Be Your Market's "Funny Guy"

“What tactics does your firm use that involve following the leader? What if you abandoned them and did something totally different instead? If you acknowledge that you’ll never catch up by being the same, make a list of ways you can catch up by being different.”

Too tempting is it, for many of us, to simply blend in with our surroundings, sporting a solid good but nothing amazing or spectacular. In this weeks reading of Purple Cow by Seth Godin, I learned about his approach to cutting losses to get ahead. It is very easy for us to fall into a pattern for whatever we are doing, flying under the radar of normality and never leaving a blip worth a remark. Godin commands us to stop our lazy inaction, and take our lives, and our business ventures, by the reigns. In this spirited rebirth of energy, cut your ties from the mainstream and be a purple cow by embracing what makes you different.

This message does not always mean totally changing your lane or domain of operation to find success, but instead changing how you approach a situation. If you're self-conscious of always being the last one picked when creating teams for recess kickball, and your athleticism is a little out of control, you could make yourself remarkable to ensure you weren’t picked last. Although the main criteria for selection order during team creation is ones athleticism, those who are at a disadvantage could set themselves apart with other qualities, just like finding a niche market. For example, if you weren’t as fast or strong as the other players, but you could crack a hilarious joke here and there, it could get you selected earlier purely because others liked to be around you.  When you are faced with your own mediocrity, think differently to make yourself distinct.

Smarter Not Harder

Our grand shipment arrived today, in an expectedly clunky fashion. The picture I received from my teammate told the presumed story of a slightly modified product not quite like the one we ordered. The logos did not look quite as crisp as the image we sent them, and are quite a bit larger than that in the example image they regurgitated to us before purchase. But after we checked for quality of the insignia, so far so good, and ran some water through one to check for leaks and for any foul taste, all turned up milhouse. That’s one nightmare averted. Now on to the next, much more daunting, task of actually getting the product into customer’s hands and getting customer’s money into our pockets.

With a proven and able product at the ready, we have only our marketing and salesmanship skills in the way of achieving our goal.  Although some of our group members do still want to do a public table where just anybody can come up and buy one, several factors lead me to believe that while it could sell a few, it would ultimately not be worth our time. These factors include that this approach would be akin to mass marketing, which will be less effective because our product is not one that the masses are in dire need of. Also that most students don’t carry cash on them during school, and even fewer would be willing to buy a product like ours in passing. Using the table could have some success, but I am be far a bigger fan of working smarter rather than harder, but maybe that’s just the Senioritis speaking.

We could actually have a pretty simple way to achieve success lying right in our lap. Two of our group members are on sports teams that don’t make cuts when taking on new athletes. This not only gives us insight into our target niche, but it also gives us contacts with in two of the largest sports teams in school. This week we set up a plan that would attract teams en mass. We have created a special offer that allows a unit to be sold at $5 if the entire team buys one. This is half the price, and would be very attractive and convenient for athletes. Not only are they getting functioning water bottles, if the whole team has them, they become a symbol of unity. We wouldn’t even have to do any mass marketing. If we start by getting a few sports teams to buy them for the whole squad, we would not only make our money back and then some, but also have the exposure needed for other sports teams to pick up on the trend and make us a lot of profit.

Be Direct or Lack Success

This weeks reading of Purple Cow by Seth Godin talked about how a product must be advertised to a selective niche rather than the grand whole to be successful. Marketing aimlessly is for the uncreative, and the approach has been obsolete, but is still in practice, for over 30 years. This made me think about the impending trials and tribulations of making a profit off of our $200 investment. With the arrival of our wholesale-purchased bottles on the horizon, only 5 more days, the hypothetically great idea that we were confident in not two weeks ago will be put to a very real test. Godin’s words are giving me wise advice, and I plan to follow it.

We are one of the only groups in the class who will have direct competition in the sale of their items, but the tactic of selective advertising could save us time and energy, and actually give us the edge on the Cheerleaders. As we have seen, they have put out a mass notice in the form of a flyer. When I went to get the materials for Advisory this past Tuesday I saw that they had stuffed at least 10 sheets into each homeroom box. Although this isn't big league advertising, in which purchasing commercials or ad-spreads costs millions and ineffective advertising can mean the death of a project, I predict the same bout of ineffectiveness to occur in their attempt. It has been several days since their marketing campaign began, and I have not heard a word about it in the halls or in my classes. Like many advertising campaigns today, their approach lacks direction and will therefore fall on a community of deaf ears.

To put Godin’s words into a action, I want to drum up a plan that focuses our efforts primarily with athletes. Godin mentions that the true secret to success in our supersaturated consumerist society is to hope that the niche you advertised to does your advertising to the rest of the masses for you. The basketball teams, of all levels, are a great place to start. Varsity’s success in recent years has greatly increased school pride, and with that the flaunting of the “Varsity Basketball” appearance in the hallways. Players commonly dress in team attire and carry around their gym bags solely for the image. If we could sell our product to them, we could add another accessory to their image. They would carry the bottle around with the rest of their stuff during the day, and instantly they become walking spokespersons. We only need a few to have the word begin spreading itself. If we sold to a few Varsity players, word would spread to the rest of the team, and then you have the younger players on JV and Freshmen looking up to them wanting to buy into the look. If we sold to every player on all teams we would make $290 (45 players x $10 - $160 investment). And that's just one sport alone. Godin’s words are resonating with me, and I look forward to seeing what other messages I can dissect and apply to my strategy in these coming projects.  

