Entrepreneurial Marketing

2011-07-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

Additional thoughts on the written deliverables are found here.

2011-07-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

BRIEF EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES

It has been really difficult for some teams to create a coherent executive summary. These can be very brief, although if you want to expand, you will want to tell a story. This involves building on your theme or bit.

I have inserted a couple brief executive summaries. One was extracted from a sample plan that was already posted on this site. The other (from 1998) was written by a reviewer for a student team's executive summary. The latter team got funded (although not for this particular idea).

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Our goal is to provide the customer with a true Italian experience by making traditional style gelato.

Gelato is not just a summer treat. Gelato can be enjoyed throughout the year with flavors such as pumpkin, during Halloween, and eggnog and cinnamon spice during the festive holiday season.

In addition, Cielo also offers their customers a variety of Italian panini sandwiches and various refreshments. Each day, paninis are freshly made and customers can custom order their panini with additional ingredients. Cielo’s commitment to quality is demonstrated throughout the entire gelato-making process.

Cielo starts by mixing only fresh, natural ingredients and ensures this quality to the customer by making fresh daily batches of gelato. Providing optimal freshness is important to Cielo because we want to provide only the finest products to our customers.

Or

echospace.com™ is a revolutionary new concept combining familiar applications such as a word processor and spreadsheet with a personal living space™. In their living space, users can manage their one stop email, secure file storage, address book, calendared events, and have access to preferred informational content (stock quotes, news, etc.), all with a click of the mouse. Most information stored and managed in the personal living space is made available (upon user’s request) to other echospace.com™ users as well as non-echospace.com™ users with group functionality and sharing features located throughout the site. echospace.com™ will offer users both free and subscription based online productivity applications, such as a word processor and spreadsheet. Users will be able to create, edit, and manage files, such as a document or spreadsheet, with echospace.com™ applications, including content created with other software packages. We are providing the user a complete source for application and information management. All echospace.com™ applications are designed to run as seamless as personal computer based software, with familiar interfaces and functionality. In fact it is our goal for the user to forget that they are actually on the web when using our product.

2011-06-28T00:32:00.001-07:00

The following are potential test questions.

From the Text

Define and contrast the differences between Bit, Pitch, versus Executive Summary

How does Alan (and others) see entrepreneurship as an essential ingredient for executives? What is the essence of entrepreneurship?

What is the problem with lacking vision? If you have not created a compelling pitch or plan, what are a couple concerns?

What is a business model? What are the essential elements? For what reasons is this a critical art for entrepreneurs?

What are the benefits for maintaining an elevator pitch?
What are the main reasons for communicating your business in a concise fashion?
What is the Bit? Can you contrast it with the Pitch?
What does "Simplicity" mean with respect to creating a business model? What do you suppose it means to achieve simplicity? Is it easy to construct a Bit? Why or why not?
What kinds of things need to be brought to a Bit session?
What are the marks of a good executive summary? Does a good summary have to convince the decision-maker to fund it?
What are "hidden slides"?
How does Alan differentiate Startup or Entrepreneurial Marketing vs. "Regular" Markeing
What single "key question" describes segmentation and positioning? What four elements comprise this answer?
Can you describe the concept of Wisdom?
What does it mean to "Kill your Darlings?" How can you go about doing this?
Can you explain the concept of "The Ultimate Question"?

Can you describe the long-tail phenomenon? What does it mean: "there will be fewer hits?"
What areas is the Long Tail impacting in North America?
What are some of the consequences of "pulling" the long-tail to the right? Can you describe how this relates to changes in the Music industry?
What does Alan mean when he states something like: "Where the long-tail pulls to the right, then that industry mimics the old ways except with a twist."

What has happened to our national voices of authority? How does this typify what is occurring to our social groups in North America? Why does this create a difficult situation for political campaigning?
What does this mean for startup marketing? How does a startup compete against the big players in terms of data collection and marketing analyses?

What additional concepts are being advocated for segmenting your market? What are some practical tips.

State the reasons for becoming embedded within a tight ecosystem of professional colleagues.

Can you describe the overall mechanics for "bit matching? What is its function?
What is the text's position regarding technology vs. branding?

Why does Alan put "product placement" as the central metaphor for understanding your marketing method? What is the key question to answer?

How are disruptive technology ventures different from the vast majority of ventures? You don't need to dive into details but 3 or 4 broad reasons.

What is valuation? What question does it answer?

What are a couple networking tips?

Monday, June 20, 2011

What does Alan mean by Air Guitar?

How does Alan define entrepreneurs? What is the distinguishing mark of an entrepreneurial minded person or business professional? What does he mean by a business technician?

How would you characterize George’s approach to building startup teams? How does it contrast with traditional HR models?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Define the Bit (Also from the Book)

How long is the Bit?

What is an elevator pitch?

What are the elements of a business model?

What does Alan mean by “acquiring wisdom”?

