#60/111: Ice to the Eskimos

What is it about?

So, you got the worst NBA team and now it’s time to fill their stadium and actually make money. Too hard? Ask Jon Spoelstra who achieved this with the New Jersey Nets.

What can I learn?

The Quick Fix Silver Bullet: What would you do first? Buy a new team? Run commercials? There is an easier way. Increase the frequency of purchases of your existing customers. Use direct mailing and send them special offers. Spoelstra created special packages for the top games, i.e. when the NJ Jets played against the Dallas Mavericks or Chicago Bulls.

Make your customer a real-life hero: This idea is ingenious. Jon Spoelstra had to sell sponsorships for a lousy NBA team. Everyone would be considered stupid if they would sponsor such a team. How did Spoelstra did this? He made the people who bought sponsorships real-life heroes. The New Jersey Nets sent the CEOs of the sponsoring companies and their contact person high-quality prints which included pictures of every appearance and showed how much impact they had. This impressed the CEOs and often led to the promotion of the contact person.

Make it too good of a deal: If there’s no recognition of value, price cuts won’t increase your sales enough. However, you can increase the value of your offering. Spoelstra added baseball caps or a meal to the tickets. A all-you-can eat buffet and five tickets for a game for just $29. That’s a deal too good to be true!

Conclusion

I just covered three of nineteen chapters and they are nearly all great. Ice to the Eskimos impressed me extremely and was interesting although I have no clue about the NBA. I think this book is was Attention! wanted to be – clever, unusual and stuffed with actionable advice. Recommendation!

#59/111: game-based marketing

What is it about?

Not just the social web makes customer relationship more interactive. There is more. Gabe Zichermann and Joselin Linder tell us about using games as a marketing tool.

What can I learn?

Achiever, Socializer, Explorer and Killer: Richard Bartle, a game researcher, analyzed different types of gamers. The achiever wants to gain updates or collection points. The Socializer doesn’t really focus on winning the game rather chatting and helping other people. The Explorers like to find new worlds, new features and go into depth. Furthermore, there are the Killers who will do nearly everything to win including cheating.

Public recognition as incentive: There is more than money. People like to get public recognition. You can use badges or leader boards. These two things motivates the Achiever, Explorer and the Killer and having these people will please the Socializers. This makes leaders boards and badges are very mighty tool.

Build longtime games: Some companies use games successfully today. McDonald’s do so with McDonald’s Monopoly. It is easy to play, easy to join but hard to master. Though the main problem is that is only temporary. A great example for longtime games are frequent-flyer programs. There are multiple levels (1m mile club, etc) and there is public recognition in form of cards or access to special locations.

Conclusion

game-based marketing is a solid book. It explains common used methods today and doesn’t neglect the research. Though the book isn’t really visionary although there is, I think, a big opportunity and market in using games as a marketing tool. Good fundamental book.

#58/111: Startup from the Ground Up

What is it about?

Cynthia Kocialski writes about starting a startup from the idea to the exit. She focuses on venture-backed tech startups.

What can I learn?

Hire college students: This is a great source for hiring people. They are mostly open to new experiences and eager to learn and try new things. Furthermore, they are affordable.

Your Team is king: Angel investors bet often on the jockey (team) instead of on the horse (product). Why? One great example is the team behind PayPal. They started of building a payment and cryptography product for the Palm. Today you know PayPal as a service for online payments. The successfully transformed their company.

Conclusion

I found this book a bit weak and short. You have to consider that it is focused on venture-backed startups. But would you just read such a short book if you are going to have $500k – $5m in founding? Probably not. If you’re interested in this topic, I would recommend start reading The Art of Start by Guy Kawasaki.

#57/111: The New Business Road Test

What is it about?

How can you increase your probably of success? John Mullins takes a scientific-like way to explore why startups fail and how it can be fixed. Each major point is illustrated by case studies and a short section “what investors want to know”.

What can I learn?

What are your goals? Before starting you should define your goals. Do you want to build a multi million dollars company or a lifestyle business? Do you want to work 80h/w or rather 25? This is the general framework to later decisions.

Market and Industry: Often these two things are not really understood. Your market exists of your customers. Your Industries are your competitors. Often there are great markets but the industry sucks. A example are restaurants. There are a mass of people who have to eat every day but the industry is gigantic and competitive. There are lots of restaurants or people could cook for themselves. That is, you market should be acceptable and your industry.

Obey the Critical Success Factors: If you have chosen your market and industry, you have to identify the industry’s Critical Success Factors (CSF). What is really important in your industry? For example, you can’t build a successful news site if you don’t have topical and good content.

Choose a great management team: Your management team should be complementary to you. Firstly, you have to know your strengths and weaknesses. If you suck at finance look for a smart CFO. If you suck at managing people, look for a smart COO/CEO. You don’t have to do anything for yourself and probably better don’t.

Conclusion

This is a pretty good book. The New Business Road Test is well structured and each chapter includes case studies which support Mullins’ assumptions about starting a successful business. The book is very practical and definitely worth reading if you want to start a business. Recommendation!