Take a Second to Appreciate Your Surroundings

This week in class our group has been shifting the majority of its attention to handling our Storefront Project as we wait for our water bottles to arrive in the mail. So as of Monday this week, we were planning to put all pursuits having to do with the $200 project on hold. A blaring update made us realize that this seemingly harmless inaction was putting us behind an unforeseen competitor. The Cheerleaders, whose image and reputation has gone under a major manual overhaul in recent years saw the new Brookline Warriors logo and came to the conclusion that a water bottle would be the best possible product to slap it on to.

I became worried pretty fast. Not only were they getting the word out on their product well before we were, I instantly pictured the quick and painful contest for the public’s favor that I would lose against a loud and little cheerleader, who literally practices daily how to inspire school spirit in the stressed-out zombies that walk the halls of BHS. Immediately we shifted to code red, funneling all our effort into creating an even better flyer that allowed us to assert ourselves and our overall superior product. It was thrilling to be both nervous of failure but confident that the team members around you would put up a good fight.

Regardless of all the drama that might ensue because of this, it is another instance of how great it is to go to a school like BHS.  Not many schools could cultivate this chance competition of interests. A couple factors of what makes Brookline so unique are displayed in this instance that we have become unappreciative of. Despite not having the football culture that the majority of southern high schools have, the students in our Cheerleading squad have found passion in what they do. Through this common interest, lots of effort has lead to a notable overall in the program. Now lacking further funds they look to tap into the School’s community for help. On the other hand you have Communication for Entrepreneurs as a class we can actually talk for credit, which provides students curious in the world of entrepreneurship with real world experience to gain their footing. Although our club or team’s future does not depend on how much money we make from this project, we do have the pressure of making profit for our investors, a real world experience you couldn’t obtain in any other class in the school.

Brookline High School students have lots of passion and drive for an astonishingly diverse myriad of things.  All we lack is the government mandated funding to support these passions.  To an extent I am not even mad, or frustrated, that someone else developed an idea similar to ours, I’m just glad to attend a high school where students can pursue their own interests to a point where this scenario could even take place.

Leave Your Mark or Be Forgotten

I chose to read Purple Cow, by Seth Godin. This book opens with the author recanting a family-vacation memory that lead him to develop the marketing commandment of the Purple Cow. That is, when you are hoping to sell a product or idea it has to be  totally out of the norm, abstract and apart from the status quo. Hence the one purple in a sea of normal black-and white cows. Your idea has to be worth talking about to be successful. With the modern day methods of communication leading to advertising where ever we look, our lives have become oversaturated with consumerism. So much so, that we have become numb to its presence. We do not wait around for a mediocre and middle-of -the road idea, instead we are swept up in the appeal of the best and the most distinct. If you have a pile of somewhat good ideas, and then have an idea that totally sets itself apart, despite how worthy it is, it will grab your attention. 

The initial message of this book has really got me thinking about it’s relevance to my life outside of entrepreneurship. As a senior I am a little embarrassed to say that I do not know the name of every single classmate in my graduating class. And to a certain extent, I don’t really think it’s my fault or responsibility to be familiar with every other fish in every other pond I swim in. In a pond as big, or as small, as BHS, not everyone will get a perfect chance to shake hands and exchange names with every other person, and so recognition of each other transfers largely through hearsay or reputation. Some people view having a reputation as a bad thing, but if you don’t have any reputation at all, then you haven’t done anything remarkable. It’s almost depressing to say that when I think back to high school, however many years from now, it will almost be as if those people, for whom I cannot place a name, did not exist to me. If you do not set yourself apart from others you are just one individual in an overwhelming mass and to many you will not leave a trace or a memory to their brain. So go out there, be different, and be a purple cow.    

Turning a New Leaf Requires the Right Environment

The tone of C4E associates has taken a palpable turn since the beginning of second quarter. For the first time this year I am part of a group for which I feel all members are equally excited and dedicated to the class. Everyone wants to succeed and we all understand that to succeed as a group we must support one another as well as critique each other. So far, we have rigorously dove into the two projects laid out before us. For the Storefront project, we have a coherent idea in the works that would bring a unique attraction to the neighborhood surrounding Route 9. We plan to turn this storefront into a Crafts shop of sorts, where kids and their families can come in and use our facility to create art. This art would include domains like soaps, candles or paintings. Within this group I am playing on the bench, for lack of a better term, as I do not have a distinct role and am instead filling in wherever there are holes in our group flow. So far I have done a bit of editing on each members written submissions pertaining to this project as well as idea generation. But the majority of my effort thus far lies in the $200 project.

I have taken this non-descript role in our storefront project so that I could free up my class time to go all-out in being the group leader for our $200 project. This leadership experience has been pretty different from any I've had before purely because each student is putting in their 100%.  Usually, group projects for school do not have a designated leader, and not everyone is fully on board or checked-in. So, in the frenzy of trying to put together a coherent project, some kids will slack off, and others will have to rise to the occasion and plug the holes in the sinking ship and then shovel out all of the water. But with this group everyone is eager to do well, so as a leader I am doing less of the nudging to get things done, and more of the directing and then taking my hands of the wheel. So far, my members have been very receptive to both direction and feedback, and it is great seeing them be creative and efficient with the tasks I give them.
For our project we have recently placed our $200 investment into an order of water bottles donning the school’s new official logo of a spartan. We both came up with the idea and placed the order within the span of 12 hours to get a Cyber Monday deal from the online retailer.  That night, I had the unique experience of managing the group in a group chat while participating in a CHEX Steering Committee meeting. During the meeting, in which we were ironing out the details to upcoming event pivotal to the program’s future, I was having a back-and-forth with my members about the best design and the best price and amount of bottles to buy. I could only communicate through text while I had one member at home finishing his edit of the design and the other negotiating with the website for the best deal. It was hectic but also fun, and it gave me a taste of the kind of multi-tasking entrepreneurs must do on a daily basis. I’m looking forward to what this project has in store for me in the future.