✨Unlocking the Secrets of Marketing✨

Ready to sprinkle some magic dust on your startup? Let’s dive into the brilliant mind of Rory Sutherland based on a tweet I read, and unlock marketing secrets that can transform your business from ‘meh’ to ‘wow’. Grab your favorite drink, settle in, and let’s turn your marketing strategy into a page-turner!

The Genius of Perceived Value

Imagine this: you’re at a fancy restaurant. The waiter brings you a dish in a jiffy, the ambiance is perfect, and you’re feeling pretty darn good. Now, picture the same dish next to a dumpster. Not quite the same, right? That’s the power of perceived value.

• Uber Maps: Why do we love watching that little car inch closer on the map? Because it eases our anxiety while waiting. Simple, but genius.

• Meal Kits: They make us feel like gourmet chefs, even if all we’re doing is following instructions. The joy is in the process.

• Flights: We can't make planes fly faster, but we can make the journey fun with great entertainment and comfy seats.

Sometimes, it’s not about making a better product; it’s about making the product feel better. Like calling fake leather “vegan leather.” Boom! Instant upgrade.

Commitment Through Effort: The Ikea Effect

Let’s talk about London’s black cab drivers. These legends spend years memorizing every nook and cranny of the city. Why? Because that intense effort breeds commitment. They’re not just drivers; they’re human GPS systems.

• Ikea: Love it or hate it, you’ve got to admit there’s something satisfying about building your own furniture. Sure, you curse those tiny screws, but once it’s done, you’re proud of your masterpiece.

Make your customers work a bit. They’ll love you more for it. Just like how assembling Ikea furniture makes you feel like a DIY wizard.

The Power of Signaling: Making a Big Splash

Picture this: you get two wedding invites. One is a plain email, the other is a beautifully embossed card with gold edges. Which wedding sounds more fun? Exactly. It’s all about the signals we send.

• Super Bowl Ads: Companies spend millions on these because it screams, “We believe in our product!” It’s a flashy, confident move that makes consumers trust the brand.

• High-End Packaging: Ever bought something just because it looked too pretty to pass up? That’s the cost of signaling at work.

Your brand isn’t just about what you say; it’s about how you say it. Spend a bit more on presentation and watch how perceptions change. Like trading in a paper plane for a private jet.

Turning Insights into Action

Ready to make your startup the next big thing? Here’s the cheat sheet:

1. Elevate Perceptions: Create an experience that makes your product feel like a million bucks. Focus on the little things that delight and surprise.

2. Engage Through Effort: Design your product or service to involve some customer effort. It’s the secret sauce to making them fall in love with what you offer.

3. Signal Confidence: Invest in high-quality marketing and presentation. Show the world that you believe in your product, and they will too.

Remember, marketing isn’t just about the hard sell. It’s about creating stories, experiences, and emotions. So go out there, be bold, be creative, and turn your startup into a brand that people can’t help but love. You’ve got this!

If you want better outcomes, pay attention to this:

"In the absence of strong convictions of what you want from life, you'll always default to wanting more money"

You might have seen a viral image with a man sitting smiling with a heap of beautifully printed flour sacks claiming that the sacks were used to create clothing for kiddos in times of need and wondered if it was true… The simple answer is yes! Flour sack clothing was a staple for many from the 1920s-1960s. But, let’s take a quick look at the history behind those flowery flour sacks!

Let’s go back to a time when everything was all about scrimping and saving on behalf of the war effort. These dresses were worn by women young and old. These dresses have an interesting past behind them, all dating back to when the world was at war and Americans were dedicated to recycling.

Cotton: the flour holder

In the 1800s, flour, and other bulk products began to be distributed in cotton sacks. Flour mills were able to abandon wooden boxes in exchange for the less bulky cotton sacks, thus allowing them to move more product! Not only did distributers find these cotton bags useful, but it was only a matter of time before homemakers saw a use for these bags. With all this extra fabric laying around the house and the barns people were starting to get creative with uses. Many households would cut the ugly, plain bags into chunks and would use them for dish towels.

These plain cotton sacks would be used until 1922, but the impact and usefulness of them would continue long into the future. On April 28, 1922, The Washington Post announced, “Farewell to the Old Flour Sack.” Millers thought replacing the cotton sacks with paper cartons would be more convenient, both for distribution handling and storage for the average housewife. But, According to Feed Sack Secrets: Fashion from Hard Times, “In just a few short years, however, both the city and rural housewife would see the old flour sack in a new light. Changes were coming, thanks to a young man named Asa. T. Bales.”

Where flour sacks to pretty clothes started

Mr. Bales, Roscoe, Missouri, filed a patent in October 1924 for cotton sacks to have interesting patterns and to be of a decent size, so they could be used for clothing. Specifically, Asa was assigning his patent to the George P. Plant Milling Co. in St. Louis for their new line of “Gingham” flour. The line split off into different brands including “Gingham Girl,” “Mother Gingham,” “Baby Gingham” and “Gingham Queen”. Executives of Plant Milling saw this as a prime marketing opportunity, thinking people will see the Gingham pattern and will instantly know it is from their company. Since the sacks were created with clothing in mind, Bales’ patent noted that the markings on the package, such as brand name, would wash away. This was specifically so the cloth could be transformed into clothing.

