The Berger Project » Business

What I have been reading…

Adam — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:21:15 +0000

It’s been busy, so here is a quick look at some things I have been reading:

I’ll add more as I land on interesting things…

Great virals

Adam — Wed, 14 May 2008 08:17:45 +0000

These are three great viral videos. Can you guess who sponsored each one? Do you think they result in sales?

Innovative sampling

Adam — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:58:26 +0000

While we are on the topic of wine , I also thought that this (WineSide ) is a great way to sample various bottles, without having to go to a tasting or spend $$$$ on a whole bottle to decidie if you like it.

I am sure there are other industries that could reinvent the way they get consumers to try their products. It just means breaking category rules and pushing the envelope.

What is your favorite wine? Brand and type?

Adam — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:37:45 +0000

I would bet money that most of you couldn’t not tell me the brand name and type of your top three favorite wines, let alone even one. Why not? You could name your favorite cookie, car, beer, etc. (unless you are indecisive — but that is a different issue).

The problem with wine is that there are just so many brands and varieties from all over the world. Then you factor in the year the wine is from and the fact that you ordered it at a restaurant from a last over over 200 bottles and the chances of remembering are slim to none.

So if you are a wine seller how do you breakthrough? There seems to be two standard solutions and one really interesting idea.

Advertising – Major wine brands like Yellow Tail and Gallo wines have huge marketing budgets.
Turn the market on its head - Why sell wine based on some funny variety names, why not send it as people drink it…with food. "Wine that loves " did just that.
Give people something to remember – Tons of people collect corks, but as far as I can tell they don’t really tell you what bottle (brand, type and year) you just drank. So the first option may me to brand the corks, but why not give people something a little more useful to take home with them. Like a place they can get all the information they would need to find the bottle again — the label. That is what Oxford Landing did with their label. Just peel it off and take it home, now that is how your create loyalty.

Now don’t you wish you thought of that last one?

Gamertell get’s redesigned

Adam — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:25:36 +0000

Doug and I have been working hard over the past few weeks to get up the new design and a refreshed logo. I am happy to say that it is now complete.

Check out the site here: Gamertell – gaming goodness and a whole lot more

Strategy equals success

Adam — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:20:19 +0000

I am not a Machead by any circumstance, but Apple happens to do some great things. The strategy and foresight that comes out of Steve Jobs and Co. is brilliant. Apple garners billions of PR impressions and buzz with every announcement they make (and all the rumors that surround future product announcements). While that is fantastic for them, it really doesn’t change the products themselves. From iPods to MacBooks and the AppleTV, though the buzz drives sales it does not have any effect on the products themselves. The product development begins years ahead of the announcement, all attached to a very tight, well thought out, company vision and product road map.Not buying it? Give this a thought: Apple releases a SDK (software development kit) for the iPhone, yup the same iPhone that is driven via iTunes, this SDK includes (staying away from the technical side) a brand new application store that will be the “exclusive” distribution method for the upcoming applications. Just how the iPod and iTunes are in bed together the iPhone and iPod touch are now in bed with the App Store. Let’s not underestimate the power of this advancement, there are going to be thousands of apps — don’t believe me, why would a V.C. fund create a $100,000,000 iFund to fund these projects if some really smart/tied-in people didn’t believe that iPhone apps were not the next big thing. So big deal, who cares, right? Wrong. If you step back and see that the iTunes store, and now the Apps Store, are created to drive Apple product development then you can see how important this advancement is.

Let me back up.

Back in 2001 Apple released the first iPod along with iTunes.
By 2002 Apple expanded the iPod and iTunes beyond Macs and included PCs
2004 brought color support to the iPod along with photo support
By 2005 the iPod classic supported video (this later came to the Nano in 2007). Concurrently Apple added video to iTunes in 2005 and followed with full length movies in 2006
By January 2008 Apple introduced movie rentals, the Apple TV take 2, and the MacBook Air

Looking at these last two bullet points you see the strategy shining through. These weren’t thought up in the last minute, I can guarantee that movie rentals came about back in 2005/2006. So what took so long, why wait 2 years to release them? Strategy. By tying the hardware to the software people are “forced” to buy both. The Apple TV, though the least successful Apple product, hinges on the fact that you can download movies and watch them in your living room. And if you don’t have time to finish the movie you can watch it our your iPhone/iPod touch. Worried about movies piling up and taking up too much space, no worries, they wipe clean after 30 days. Hmm, now Apple starts to create a system/regimen for consumers. Then you throw in the Mac line (Air/MacBook/MacBook Pro/iMac/Mac mini) and you see that the software is flawless across platforms. Your content picks up where you are, the devices look alike (driving brand recognition), and if are worried that your MacBook air doesn’t have a drive, don’t — you can burn CDs/DVDs via other computers with drives.

I could continue to go on and show you every detail of the Apple strategy but I’ll leave it here. It is important to realize that that strategy is what is driving their product releases, feature upgrades, and business growth but this does not mean that the strategy always benefits the consumer. There wouldn’t have been very many people complaining about the MacBook Air having a disc drive, for another .1 oz in weight, but then you wouldn’t need to rent movies from iTunes, now would you. When the strategy is crystal clear, business can actually drive the consumer purchase decisions and mindset, as opposed to consumer’s wants and need driving the company. It is a rather audacious/risky move but when you have that strategy down pat, you are sure to win every way around.

Online Ethics?

Adam — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:39:52 +0000

Are these words opposites of one another — oil and water? Do people have ethics online, because it sure doesn’t seem that way.

Andy Sernovitz write about the 11 Magic Words that can solve all your problems.