Why does Alan, George, Richard, and Diane believe “it’s all about the team?”

What does Alan and Richard mean by “tell a story” and “make them care”?

What is the long tail phenomenon? What is the evidence that it is increasingly segmenting our social groups? (also in the text)

How pervasive is the long tail? In other words, in what areas of our lives does it extend? (also in text)

What does this mean for marketing approaches and startup possibilities?

In the context of this course, define the “Customer Document”. Why does Alan place such an emphasis on detail and color for this document?

Monday, June 27, 2011

What did Dan say about “boring products” and about “falling in love with your product”?

What did Dan say about making an “enduring brand” versus a “short-term brand”.

What does Dan mean by the “double layer of advertising”?

Dan believes that almost all companies can head off serious problems even in the face of insurmountable competition (e.g. Amazon, Barnes and Noble). What does he mean?

To ensure that our companies remain sharp, what does Dan recommend that we do every 3 months?

Can you describe how Dan characterizes online reputation for companies?

Monday July 11, 2011

What did Dwayne and Brian have to say about anyone (you) starting a company? Does it require any special personal qualities? In terms of the type of company, what did they advise?

Recall Dwayne's important choices, (e.g. choosing a specified number addresses for comprising an optimal size for supporting a Garlic Jim's (not more or less); deciding upon the Garlic Jim's name) did this derive from some precise science? What lesson is there for the entrepreneur?

What were important elements for Brian to develop his customers over the internet? What was the goal of his website?

What did Brian have to say about recruiting talent?

How did Brian go about recruiting customers?

Wednesday July 13, 2011 - Julie Eastland

What is the scope of business development?
Outline the business dev matrix.
When doing your research on possible biz dev opportunities, what did Julie see as an important checkpoint? What does it mean to "know yourself"?
Can you expand on how to understand the decision process of the company / customer / client? Why is this such an important concept to attend?
Name 3 of Julie's tips. What does it mean to "keep Oz behind the curtain?"
Provide color on Julie's statement that "Cash is king and Focus is Queen".
What does it mean for Biz Dev to "kiss a lot of frogs". Why is this the case?
Julie warns us about the mentality of professional Biz Dev folks. Can you explain this?

Wednesday July 13, 2011 - Elaine Kong

What is equity financing?
What or Who are Venture Capitalists (VCs)?
Define and Contrast VCs versus Angels Investors
What is an accredited investor?
How do you determine the right amount to raise?
Can you state some reasons to avoid using VCs?
What are some elements of the right investors for your business?

Special Bonus Question

Can you write a brief, one paragraph executive summary of your class venture?
What is your venture's Bit?

2011-06-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

Formatted pdf Copies of Lecture Slides.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Final Deliverable

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Bit and Pitch
The Koyoti Philosophy
The Pervasive Long Tail

Wednesday July 13, 2011

Business Development
An Introduction to Equity Financing

2011-06-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

This is a small update to the class text. I provided the class definition for branding and am starting to put some additional work on that section. For now, it's a very incremental update. You can get it here.

2011-06-21T01:58:00.001-07:00

I have cleaned up Assignment 2 to accurately reflect my intent. Your assignments sheet can be found here.

2011-06-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

Class Handout v1.01

For the exam, you are only held accountable up to Version 1.01. It can be uploaded at the above link.

I am creating updated versions and you may download these as a gift from me to you. You're not responsible for additional material in the text. The handout below is only a minor update. It contains a couple additional paragraphs as well as improved grammar.

Class Handout v1.01b

2011-06-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

The following are samples - I will procure more samples as I obtain permissions.

A draft executive summary of Aurumis is here.

The Echospace executive summary (it's not a plan) was hailed by investors as a very good display of information. It was written over 10 years ago. We have used individual sections as examples for building an executive summary. Nevertheless, we disagreed with its creators: we felt it was merely a summary not a plan.

Cielo was a business plan submitted two years before Botegga Italiana was launched (the respective creators did not know each other). The similarities are apparent and so are the differences.

2011-06-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed marketing surveys that ask for your magazine subscriptions? You may also be asked about your favorite magazines or online periodicals (regardless of whether you pay).

Why?

Media Kits are often freely obtainable at the magazine's online website. You can view the demographics and lifestyle information of its readers.

a. This allows you to confirm or backwards engineer your target market;

b. You will better understand your customer interests and lifestyle

c. You may discover potential secondary market segments.

Examples of media kits: 1) Field and Stream and 2) Scientific American.

Of course, your target customer's typical reading portfolio will inherently yield clues about personal interest and lifestyle.

2011-06-09T23:36:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the Blog Site for Entrepreneurial Marketing. I will be posting class documents as well as homework assignments.

You can download the current draft of the BBUS 429 syllabus here. The revision date is located on the lower left hand corner of each page. The graduate syllabus for BBUS 590 is here.