RoadID and Other Ways to Express Myself
Short Introduction (Can Be Skipped)
I bought my RoadID tag several months ago (
RoadID.com) and never ran without it since then. Of course initially I got it just in case something happens to me on the road. Bu it is also an important piece of my runner’s identity, something I “subconsciously” wear to identify myself with the runners’ community. It caries also my motto – something I never had before it came to ordering the RoadID, by the way :-)
Unmet Market Need
Individuality pushes us to stand out in the crowd. But I would not necessarily say it is all about showing off. It is rather a need to share your personal experience with someone having similar interests, obsessions, mindset. In the race events I participated in, I saw a few people that expressed their individuality via… well, attaching a piece of paper to the back of their t-shirts. It could have been running for a race cause like fundraising, or running for the family with the names of the kids written all over it, or team identity, or just something funny like “Are we there yet?” or “The older I am the faster I was!”
The point I am trying to make here is – it all sounds like a need, which is not quite met on the US quickly-growing running gear market. All cool t-shirts I could find are cotton ones I will never wear even on a 5-mile training run, let alone a marathon race. All high-tech polyester t-shirts and tanks are faceless – “Nike training” is the best inscription I managed to find so far.
Suggested Solution As most of the needs usually encompass an opportunity to monetize on them, let’s see what can be done about it. I envision several things that can be done at the same time:
- We take the full spectrum of running clothes & equipment (except for running shoes) – dry-fit t-shirts, shorts, running wind-breakers, gloves, socks, fuel/water belts, caps – and we make them cool and funny
- It will include customizable stuff through a web site: add images and mottos to your gear – tell us what to write there or pick something from a bunch of ready-to-use variants from our web site (exactly as RoadID did it)
- Then I would try to get some shelf space in department stories selling also sport clothes (e.g. KOHLS) and in specialized sport shops (like Sport Authority or Sport Chalet) selling gear with some popular mottos and pictures – it would look good next to dull faceless stuff from Nike and Adidas. And prices could be even lower than that – technically the difference between a $25 Nike dry-fit t-shirt and a similar one I can by for $9 in Old Navy is negligible.
- The next step after we get some traction is to try some sponsorship programs. For example, next to a $15-20 dry-fit t-shirt with some cool motto I can place a sponsored $10 t-shirt of the same quality but with HP or IBM logo and probably some cool ad or funny motto. Consumers will save money buying those, while manufacturers associated with sport will get additional inexpensive and untapped advertising channel.
Side Note A: Marketing
To reach the end buyers I would use the same approach as RoadID.com: advertising in specialized running magazines, on Active.com (where people register for the races) and would also potentially leverage some running events.
Side Note B: PartnershipsAs a part of going-to-market strategy it might make sense to team up with some niche player like RoadID or Snail’s Pace and either cross advertise each others’ products or even cross sell them through the partner’s web site.
Side Note C: Collecting Ideas
To collect cool mottos and logos for the gear I would probably choose the same approach as some race events, when they arrange online competitions for the best race medal design and hold the right to reuse any of submitted variants in the following years. A lot of this stuff will be tossed and never used, but there certainly will be some diamonds among them.
Do you remember “It happens!” bumper sticker idea from the Forest Gump movie, for example?
Side Note D: Fuel BeltsAs soon as we are talking about customization, fuel belts and running bottles seem to be another opportunity. One of the requirements to the Malibu Bulldog trail race is having a belt with 2 water bottles. I did a quite intensive search on the Internet and in at specialized stores around, and have not managed to find anything suitable. Belts are created using “one size fits all” principle, and very few with two bottle holders are bulky and are hardly suitable for running. I specifically looked at the belts worn by other runners around me during my half marathons, and did not find anything new. Bottles come in two sizes – too small and too big. Selection of belts is limited too. Feels like another unmet need, does not it?
Supermarkets: Your Personal Online Shopping Assistant
I was listening to Tom Kelley’s “The Art of Innovation” audio book about IDEO during my morning run yesterday.
A part of his story is a show they did for ABC. ABC asked IDEO to demonstrate their innovation process. IDEO had to come up with something new an exciting… and they decided to revolutionize… an ordinary shopping cart. They changed it from top to bottom based on their observations of user experience in supermarkets, as well as analysis of products used in many other areas – from child car seats and roller-coasters to personal gadgets. ABC filmed the whole process and the resulting product.
The bottom line is there is a space for improvement in some most-evident areas, in things we see and do every day.
One of such areas for improvement is the same as the one explored by IDEO – our weekly grocery shopping. Most of the people usually go to some big supermarket, a part of a chain like Albertson, VONS or Ralphs here on the West Coast.
So how can we improve user experience? And what are the unmet needs if any?