Other mills caught on to the tactic and then started developing their own fashionable packaging. From pastels to novelty prints, the competing mills would play the game of “who can develop the most attractive pattern?”

“A yard saved, was a yard gained towards victory”

Fast forward a few years to the 1940s, and the United States was engaged in World War II. Americans who were not on the frontlines made sacrifices so the soldiers could have provisions. All available cotton and wool was diverted to the war effort. Desperate for fabric for clothing, homemakers crafted clothes out of the cotton sacks. The flour sack dress became a common, and trendy, outfit. Everywhere you looked there were flour sack dresses. There were even sewing competitions where women would go head-to-head and show off their sewing skills.

These dresses were a way for rural women to show off their fashion sense all while being frugal. Flour sack dresses were all the rage up until around the 1960s. Today, we remember the style of these iconic dresses and the historical legacy that they leave!

Great but boring Advice Helps you Scale…

There are many industries that need your skills, not just the one you’ve worked in. Working in other industries and returning to some thing you started off in, when the industry is healthier isn’t a bad thing. Any experience helps develop new soft skills.Learn new things and let that feed back into your core skill set…When you decide not to learn you decide not to scale, learning can come as much from adjacent or different careers than the ones you planned on sticking with. Unsticking from your starting position is a skill thats boring to learn but helps you scale every single time.

Andrew Ng, Google Brain, and Coursera founder discusses AI agents' power and how to use them. Best thing you will see today.

X000$/H Big4 Consulting advice you shouldn’t have to pay for:

• Department Head Accountability: No blaming the team. If something goes wrong, it’s on the leader. Own it, fix it.

• Zero Tolerance for Excuses: Missed your goal? No excuses, just results. Make it happen or figure out why it didn’t.

• Focus on Four Goals: Juggling more than four goals? You’re setting yourself up for chaos. Prioritize and conquer.

• Align Goals with Vision: If a goal doesn’t tie back to your company vision, ditch it. Stay laser-focused on what matters.

• Three Improvement Initiatives per Department: Each department should always be working on three ways to get better. Stagnation is a silent killer.

• Punctuality is Key: Being late to meetings is like saying your time is more valuable than everyone else’s. Show up on time, every time.

• Monthly Goal Reviews: Dedicate three hours a month to reviewing goals and planning new initiatives. Trust us, it’s worth it.

• Set Realistic Goals: The only bad goals are the ones you’ll never hit. Keep them challenging but attainable.

• Consequence of Missing Goals: Miss your goals three months in a row? Time for a serious chat, or maybe even a new leader.

• Realistic Goals = Higher Growth: Companies with realistic goals grow faster. Dream big, but stay grounded.

• Data-Driven Decisions: Let data guide you. Gut feelings are great, but numbers don’t lie.

• Empower Your Team: Give your employees the power to make decisions. Innovation thrives on trust.

• Customer Feedback is Gold: Listen to your customers. Their feedback is a goldmine for improvement.

• Network Strategically: Build a strong network. It’s not just about who you know, but who knows you.

• Financial Prudence: Watch your spending. Be frugal, not cheap. Know where every dollar is going.

Buy & Sell, Partner & Grow-with Boomers

Boomers are retiring and plenty own business in the US. It’s your time to be help create a break for your self and them. Heres how..but first some stats..

More than 11,200 Americans will turn 65 every day — or over 4.1 million every year — from 2024 through 2027, according to estimates from the Retirement Income Institute at the Alliance for Lifetime Income.

Don’t just look at tech businesses, look at business owners and businesses that do not have generational take over or planned succession. If you have the cash, offer to buy, if you do not, partner to scale and do an an earn out as the original founders retire and don’t have any one else to take over or willing to buy outright.

The Stats…to think about.

• Retiring Boomer business owners will sell or bequeath $10 trillion worth of assets over the next two decades.

• These assets are held in more than 12 million privately owned businesses.

• More than 70 percent of these companies are expected to change hands.

• The sale of almost 12 million businesses over the next 10 to 15 years represents a significant increase in the annual number of businesses that will be sold.

• These owners of businesses should have a valuation performed by a business broker, to map out a strategy for selling and structuring the sale of the business.

• Planning ahead will enable business owners to achieve the best transaction possible during this Boomer-induced wave of business sales.

• The 12,000,000 businesses likely to change hands over the next 10-15 years might involve a large number of boomer-to-boomer sales.

• Baby Boomers ages 45 to 64 form businesses at a higher rate than other age groups.

• 55 to 64 year olds form businesses at the highest rate of any age group.

• Many of the Baby Boomers are too young to retire; they typically have ample capital through savings, investments or other assets; they have job-related skills accumulated through a lifetime of work; and many have lost faith (and money) as a result of large company layoffs and restructurings; and many will buy their own business in coming years.

• Many Boomers find themselves unhinged from their traditional employment safety nets. This dislocation has fueled an intense desire and need to have control of their destinies. Ironically, now small business ownership is seen as much more safe and secure than working for a large company.

So, in the coming decades, not only are we likely to see millions of Baby Boomers selling businesses they now own, we will also see additional millions of Boomers (who’ve spent their lives working for someone else), buying businesses.

The next two decades will see a significant increase in the number of small and mid-sized businesses being bought and sold by Baby Boomers, can you figure out a way to capitalize on this? Can you do this remotely? Will you try?

Bonus! Thought of the week

What will you use AI For?