Titanium Coating Services is a PVD (physical vapor deposition) service located in Los Angeles, California. PVD is a method used to deposit thin films of a material onto various surfacses. PVD coating is used in machine components to reduce wear and friction on equipment.
I created a business plan complete with 5 year financial projections that was used to attract investment capital for Titanium Coating Services.
Fast fashion’s continued domination in addition to the popularity of yoga pants / leggings has helped finish a 15 year run.
Consumer purchasing habit have changed due to the great recession. However as consumer spending has increased with the improved economy, tastes have changed.
But that growth has reversed in recent years. Sales of super premium jeans — brands like 7 For All Mankind, True Religion, Joe’s Jeans and Hudson — fell 8 per cent last year, according to market research firm Euromonitor International. Overall, jeans sales grew slightly in 2016 after two years of declines, as Americans traded down to lower-priced brands like Levi’s, H&M and Forever 21.
Instead, buys are increasingly filling their closets with yoga pants and leggings, which they’re wearing not just to the gym, but also to run errands and meet up with friends. True Religion’s $319 skinny jeans have been replaced by Lululemon’s $98 yoga pants.
Read the full article here.
Last year, surf brand Quiksilver has faced a similar fate and I laid out a strategy that it could use to save its brand.
On a related note yoga brand Lululemon is selling board shorts to expand their product categories to meet the ever-changing demands of their market. Food for thought.
It’s summer and festival season is here. Events are big business with over 87 million people attending trade shows, conventions, & conferences; while 32 million people attend music festival. Some annual industry and market stats:
- Trade shows, conventions, conferences
- Number: 284,600 annually
- There are 248 convention centers in the US with a total of 56.29M prime exhibit space.
- The majority of conventions (21%) have 1,000 – 2,499 attendees
- Participants: 87,728,000
- Number: 284,600 annually
- Music festivals, fairs, and other festivals
- Number: 1,413 annually. Music festivals alone total over 800 annually
- Attendees: Over 102 million people annually. 32 million people go to at least one music festival annually.
- Attendees spend on average, $207 a year on live music events and digital music/streaming
- 1/3 of all festival fans go to more than one festival per year
- Farmers’ Markets
- Number: +8,400 markets that convene regularly
- Attendees: 310,800,000
What It Means To You
Events are targeted. So attendees are in your market, many in your target market. Renting a booth, depending on the event, can be fairly inexpensive. This is an economical means of raising awareness for your product/service for the following reasons:
- You are not locked into a commercial lease contract
- Can test the viability of your product/service
- Get targeted market feedback
Some of what you may need depending on the event:
- Mobile merchant services such as Square
- Email collection method
- Banners and booth appeal
- Ready-for-market product/service
- Or compelling marketing materials (videos, images, samples) of your product/service.
Read more about festivals and marketing.
Contact me and let’s see what strategy works best for your business.
I had the opportunity to help Latinos for Cannabis with their business plan. Latinos for Cannabis is a community based organization that is committed to raising
awareness on the social, economic, and medicinal benefits that Cannabis has to offer.
Question: How should new products/services be created?
A) Make a novel untested product/service then find customers for the product/service?
Or
B) Find a group of customers, find one of that group’s unmet need, then create a product/service to address than unmet need?
Answer: B
Reason: The development process of the product/service will take time irregardless of choice A or B. However, with choice B, the likelihood or having to rework the product/service to make it more closely meet the needs of the target market is lower. Also, with choice B, you have a better idea of the size of the target market. Having a market large enough to grow your business is very important. More on that below.
A great example of choice B is Girls Auto Clinic. Girls Auto Clinic is a brilliant combination of female-focused auto repair shop and salon.
Founder Patrice Banks felt what many of us feel when car issues come up:
“I felt like an auto-airhead. I hated all my experiences going in for an oil change, being upsold all the time for an air filter,’ she said. “Any time a dashboard light came on, I panicked.” – Patrice Banks, Girls Auto Clinic Founder
Of course many people come up with business ideas like how Patrice did: through personal experience. However, where most people fail is that their own experience might be too niche. In other words, the market might be too small. How do you know if your market is too niche? Market research. Market research is a process of analyzing factors such as demographics, purchasing habits, direct and indirect competitors, macro and microeconomics, and other elements. As much art as science, thorough market research is a critical step before moving forward with any concept.
Market research is one of the many services I offer at the most competitive prices in the industry. Contact me and let’s find your niche for your new business.
Not recommended for small new businesses because of course with every controversial ad, there will be criticism. However, such a campaign will instantly give your brand more personality and fans may become even more loyal.