They vary from customer to customer of course, but I guess some of my issues will resonate with you as well:
- I have to compose a list of stuff to buy prior to my weekly visit – otherwise I have to spend time again on Saturday to buy whatever I forgot to buy
- Quite often I buy what I do not need – we ran out of something but I do not remember if I need to buy beans or canned corn, or if we still have any spackling juice left
- I have a problem remembering all the recipes – each time we invite our friends over I need to find all the relevant recipes again to get a list of components I will need to buy
- I remember location of most of the things in Albertson – but few things (especially those I do not buy every week) give me hard time – and even if I remember where to go I end up wasting time having to go back and forth from one corner of the supermarket to another
- I am getting a bunch of coupons I usually toss – I do not carry them with me all the time and usually forget to take them when I go shopping – and over a half of them are not relevant anyway
Is there a way to improve my weekly shopping experience?
Why don't we combine the brick-and-mortar and online shopping together?
Let’s imagine a portal run by a supermarket chain (like Albertson or Ralphs), where I can:
- Select supermarket location I am usually shopping in and see the floor plan
- Check product availability and see where they are located
- Check what I bought during my previous visits (which might advice on what I should by this time and what I should not)
- See specials and coupons (and print out those I am interested in)
- Add to my online shopping list products I need to buy when we run out of something
- Browse recipes and enter recipes of my own
- Prepare a list of things I need to buy
- Create an itinerary that would help me to pick all the stuff I need with indication of the aisles it is located in
I should also be able to print my shopping list either at home or at a mobile kiosk at my supermarket.
What’s the point for the supermarket chain to develop and maintain such a portal?
- Increased customer loyalty: all my stuff – history, recipes, etc. – is available only on Albertson.com (for example) and I will not have the same shopping experience if I go to Ralphs or VONS
- Ability to influence my shopping behavior – advice on up-sells, cross-sells, etc.
- Advertising space on this web site can be sold to manufacturers itching to promote their products to the consumers
If we assume that half of local customers (at least here in Orange County) use Internet on daily or at least weekly basis, I would bet this idea should work.
Marathon Sponsorships
Selling has evolved from an emphasis on what [a product] has, to what it does, to what you will feel, to who you are ... while benefits are still important to people, personal identity has become even more important. (Marty Neumeier)
I would use Marathons events more for product promotions. Marathons are associated with endurance and power. They are pretty much about “who you are” than anything else.
It is not like companies do not do sponsorships, but their efforts often go unnoticed. Here is something that might be done differently about it:
- Link your product to marathon through bright images and stories
- Create high-tech (high-quality) T-shirts with product messaging and marathon logo
- Distribute them for free to the event participants as the second T-shirt in addition to the main/standard marathon t-shirts
- Have a variety of colors and sizes
- Distribute t-shirts in advance so that they were worn during the event
In terms of the costs, it will be around $10 per participant.
It might be used for a car add. For example, an ad of the most efficient sports sedan with a V6 engine :-)
There are a lot of companies that use various sports events. Actually this is the reason why professional sport exists. What I am trying to say is that the image of certain brands might be more tightly linked to the strong emotional impulse of certain sports like marathon. Another point is that there might be relatively inexpensive ways to do it.
Did you order a pizza lately?
Online Ordering SMB Portal
Problem StatementHave you ordered a pizza lately? ... I have. And I did not enjoy it. I mean the ordering experience, not the pizza itself :-)We tried Domino’s Pizza, Round Table Pizza and Papa Jones Pizza:
- Papa Jones Pizza: There was no online ordering. We have not managed to get through at once. Once we reached them and ordered pizza, we had to wait over 2 hours for it. I understand it was lunch time, but no one told us we would have to wait for so long.
- Round Table Pizza: No online ordering in our area. I had to call them. Called them 3 times and no one picked the phone. I had to order pizza from Domino’s after all.
- Domino’s Pizza: They have online ordering system – not everywhere, just in few locations, but one of those is close to us (link). Their web site is pretty confusing. And we did not manage to find a menu there with ready-to-order pizzas: you need to pick components for your pizza each time you order it. Also both times we ordered a pizza from Domino's one or two components they had on their web site were missing and we got our pizza without them.
I guess these are not exceptions. Online ordering is quite painful and cumbersome both for consumers and for small businesses.
The Idea
Why not to create an online portal that would provide a online order processing functionality for small businesses - restaurants first of all?
This service should support the following basic functions:
- Selecting items from the menu (possibly with the pictures of the dishes, nutrition facts, etc.)
- Сustomizing certain items (like without onion or with jalapenos instead of the green pepper)
- Getting a list of cross-sells (side dishes, drinks, etc.)
- Providing delivery address
- Ordering delivery for certain time
- Getting delivery timing estimate (based on the current ordering backlog)
- Credit Card Payment processing
This service might have both B2B and B2C interfaces:
- B2B service provides small businesses either hosted or web-services-based product ordering functionality, order tracking, etc.
- On the B2C side there might be a portal for the customers browsing the restaurants having delivery option and convenient online ordering in their area
There might be a lot of ways to monetize this business model:
- Basic subscription for small businesses to this service might be free (just like Gmail or Googlepages services) or priced very attractively (as something “free” might be perceived as something not quite reliable by restaurant owners)
- Once people start using this basic service, they might need additional functionality – which will end up in additional subscription to the premium service
- Also this service might provide a lot of opportunities for banner ads both on B2B side (as soon as the ads are non-competitive) and in the B2C portal.
Short Introduction (Can Be Skipped)
