This is another handy chart form McKinsey. It is very easy to feel like all you can do is cut costs right now, but the truth is, this is a great time to go after new customers if you have some resources.
Entries Tagged as 'Consumer Products'
Growth in Hard Times – All the money is in play
July 16th, 2009 · No Comments · B2B, Consumer Products, Entrepreneurial Culture
Tags: business plan·great time·handy chart·hard money·mckinsey·McKinsey & Company·new markets·product planning·strategy·truth
Redesigning Product
June 9th, 2009 · No Comments · B2B, Business Models, Consumer Products, Entrepreneurial Culture, Opinion
If things are still slow for you, it’s probably a good time to rethink how you define product.
I spend a lot of time with clients outlining the space between how they define their products and how their customers define their products. Sometimes this has to do with real or perceived benefits. Sometimes this has to [...]
Tags: bridge the gap·funders·initial purchase·integration service·lease deal·leasing company·performance criteria·product design·product experience·product offering·work flow
Defining Context: Success in Bedford Falls & Stone Soup Entrepreneurship
February 5th, 2009 · No Comments · Consumer Products, Entrepreneurial Culture, Free Resources, Lucky's Cafe, Opinion
This article about my sister’s businesses in Cleveland is a review of the restaurant, yes, but is also a review of the restaurants raison d’etre.(disclosure: I am part owner of my sister’s empire – but we’ve never really figured out what part.)
The first half of the review consists of a discussion of the social and [...]
Tags: Cleveland·Google Alert·Restaurant
Chasing the consumer dollars during recessions
December 23rd, 2008 · No Comments · Business Models, Consumer Products, Free Resources, Resources for New Business
McKinsey has published a chart that depicts the changes in spending trends during recessions. The key points here are that consumers will spend a bit less overall but dramatically shift their spending in a number of categories.
The good news here for start-ups is that there are consumers in the market looking to replace their old [...]
Tags: bad time·consumer dollars·consumers spending·home cooking·how to save money·LinkedIn·mckinsey·recession·recessions·spa restaurant·spending habits·spending trends·start ups·start-up
COLLOQUY – Customer Loyalty, Rewards, and Retention
June 22nd, 2007 · No Comments · Consumer Products, Publication, Resources for New Business
Sometimes you are involved with a product so engaging to so many people that customers find you and become dedicated to you on their own. From my experience, this requires a magic mixture of product design brand identity that satisfies all aspects of the customers’ pleasure centers (solves a problem well, I identify with [...]
Tags: brand identity·colloquy·customer loyalty rewards·customer retention·haviland·luxury hotels·magic mixture·pleasure centers·purchase decision·toothpaste
Internet Retailer
June 18th, 2007 · No Comments · Business Models, Consumer Products, Free Resources, Publication, Resources for New Business
Internet Retailer regularly finds stories and information that impact our clients in B2C retailing.
The site is a bit thin on free data, but they do offer a relatively inexpensive guide to technology providers ($49) and some interesting profiles of top on-line or multi-channel retailers.
More about Internet Retailer…
Tags: inexpensive guide·internet retailer·profiles·technology providers
T-Shirt Maker’s Style, Drawn From Web Users
June 18th, 2007 · No Comments · Business Models, Consumer Products
Crowdsourcing
My favorite business models right now are the ones that really focus on a limited set of operations, chosen for a unique aggregating of external resources. That may be hard to visualize, initially, but this article from the Washington Post describes the phenomenon very well, including how technology has made it all that much [...]
Tags: atleast·Business Models·demographic groups·external resources·mob mentality·oppurtunity·product life cycle·t shirt·washington post·web users
New Products (Like the iPhone): Announce Early or Go for the Surprise Rollout?
June 14th, 2007 · No Comments · B2B, Consumer Products, Free Resources, Resources for New Business
I love when I find a resource that distills a common strategic question down to a few simple calculations. This article on doesn’t quite get to the paint-by-numbers status, but it does lay out a clear set of topics to consider when thinking about your product launch.
Vaporware or surprise attack?
So often your [...]
Tags: confidence·fortunes·iphone·love·paint by numbers·product launch·surprise attack·thigs·vaporware