Category: case studies

When is everyone having your product a bad thing?

When you are a luxury brand.

The next thing people might be wondering is, “aren’t luxury product expensive?  how is everyone buying them?”

To answer this, we have to take a step back and look at marketing.  Lots of people think marketing is just advertising.  Advertising is one part of marketing.  Abstractly, marketing is everything that goes into getting the product/service into the customer’s hands.  When you push the art of marketing further you get to branding (i.e. brand image).  Branding can be described as the “persona” of the product/service the company wants to portray.  Why will some people pay $5 more for a plain white t-shirt with a swoosh or an alligator on it than one without the logo?  The t-shirts are likely to have been made in similar factories, made from the same materials, and have similar levels of workmanship.  Branding!

Branding goes beyond saying a product is “good” or has “quality” and that the company “cares about its customers” etc.  Branding pushes marketing to a level that makes the product/service alive.  Excellent branding is one of several reasons Apple now has a market capitalization of $700 billion.  How does a company make a product “alive”?  This is a very complex answer but in short, having a consistent image that is portrayed through the unison of the product/service itself, advertising, sales price, customer service, and distribution channels.  Alexander Chernev’s Strategic Marketing Management goes into excellent depth on the various components of branding.

Michael Kors in Fresno, CA.
Image from http://fresnobeehive.com/archives/29400

So going back to the original question “when is everyone having a product a bad thing?” is what luxury handbag maker Michael Kors is facing now.  When everyone has your purse, then the exclusive element of its luxury image is weakened.  How is everyone getting your purses?  Through your distribution channel.  Michael Kors used to just sell their goods in their 231 stores.  However, after their 2011 IPO, they tripled their store count to 703 in 2014.  Although Michael Kors is enjoying high profits now, if it continues to sell in every market, it may fall into the same category as Liz Claiborne.

What is in a name?

One of the most important decisions an entrepreneur has to make is what to name his/her company.  It should be short, memorable, and capture the essence of the business.  Not an easy task.

Skype got its name from the shortening of sky-peer-to-peer, which turned to skyper, then finally Skype.

3M was originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.  Not as creative sounding now but probably very unique at the time.

You can read the inspiration of other famous companies in the article here.

Logos are another mountain in itself.  Fortunately, there are lots of companies (such as 99 Designs) with talented graphic designers that can help you create a beautiful and practical logo for a relatively inexpensive price.

MBWA: Master By Walking Around

In one my business school classes we had Mr. Leonard Lavin come speak to us about entrepreneurship.  Mr. Lavin is an American businessman, who founded the Alberto-Culver Company in 1955.  Alberto-Culver was a corporation with international sales whose principal business is manufacturing hair and skin beauty care products under such brands as Alberto VO5, Andrew Collinge, St. Ives (skin care products), TRESemme, FDS, Consort, and Nexxus.  Alberto-Culver was purchased by the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever on September 27, 2010 for US$3.7 billion.

When asked about his education Mr. Lavin said his business education came in the form of an MBWA, “master by walking around.”  This means that everyday Mr. Lavin is speaking with his employees of all levels and directly observing how things are run.  Words cannot express how important a ground-level understanding of the day-to-day operations.

Business shouldn’t be run from the boardroom using only preformance reports and metrics to steer its direction.  However, as companies grow, leadership finds it difficult find the time to do this crucial research.  In one episode of Undercover Boss, Gina Rivera, Founder and President of Phenix Salons INC., a franchise which offers independent salon and business professionals the opportunity to own and operate their own luxury salon suites, goes undercover to see if it will color her perception of how the company is running.  As this company is making that difficult transition from small to medium sized enterprise, Ms. Rivera realized she was losing ground-level knowledge of what her franchisees are experiencing.  A must watch!

Wowza!

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That’s more than most small businesses make a year.  Nonetheless, go big or go home right?  Targeted advertising is most effective and efficient but if your target is the general US population, then few places match the Super Bowl for exposure.  This is why you won’t see wealthy but relatively niche players such as hedge funds advertise while companies like Anheuser-Busch InBev, Pepsi and Chrysler spend a lot of money.

sb advertisers

A gadget’s journey

This holiday season little thought goes to the awesome path the various components of electronics takes to make it to the store shelves and under our tree.

