Charles Denault III

With the release of the new Prada Smartphone produced by LG, I’m confident that all of the rich and fabulous donning nothing but the most expensive and exotic clothing and jewelry, will be first in line to get their hands on it. It’s nothing special. It’s a phone. It’s no better than any other smartphone on the market. It doesn’t have breakthrough features, it isn’t a thousand times faster, nor does it run a new OS. It’s simply an android phone. Yet they’re trying to pull a fast one on consumers with deep pockets. They’re trying to throw a brand on an ordinary item and make it more valuable. Nearly every company in the world is guilty of doing this at some point… Polo, Lexus, Armani come to mind. The products may be built to slightly higher standards, but in fact they’re just rebranded with a name that is associated with status. It’s a psychological marketing trick.

Whether or not it will work this time around is up to LG. The interface is a poor monochromatic display of a childish graphic designer trying their hand at simplicity. The phone, sans Prada branding, looks identical to any other Android powered phone on the market. And what really gives it up is the big LG plastered on the back of the device. If they really wanted to create a brand, they wouldn’t annex their own line. They would give Prada all of the pride. You don’t see Toyota underneath the logo of every Lexus on the face of the planet, but anyone in the industry knows that’s who manufactures the cars. People don’t care who makes the phone. They don’t care what company is bottling their cologne. They’re buying the product for its functionality, and sadly its name. Slap Tiffany on any WalMart bracelet and a girl’s heart will melt.

LG could have underlying intentions as well. Prada is almost certainly attempting to create a desirable phone, but LG might be trying to improve its own image. LG is known for making some subpar products. Their TVs and other electronic devices grace the shelves at low cost big box stores, and people have come to associate them with creating inexpensive, nearly disposable products. Their move to partner with Prada could be a subtle attempt to begin making consumers wonder if their products are actually of much higher quality. After all, why would Prada parter with a company such as LG unless they were creating high-quality products.

We’ve seen this before LG. Time to hang it up.

My online shipping business, which I hadn’t done much with due to lack of time because of school, was sitting online waiting for me to work on. I had finally gotten all of the bugs out of the code, the finishing touches put on, and a killer ordering system in place. It was ready to go. I was about to start dumping money into advertising and hopefully start churning a pretty penny. And then it all fell apart.

My suppliers went out of business. A bridge was closed in our town, causing the traffic to literally come to an end. Their road was on a dead end now, and there were no customers. They closed up shop, and left me out to dry.

All of this could have been avoided. Not their unfortunate closing, but mine as well. I feel like this is a mistake that far too many entrepreneurs make. I had all of my eggs in one basket with these guys. Here are some possible scenarios that could have played out:

1. Personal relationship with the owners crumbles, they stop helping me out and I lose my product supply.
2. They strictly control the price of the products and I have no choice but to agree because they know that I have no where else to go.
3. Their business gets shut down and I’m left with a useless website.
4. They decide to get into online shipping as well, ending their agreement with me.

I never realized how much time I spent staring into the deep abyss that we call Facebook. I literally always had it open in one tab of Chrome, I had the app on my iPhone, and I got notifications, texts, and emails all day long. It controlled my life, and there’s no moderating it! Sure, you can tone down the number of emails you get, but as soon as someone posts to your wall, messages you, etc. you have to log in to see. Then you spend an hour stalking old flings, looking at childhood photos, playing games, and writing rather inane and cryptic messages on your friend’s walls. Following my brother in law, I went cold turkey and deleted that bad boy. I never looked back since.

With all of my new found free time, I’ve accomplished a lot of cool things. I’m opening a new business on the West Coast, I had time to work on ChuckFish.com, and I got to spend a lot of my spare time learning new things. I read through a few books. Here was my last reading list:

Social Engineering

A brilliant read on the inner-workings of the human mind and how people behave within society. It dives deep into the black arts of manipulation and related concepts. It’s tough to describe, but I recommend it if you’re interested in people/psychology.

Alpha Dogs

A great book on how small business owners stayed small, yet grew to become market leaders. Features a bicycle shop that does several million to an ice cream shop that lets managers essentially do whatever they want! It’s a neat read following neat businesses.

I read a few other books that weren’t as noteworthy, but at the time of this writing I’m about to open DNA, The secret of life by the one and only James D. Watson.

So you’ve spent hours on end (or thousands of dollars) developing your e-commerce website to sell your killer products, but you just can’t seem to get the amount of traffic you want! What do you do? Buying traffic doesn’t help you out at all and is just a bad idea in general. Well throughout my research I’ve developed a solid list of tips and tricks to getting your site noticed.

