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When thinking about marketing, always think about customer segments:

• Segments represent behaviors & preferences, which can potentially be monetized (and not just demographics)
• Segments should satisfy the LIDS property
  • Large
  • Identifiable
  • Distinct
  • Stable

Be allocentric:

• Why are the customers buying?
• What value do they derive from the products/services?
• What are they pain points?
• Are there any emotional aspects/appeal

Think about the competitor landscape:

• Competitors market share and profitability in that segment
• Potential barriers (by the way, there rarely are any, unless the market share and profitability of the incumbent is increasing or stable and way above the market average ROI)

Examine, analyze the data/behavior of the customers. Learn from the other successful products in the same vertical/segment (which brings us back to the first point — understand the segment really well).

As Guy Kawasaki says:

“They are still too long, still using meaningless buzz words like “revolutionary,” and still don’t have credible business models. If only they would adhere to the 10/20/30 rule of Powerpoint: Ten slides, twenty minutes, 30 point font.”

I would add that better still use Keynotes and no words/letters at all, just speak to pictures on the slides!

A collection of my ideas on how to pitch to VCs, coming soon …

Great article in NYtimes today:

The Invisible Hand is Shaking

ADAM SMITH’S modern disciples are far more enthusiastic about his celebrated invisible-hand idea than he ever was.

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Smith understood that the invisible hand is often benign, but not always.

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Smith’s more nuanced position supports a different view of taxes. When market prices convey accurate signals of cost and value, the invisible hand promotes the common good. But prices often diverge from cost and value and, in those cases, taxes can actually help steer resources toward more highly valued uses.

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That simple example captures the classic breakdown in the invisible hand when a product’s market price doesn’t reflect all its relevant social costs and benefits. In such cases, the simplest solution is to discourage consumption by taxing it.

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THAT the invisible hand often breaks down is actually good news. After all, we need to tax something to pay for public services. By taxing forms of consumption that generate negative side effects, we could not only generate enough revenue to eliminate budget deficits, but also help steer resources toward their most highly valued uses.

Because such taxes make the economy more efficient, it makes no sense to object that they impose hardships on low-income families. Again, an efficient policy is one that maximizes the size of the economic pie. And with a bigger pie, it’s always possible for everyone to get a bigger slice.

The latest book that I am reading is

Coopetition

by Brandenburger & Nalebuff

Its on game theory, business strategy & competition.

Wikipedia link

Overall, the book is really good and a quick read.

My review on this coming soon…

A fairly decent editorial in WSJ (yes — surprise!). The author talks about the trends in FDI in US.

Yesterday Ford Motor Company announced it will sell its Jaguar and Land Rover divisions to India’s Tata Group. Upon the closing of this transaction, the many Ford associates currently working in these divisions in the United States will join the ranks of Americans who work at insourcing companies — i.e., at U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational firms.

To truly be such a location would require dramatic progress on many fronts: renewing the president’s trade promotion authority; resuscitating the World Trade Organization’s Doha Development Round; passing comprehensive immigration reform. But to start such a journey with a single step, let us all pause to appreciate yesterday’s good news from Tata.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120658030582967343.html