance at evolving in a positive direction. If you are only interested in hiring people to continue doing things the way they’ve been done, your company will inevitably fail.

Markets are getting more competitive with each passing year, and the company that evolves in the right direction will succeed, while the company the simply maintains the status quo will slowly but surely lose market share.

How does management fit in?
Management must guide the evolution of the company towards goals. So allow the employee to explore new solutions when you believe those solutions have the potential to give your company an edge.

Moreover, the employee then must recognize that with freedom co