1. Niche Forums: Go ahead and register on all of the forums that are in your niche. Put your website link in the signature of each post and go through answering questions people have. The more links you have out there, the more chances someone will click it. Do this on a regular basis.
2. Site blog: This one may seem obscure for many people. Create a blog and regularly post to it. The posts can be anything from product tips and reviews to promo-codes for your store. If you post promo-codes, be sure to post them around the forums as well!
3. Yahoo Answers: Post answers to questions on Yahoo Answers and Google Answers with your link as the source. It’ll help curious people click their way to your products.
4. Facebook Page: If you haven’t already, try creating a facebook page for your business. Invite all your friends and offer promo-codes and do a giveaway every now and then. Use status updates and facebook ads to promote your page. *It should be noted that facebook’s newsfeed algorithm doesn’t display pages if the user isn’t engaged or if it doesn’t think it’s relevant. I’ve noticed solid traffic increases though.
5. Product Manuals: Upload all of the product manuals to your website in HTML format. This will help will long keywords and give users another reason to visit your website.
6. Review Section: Let users write and upload reviews about your products.
7. Post Reviews Elsewhere: Write reviews about your products on other review websites. If you have a webcam, videotape yourself reviewing your products. Post all over!
8. Create a place page: If you’re marketing to a specific geographic region, you can create a free Google Place page, which will help with negative results.
9. Froogle/Base: Add your products… it can’t hurt.
10. AdWords: This is a no-brainer, but often skipped because of the prices. It’s worth it to advertise with AdWords, especially if you choose to have results on the Google Search Results pages. Suck it up and spend the money.

And that’s all for now!

Amidst writing my latest business plan, I’ve begun to dive deeper and deeper into the minds of consumers. Asking myself all sorts of questions to ensure that I cover every possible topic and scenario. Well here’s one for you…

What’s your primary product?

Before we even go over your answer, lets have a look at some very successful businesses.

Polo Ralph Lauren: They sell clothes, right? No. They sell status. Do you really think they have $40.00 into each shirt that you buy for $50? Absolutely not. It doesn’t cost them any more than it does a no-name brand that’s selling similar shirts at Wal-Mart. You’re buying the status that’s affiliated with the brand.

Cologne Companies: You think they’re selling that oil based fragrance in that little bottle? Nope! They’re tapping into an emotional need of consumers. They give the consumers the idea that they’ll feel needed/wanted/more attractive when they wear the fragrance. And once again, it doesn’t cost them nearly anything close to what they’re selling the goods for.

McDonalds: You better be learning by now… What are they selling? GOOD! They’re selling convenience! Surely, you don’t find their products to be the best tasting around, yet millions of people buy their food every day! That’s because their primary product is convenience. They make it so easy for us, with our super busy lives, to get a quick satisfying meal with an extra 500 calories.

So when you go to look at your business, ask yourself what your primary product is? What is it that your customers will really be after? It’s so difficult for a start-up to pull out the price card, because their competitors are so established that they can most likely do it more efficiently than the start-up. You want to focus on something that you know you can provide and if you can come up with a unique primary product, with standard secondary products, well then I think you might just be on the right track.

What’s this nonsense? Mixing people with business? Why would anyone do such a thing? Business is supposed to be cold hearted. I want to talk to a foreigner when I call for phone support.

Sorry, but I believe that entrepreneurs are doing something wrong these days. The little guys are so wrapped up in making themselves appear bigger than they really are. Sure, as consumers when we first visit a website we judge it by it’s look and layout. If things are scattered around, we move on. But what about two equally designed sites, one just has a corporate feel while the other is homey. I’d rather buy from the little guy, as long as he presents his products in a nice manner which reflects good business that will deliver in a timely manner.

I think that when people hear that “business image is everything” (which it is) they get the idea that they’re supposed to try and look like the big guys. They’re trying to be the Domino’s while I want to be the Papa John’s. When I am working out a new business plan, I try to devise a clear and concise system of how I am going to brand myself. I always try to give my business a feel of being professional, efficient, organized, and focused. I do that in such a manner where I can also portray myself as being a big as I really am… which generally isn’t never has been huge.

I’ve noticed a trend with the branding of some of the dominating companies out there as well. Go back to our Domino’s analogy. They’re going back to the basics with their latest campaigns. They’re letting consumers send in videos and pictures of their pizzas when they got them delivered. This hardcore advertising and rebranding campaign has now made me, as a consumer, recognize the CEO of Domino’s. Just that alone gives it a more personal feel. Seeing the guy behind it all makes me feel more comfortable when dealing with their stores.

So keep that in mind when you’re writing your next business plan. Ask yourself how you’re going to give your business a professional yet personal brand? Ask yourself how you are going to make your customers connect with your brand and recognize it? How are you going to convert consumers into customers?

When it comes to running a successful business having a comprevensive business plan is crucial. It outlines every single aspect of your company in an easy to navigate format that is almost universal throughout the business world. It will also help when it comes time to talk to banks or other businesses. However, something that is often overlooked during the planning and execution periods, is your company image.

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