Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Pick Punch – a Creative Product

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Upstarta is not about advertising products – but sometimes I spot a product or company that’s worth a mention, because of it actually dealing with a problem people are genuinely trying to solve, or the operational approach to a business.
I find Pick Punch creative, it’s a holepunch for guitar picks.

Naturally people would use specifically suited materials for serious work, but… as the picture already shows, you can punch almost anything including old credit cards and store loyalty cards. That’s hilarious, and such an excellent marketing gimmick: it makes the product and company get talked about.

Likely, a pick from an old card might not be perfect for the pick job, but it can be “good enough” and you can get a few picks out of a card. Even if you don’t “collect” such cards, you’re likely to have a few, and they do expire. Since you’d cut up or shred an old card, turning them in to picks along the way deals with the safety aspects, and extends the useful life of the material.

It looks like the product started as a novelty item – quality picks aren’t that expensive compared to the cost of the punch product. But, many guitar fanatics like to make their own picks (personalisation) so it does match a demand.

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Why you Pay for Stuff that is Available for Free

Bottled water is a convenience, and that’s what’s sold (convenience), not water as such. Note that at least in Australia, water out of our home tap isn’t free either, so perhaps we can expand this story to include “cheap” as well as free (gratis).

When we go to the cinema, we don’t go to see a movie, we go out for an evening of entertainment – if it was “just a movie” I could wait a while and see it on DVD. Much cheaper. Or even lower cost, watch it on TV some time. But that’s not what we do, for decent movies. This also explains why Event Cinema’s Gold Class occupies a pretty decent niche, it delivers an experience: Gold Class is a regular cinema space but with about 16 pairs of comfortable reclining business class airline seats. You get welcomed in a bar area beforehand for a drink if you want, and pick food and drink from the menu. You choose what you want to get delivered to your seats (there’s a little table in front of the seat pairs) and at how many minutes into the movie. It costs, but it’s well worth it for specific occasions and movies.

Free or cheap isn’t necessarily convenient or desirable. Free in fact always has a price, even if non-monetary. Free also has intrinsic problems as it creates a feeling of entitlement while not engaging the usual concept of reciprocity (you do something for me, I give you something back). So, having a paid-for product that could be acquired elsewhere for free or very cheap, is perfectly sensible and common.

Take TV shows. I don’t watch much, and I have my MythTV setup record everything I want so I can watch it when I want – also skipping commercials. That’s a non-ideal solution, merely working with how the content is currently offered. I could also download the same shows online, but that’s illegal.
Who are the customers of a TV station? Not the viewers. It’s the advertisers. And thus you have a very nasty triangle where quality loses out, and even availability. I pay for the free-to-air TV shows in terms of inconvenience, and my MythTV setup merely mitigates some of that. In addition I’m fully aware that it undermines the business model of the TV station. However, I am not responsible for their business model. It’s outdated and should adjust. It’s not and that’s their problem. I won’t break the law for that, but I’ll use available technology to aid my convenience.

I would happily do micro-payments to follow the series and programs I want, with a simple intermediary between me and the producers. This would also mean that the audience is directly engaged and intrinsically global, and thus a good series would continue even if the advertising revenue in a particular region diminishes.
Current TV stations and media distribution companies could be such intermediaries and make a healthy (and sustainable!) living out of it. Some try things, but I don’t think any of them really “get it”.
Then again, it’s really difficult to make such a change from within an existing organisation, as it cannibalises the old revenue stream. Typically, it needs to be set up as a separate business, both in terms of management as well as financially.

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This INSANE Graphic Shows How Ludicrously Complicated Social Media Marketing Is Now

From http://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-marketing-landscape-complicated-2012-5

We’re definitely saturated. From my own observation, I also think that most companies “don’t get it” and rather than interacting with their environment, treat all this tech like new media outlets. The title also goes this way, “social media marketing”. It is indeed marketing in the sense that “word of mouth” and “listening to your clients and in particular non-clients” are in the realm of marketing, but it’s much less controlled than most marketers operate. Think about it…

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Voting with your wallet for the world you want

Anna Lappé said this nicely with

“Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”

Of course this affects various aspects: whether you spend that money at all for a specific purpose, where you spend it (with whom), and how much.

In Upstarta terms, any choice (action or inaction) has consequences, and thus you own the consequences as much as the choice, they don’t “just happen”. Often the consequences are quite predictable, and if they’re not in line with where you want your company to go, that choice would be the wrong one. So for an Upstarta, Anna’s choice actually applies to any decision, not just those directly costing money.

Many companies don’t consider these things, but it doesn’t cost much extra effort and the secondary effects are worthwhile as well as the “feel good factor” for yourself and your company. It’s not something you would actively use in marketing (that’s uncool), but others will notice and the proactive stance will score you credit and that’s likely to attract extra business of the kind you want. So it can seriously ease your client acquisition process and thus in fact save money and effort there.