CASE STUDY: HOW TO LAUNCH A NEW BRAND (MONEY 50/50)

The desire for perfection and the fear of making mistakes both get in the way of launching a brand. They need not.

As a case study, you can watch me launch Money 50/50. It’s for a series of live TED-like talks with audience Q&A. The speakers are credible bloggers, journalists and authors known for objective advice. The intent is to make learning about money engaging. How’s that for a challenge?

I could have waited to make sure everything was ready before telling the world but thought the incremental approach would be more educational for you and more practical for me.

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

If you're worried about theft of your intellectual property, the incremental approach may be ideal. The format for Money 50/50 isn’t the work of genius but seems unique:

• 50% talking / 50% audience participation: that’s the key reason to attend in person. If there were no interaction, why attend? The audience could simply watch the talks on YouTube from home (which means they probably wouldn’t)
• the speakers are writers: that means they have the courage to put their thoughts on display for public scrutiny. Because they’re local, they’re approachable.

As I started looking for venues, I became concerned that my format might be “stolen”. While anyone can use a similar format for their cause (please do!), I didn't want to look like the copycat. That's why the first public announcement described the idea and format: the perfect live event to master your money.

Step Zero

The very first step is finding a short name for the brand that’s available as a website and Twitter handle. That meant brainstorming and checking for availability with NameChk. This took days of elapsed time. You might want to get help from creative people you trust. You might need to fabricate a name (e.g., as I did with Riscario and Taxevity).

Eventually, I registered money5050.com even though a squatter has the Twitter handle @money5050. There are ways to reclaim a Twitter account from a squatter or impersonator. Showing you have a real brand helps.

Other Steps

Eventually you will see these things in order:

1. Website: money5050.com launched (using the same Google Blogger platform as this blog)
2. Twitter handle: @50u50 (for now)
3. Newsletter: powered by Mad Mimi (done)
4. Branding: using a simple placeholder for now
5. Ticket ordering: powered by Eventbrite
6. Community: on Ning or Google+

Clearly, all these elements are not needed at the same time, especially when you’re doing the work in your spare time.

If you're afraid that the world will see work in progress, are you over thinking? The world is busy. You can relaunch when you’re ready. In the meantime, you’re taking steps that will help you get noticed. 

Links

• Five steps to freshen your group’s appeal
• Create your personal web presence
• The five marketing keys from Google's Chris O'Neill
• Case study: getting new traffic from old content
• Event planning showdown: Meetup, Eventbrite or proprietary
• Starting your own private social network
• image courtesy of Andrii Oleksiienko

PS You learn more while doing than while planning.

APPLY THE NETFLIX MODEL TO YOUR BUSINESS (BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES)

Netflix gives you unlimited access to all their titles for one low monthly fee. That's tough to beat or refuse. The Netflix model has been adopted elsewhere (e.g., to emagazines and ebooks). Why not your business?

Really Unlimited?

Netflix doesn't seem to care what we view (new vs old, movies vs TV) or for how long. Time is scarce and no one can watch 24/7. That means there are practical limits on usage.

If you have unlimited Internet, your devices can consume bandwidth when you're away. You can leave Netflix running and some titles might autoplay but there's no point. You'll lose the bookmarks which keep track of how much you've watched.

Netflix has ways to track consumption. Perhaps they make micropayments to the content providers based on what we watch. The revenue for each provider would vary but Netflix can probably predict the total expenses well.

Your Turn

How could at least part of your business be Netflixed? What can you provide that's unlimited for a fixed price? You may be too close to be objective. Consider brainstorming with outside help.

Whether you offer a product or service, maybe you provide unlimited support via email and/or phone?

What about information? If you develop content, maybe you give unlimited access to the old stuff (which may not be as valuable). Next Issue does for emagazines. The publisher likely gets a micropayment based on which issues is read and how much gets read. That's better than earning nothing from that catalogue.

New Incentives

If you were paid by the hour and now get a flat fee per month, your incentives change. You've now got reasons to become more efficient because time now costs you money. Maybe you create an FAQ or use email templates. You then free up your time for more productive uses.

Side Benefits

Offering fixed prices helps by

• improving relationship with customers since you've removed uncertainty from their bills
• making you remarkable, which gives you the benefits of word of mouth
• providing market intelligence by showing what’s on your customers’ minds
• providing a predictable (and perhaps larger) stream of income

The Fine Print

Netflix doesn't offer as much as you might think

• the selection is limited
• the selection changes (titles expire)
• the selection varies by location (each country offer different choices with much less in Canada than the US)
• the latest titles aren't available until later

You can introduce limitations too.

Links

• Netflix for learning: unlimited access to emagazines, ebooks, audiobooks
• How to beat Goliath with your marketing
• Do you annoy your clients without knowing?
• How healthy is your marketing?
• When your customers fight back
• image courtesy of Klaus Shmidheiser

PS Your transition can take time, as when Netflix started streaming videos instead of only mailing physical disks.