Don’t you know it! 

Just when you think that “FREE” has been worn out because every buyer now expects a free report, a free trial period, a free sample, someone has come along to take the concept up another notch.

And that someone is none other than Chris Anderson, the founder of Wired Magazine and the inventor of the Long Tail idea.

In his new book, “Free”, Chris gives  a perspective that opens up the playing field for “Free” way beyond what we’ve become accustomed to. Or at least he has put in writing what we may have known subsciously.  He shows you how to compete while your customers are giving away for free what you are selling.

For instance, Chris gives examples of how some companies are now being built around the concept of free—not as a lead generation device, but as a model of their business.  These companies are not using free as a marketing strategy; they are building their whole business model on the idea of providing their main service or product free to the buyer (permanently; not as a trial) and making their money from ancillaries.

This ups the ante folks.  Get a copy of Chris’ book, read it, and start preparing for the changes that are coming.”  Get a copy here:

Technorati Tags: business model, Chris Anderson, Free

A million dollar idea

Last evening, I had the opportunity to visit my local Chamber of Commerce’s meeting, whereby they had approximately 52 tables set up by various local vendors.  They called it “Sizzling Summer Business Expo 2009.”

They also invited all of the restaurants in the area to rent a booth and created an area outside the exhibiting area, just for those nibbling on the offerings from the restaurants. 

Here are a few lessons from this experience…

The companies there paid $250 for a table, and no one…and I do mean NO ONE…thought to offer a response mechanism…something that would prompt the attendees to communicate with the vendor.  Sure, they gave out many items as gifts with their name on it, but nothing to prompt anyone to do business with them. 

Also, there were 22 local restaurants, which created 3 or 4 various dishes.  There were lines for the food, but guess what?  The attendees got their food and moved on.  Why didn’t these restaurants offer a coupon, for let’s say 20% off your dinner when you come in?  They didn’t have anything to give out to generate a customer.  Sad!

But let me tell you about a million dollar idea I gave one of the exhibitors.  His company does pest control.  Two years ago, I was having a problem with birds nipping away at the caulking around my skylights, and I put an item called a Bird Repellent Spider on the roof near the skylight.  In fact, I put 4 by my skylights.  This exhibitor had one of these on the exhibiting table and when I mentioned to him that I also had Spiders on my roof, he was happy to hear that someone had installed the them.  He asked me what pest control company installed them. I told him none.  I googled bird repellants, found and bought 4 of them, and hired someone to install them on my roof.

When I asked him how many homes his company had installed these units on, he said “None.”  He mentioned how difficult it was to convince a homeowner how important it was to install these spiders.  To make a long story short, his company had no way of convincing a home owner about why they needed these Spiders and how they would benefit by installing them. 

Here’s what I said to him.  Research the damage birds do to a home, or building, and the health ramifications that would result when someone catches a disease that many birds ccarry, then present it to the homeowner as a health and safety issue.  He and the others at the table loved the idea.

I then told them to research articles or studies that were done where birds have done serious damage to light posts along the road, light posts in Marinas, or any kind of poles.  They can create a new market to sell to by extolling the reasoning that the Spiders installed atop the light posts will stop birds from destroying the metal, and over the long run save the township, or marina, money.

This product, the Bird Spider, can be used in many other areas as a deterrent, so I told them to think of other areas to create a new market.

I asked them what this idea meant in money to them, and they said over a million dollars and that is why I titled this article “A Million Dollar Idea.”

Let me know your thoughts on this or any input you might have.

Technorati Tags: create a new market, creating a new market, lead generation, restaurant lead generation

I recently read Seth Godin’s blog about change and it reminded me of the blog article I wrote about Innovation a few weeks ago.

Here’s what Seth says, "In down economies, the only thing that’s going to change things is changing things. This is hard for a lot of marketers who are used to defending the status quo, but it’s truly the best option.”

“If you’re not happy with what you’ve got, what radical changes are you willing to make to change what you’re getting?”

Seth is a seminal thinker.  I highly recommend reading his blog, if you don’t already do so.

For the original post, and other comments by Seth, you can go here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/change.html

Also, re-read my blog post on Innovation at http://www.kenvarga.com/news/willing-to-innovate-like-this-guy-did/ and let me know your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: change, innovation

Every time I think of ways for any business to survive good and bad times, I always think of Innovation.   If we constantly keep in mind that we should always be thinking of ways to innovate our product or business, we will be ahead of the game.

I recently received an email from my dear friend Dan Kennedy, in which he had an article on Innovation that I want to share with you.   Here is what Dan had to say…

“A great example, and perhaps my favorite example of Innovation, is Tom Monahan of Domino’s Pizza.  In fact, I spoke about him for the ten years that I was speaking on The Success Tour.

Tom is very innovative and a creative guy and his innovative attitude has communicated through his ranks, and I’ll tell you my favorite Domino’s story.

There is a Domino’s franchisee that bought a domino’s pizza place and opened it at a resort area near a resort lake.  The first problem with his market area is that most of the residences live there only six months out of the year.  It’s a place where people come in the summer and really nobody stays there in the winter.

The second problem he discovered shortly after he was opened was that there was no way that he could deliver the pizza in thirty minutes or less consistently…you all know that is Domino’s guarantee…because it’s a big lake and the houses are stretched all the way around the lake and trying to do it in a car was impossible.

He needed to get the shortest route between the two points, so he began to deliver the pizza by boat because every house was right on the lake with a little dock.  So he was the first Domino’s franchisee to do it by boat.

The next problem he discovered was that boats don’t exactly stay stable like a vehicle does and so the pizza was getting there in thirty minutes but it was all smooched to one side of the box and stuck to the lid.  Kind of the opposite of what it is that they advertise.

You know what they did?

The Domino’s engineers got together and invented a device solely for his use, no other reason, invented a device that holds the pizza’s in the boat, keeps them hot and keeps them stable, regardless of what the boat does underneath it, which must somehow involve a gyroscope.

The next problem he had was that at night, unlike the lighted road and lighted address, the docks and the lake are dark.  So his delivery guys were getting lost out there in the lake with the pizza.  So he had to go around and put lights on every body’s dock at his own expense and paint numbers on the docks so when people ordered their5 pizza they could just give their dock number and the guy in the boat could get there.

That’s a lot of inventions, isn’t it, to make a pizza business work?  Here the up shot.  That franchisee, in a six-month period of time, out grossed two-thirds of what the Domino’s franchisee’s do all year long and on an annualized basis, if you take what he does in six months and multiply it times two, to do an equivalent comparison; he out-grossed all 2,999 other franchisee’s last year as a Domino’s Pizza franchisee, delivering pizza by boat on his lake.  The ability and the willingness to innovate, to make it work, is a very important characteristic.”

You can find more important information at Dan’s web site. www.dankennedy.com.

Now you can see how and why innovation is critical to any business.  Keep thinking of ways to innovate your product and business.

Technorati Tags: dan kennedy, innovating, pizza