Archive for Product Launch
Story of a Startup using KickStarter
Posted by: | CommentsI stepped in and hosted a podcast for LetusDropShip, a new drop shipping company that offers a unique way of handling drop shipping. They seek out niche manufacturers and offer them the support of their worldwide distribution system of warehouses and online/offline retailers. LetusDropShip concentrates on building brands and niches.
One of these manufacturers, Trego (A wearable case for the iPad) was discovered at a local meetup in San Jose, CA. Founder, Ramsey Elias started out using KickStarter to fund its initial offering and I thought it would be fun to view the progression of the product:
- Kickstarter: Trego – The Wearable iPad Case They reached their goal of $20,000 with 113 backers.
- Initial offering is made through Amazon and Ebay. The Trego Bag comes in two colors and can be found on Amazon:
Black and Orange: Trego Bag – B & O
Black and Green: Trego Bag – B&G - Global Distribution is sought through LetUsDropShip.Com
- A push to the industrial product market highlighted in my blog post, Industrial iPad Case – Moving Digital to Shop Floor (Includes a fun video).
The podcast is the story behind the Trego product and serves as excellent background material for a retailer. The podcast features Ramsey Elias, founder and inventor of the Trego and Jerry Gan, founder of LetusDropShip. In the podcast, we discuss the origination of the Trego case and the journey through development. Jerry discusses how he found out about the Trego case and how LetusDropShip assists Ramsey in developing an international market. Below is a transcription of the podcast, A Tray to Go for your iPad, a Trego!
If you would like to become a wholesaler of the product, please visit LetusDropShip.com
Disclaimer: At the time of this writing there is an existing relationship with LetusDropShip.
SPIDER Product Launch Template
Posted by: | CommentsSPIDER is an acronym for See, Plan, Imagine, Design/Sell, Execute and Renew.
I was doing research on a product launch program for a client and came across a mind map that I had used for a program several years ago. I wondered if it had stood the test of time.
This program was based on the SPIDER Product Launch template which allowed participants to organize their launch plans into a series of actionable items based on present marketing conditions and practices. The participants used the template to determine areas to differentiate their product, better define their buyer persona and use present technology to accelerate the launch.
The actual program was created to provide businesses with everything they could ask for in terms of ongoing marketing support, guidance, accountability and know-how to help them overcome the challenges facing them in launching a product in 2009. The SPIDER template was heavily influenced by the book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant.
I believe there are a few changes that I would make to the mind map, but I am surprisingly comfortable with the majority of it. Any thoughts?
SD-Logic at the Center of Business Growth
Posted by: | CommentsIt is always funny that until you have purchased a new car, you see so few of them on the street. Afterwards, it seems like every light you pull up to there is one. Even the different makes start looking like your own. Tuesday night, I posted a blog, Is there a Fifth way to Grow a Business and by Wednesday morning, I had clicked into two tweets that had links to very similar posts. Both are well written and add additional perspective to my post. I encourage you to read all three in no particular order.
Related Posts:
Iterative Path Blog: Customer Job To Be Done Growth Matrix
Matthew E. May Open Forum Blog: The 4 Moments of Truth That Create an Unforgettable Customer Experience
Business901: Is there a Fifth way to Grow a Business
In a summary of the three, business growth is becoming a function of collaborative efforts with our customers for retention and within our markets for acquisition. I use the word customer as a generic term often to refer to existing customers, prospects and/or markets.
When looking at Brian Solis’s description of the Moments of Truth in his book What’s the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences or the description from Roger Martin’s book, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works or Mark Johnson’s Job to be Done Model, Seizing the White Space, you see the foundational principles of Service Dominant Logic being applied. These books are good reading. On the other hand, The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing edited by Robert Lusch and Stephen Vargo is extremely detailed and thorough, struggles for an audience. It is a tough read. However, it is at the heart of future growth; My matrix is below.
This matrix symbolizes how the collaborative thinking process needs to become part of every market. It will take a strategic plan and effort by organizations to move products/services into that area. You cannot wake up one day and say that we will start co-creating with customers. It is a strategic decision that you must make as an organization to move towards the center of the matrix.
For more information on Service Dominant Logic.
Learn more at this upcoming event: Grow your Small Business with Lean
Goodbye Eric Ries, Hello Ernesto Sirolli
Posted by: | CommentsThis may be a better description of what is needed in a startup than Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. I even may take it a step further and state that every sales and marketing person should listen to this message. Ernesto accurately describes what is needed in your sales and marketing conversations. Even better, he is delightful presenter and if he cannot bring a smile to your face few will.
Why you should listen to him: Ernesto Sirolli is a noted authority in the field of sustainable economic development and is the Founder of the Sirolli Institute, an international non-profit organization that teaches community leaders how to establish and maintain Enterprise Facilitation projects in their community. The Institute is now training communities in the USA, Canada, Australia, England and Scotland.
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