From mines, to factories and cargo ships, many gears of the global economy work together to bring us our shiny electronics.

Read the entire here.

Of course not only electronics take this journey. Everything from food to t-shirts make a similar trek before reaching us.

Clients

Over the past few years I’ve had the great pleasure of helping many clients create and expand their business.  Here are a few projects I have been fortunate to work on.

9 bar

9 Bar Roasting is a coffee kiosk in one of the busiest intersections in Los Angeles — Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave.  I wrote a business plan for 9 Bar Roasting so they could move into an existing business.

 

adrADR Solar Solutions is a solar panel installation company based in Woodland Hills, CA.  Among their many projects they are credited with the largest residential installation in the world — at the 6,000 sq. ft. house of esteemed green architect Mr. Carl Harberger.  I wrote a business plan to help ADR expand their current operations to a retail space in Calabasas.

 

dgaplusDGAPlus is a specialty firm providing innovative strategies and solutions that meet the many requirements of enterprise utility companies and agency partners.  I created a business proposal for DGAPlus to present to partnership targets to incorporate their patented systems. 

 

 

her houseH.E.R. House is a private women’s only lifestyle club in Newport Beach, CA.  I made a business plan so that H.E.R. House could find the startup capital and equity investors needed to launch this rather large operation.  Coming soon.

 

maitri Maitri Yoga Store is a yoga clothing  and accessories specialty store based in Culver City, CA.  I wrote a business plan for Maitri so it could attract startup capital from lenders and investors.  Open Feburary 2015!

 

 

 

 

hakeemSkyview Consulting Group is an advisory firm based in Beverly Hill, CA, specializing bringing foreign companies into the US.  I wrote several business proposals for Skyview to help them with a roll-up strategy for multiple business sectors in the Antelope Valley, Santa Clarita and surrounding areas.

It doesn’t matter where you start. What matters is where you are going

Could you go from homeless to CEO of your own company?

CREDIT: Ye Rin Mok

In 1989, Gabriel Bristol was a homeless 19 year old on the streets of Lansing, Michigan. Mr. Bristol wasn’t just a kid that ran away from home. His education in the school of hard knocks began at age 5 when he taken away from his birth mother. His earliest memory of her was when she was being booked at the police station for prostitution and heroin charges.

Picked on in school for being gay.  Raised in the foster care system.

Now he is the CEO of Intelicare Direct, a call center with over 300 employees. Of course it didn’t happen overnight.  He worked.  He failed.  He suffered.  He succeeded.  Read the rest of his inspirational story here.

Whasssap!!!

Budweiser is not a great beer and Bud Light Lime is a terrible Frankenstein experiment gone wrong of a concoction.  However, one thing that Anheuser Busch more than makes up for its lack of delicious libations is its creative marketing and branding.  What is branding?  See my article on the Redbull Flugtag.

In its 150 year history it faced Prohibition, economic Depression and Recessions, and acquisition.  Nonetheless, it is still going strong despite of new ownership.  There’s a great 2 minute video summarizing Budweiser’s interesting history.

Startups aren’t just a youngster’s game

startups aren't just a younger's game

Another great article from Inc. about how startups aren’t just a younger’s game.

Turns out Colonel Sanders (he actually wasn’t a real colonel) founded KFC when he was 65. Not just in restaurants, tech (although favoring the young) has its share of “late-bloomers.” Craig Newmark founded CraigsList at 42.

The moral of the story is startups aren’t just a younger’s game. You’re only as old as you think you are.

See It is not “too late” to learn about how the average age of successful business founders is 42; so the 20 year old entrepreneur is a true rarity.

Launch and Grow Your Business

Contact us to get your startup running regardless of your age.

If at first you don’t succeed, try try again

If at first you don't succeed, try try again

Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, was rejected by banks 242 times. Two hundred forty two rejections. That is a lot of rejections.

Walt Disney revised his theme park, Disneyland, 302 times. That is a lot of time spent at the drawing board.

The world’s best-selling sci-fi novel to date, Dune, was rejected 20 times before being accepted. By car manual publisher, Chiltons.

How many times have you tried and failed?

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