A Big Science Idea

Over the past year I have had the pleasure to work with Brad Nuccio at the Saint Louis Science Center to develop the Center for Science.  The Center for Science is based on the concept that a national network of science centers working together can more effectively engage and impact the public that these institutions working completely independently.

Was Google Hacked?

Recently Posted by the Dornfeld Management Group

Reviewing some SEO work for one of our companies this morning I was surprised to see that last night (according to Google) we grew from about 20,000 pages of content cached to over 3,780,000,000. What was more alarming was Google now showed under the search result a little note that said “this sight may harm your computer”. The site was listed as a spam site! I started to fire off a string of emails to get the technical team working on the problem, tried calling the CEO and then I noticed something even more alarming.

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Tissue Pack Advertising

One of the more clever concepts in awareness marketing in Japan is starting to get attention in the United States, advertising on the front of small packs of tissues.  Advertising agencies have stuck logos on just about everything imaginable, but how many times in the winter do you wish you had a small packet of tissues handy to take care of a runny nose?

Ask Your Customers and the Downside Risk

(Dornfeld Management Group, Jan. 08, 2007)

There are many missed opportunities to engage and communicate with your customer regardless if you are a start-up, hospital, retailer, etcc…  As noted in the previous blog there can be great upside when engaging in brainstorming and improving your product.  But there can be a downside as well if you do value the time and feedback of your customer.

Is Twitter the Next Netscape?

Twitter’s PR team must be working late each night because over the past several weeks dozens of articles have appeared in almost every media channel.  Many of these articles examine the twitter business model and try to hypothesize a path to prosperity or failure. 

Obama Economic Stimulus?

Article today by the Dornfeld Management Group taking a look at the impact of a new president on a consumer driven economy.

Listening to NPR the other day there was a passing comment regarding the relationship of the US economy to consumer confidence – about 2/3 of the US economy is directly connected to consumer spending.   Not news in itself but with confidence in Bush at an all time low what could be the potential economic impact of Obama just winning the election.  Some of the data is pretty surprising.

According to recent survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs, 8% of respondents said they are likely to increase holiday spending because of the election of Sen. Obama.   Although it does not say how much the spending is likely to improve, a little back-of-the-napkin math can help put this into perspective.

In the 2007 there was about $70b in holiday spending and according to Mastercard about 40% ($28b) was spent online.  If 8% of people spent just 5% more that translates into an additional $280m.  If it is more like 8% of people spending 25% more the number jumps to $1.4b, or an overall increase of 2%.

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Deciding to End Your Start-up

Blog post today on the DMG web site about deciding when is the right time to wind-down a start up venture.

The obvious answer is when you run out of money and in many cases that is a reality, but many companies should have enough data and market insight to wind down a company well in advance of depleting their bank accounts.

Relationships with investors (regardless of family, friend, angel or VC) should be considered long term opportunities. One of the panelists presented a great story about an entrepreneur friend who was able to return about 70% on the dollar back to the group of investors once the entrepreneur realized that the business was not going to succeed. Although I am sure all parties would have preferred a more positive outcome, the entrepreneur was able to establish trust and credibility with the investors. This trust allowed the entrepreneur to raise funds from the same group of investors a few years later for a new venture because they understood this entrepreneur was a good steward of their money.

The story also highlights another important concept; most entrepreneurs are serial entrepreneurs and will have many ideas through the course of their life. The greatest success an entrepreneur can have with their first venture is that they learn to be a successful entrepreneur. There will be many opportunities to make money so the primary focus in not money but understanding how to develop an idea into a successful company.

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Too Little Value

If you have ever attended a business plan seminar, an elevator pitch class or a forum on how to pitch your company to investors you will realize a common theme exists – your idea provides a solution to what problem? Another way to describe this concept is what value do you provide to your target audience? Generally this concept is held in high regard – except in the world of the Internet business.

Almost on a daily basis there appears an entrepreneur with a new widget or concept that has little market value. One of the most recent examples is Cuil, a search engine launched last month by a few x-Google employees claiming a better search engine. Even if technically it is true, to the average user it offers no visible advantage. And because the search results return in a manner that is unfamiliar on the site it appears different but offers no real advantage. Might be some brilliant technology folks, but did they ever ask what problem they are solving for their respective target market?

Social Networking NOT the Next Big Thing

Well another social networking site bit the dust today as “Tickle” a site owned by Monster.com is shutting down. Tickle was a social networking and advice site that offered free tests to users – sort of a permission marketing concept. The news follows other recent failed attempts by Conde Nast and Verizon as reported in a recent article in Silicon Alley Insider.

Magazines in decline? Guess again.

Marketers are buying fewer ad pages in magazines this year amid a lot of economic worries and ever-proliferating alternatives, but magazine readers are not going anywhere. If anything, magazine audiences are getting bigger and often younger too, according to a Mediaedge:cia analysis of last month’s benchmark spring MRI research report.