Look Inside

When someone wants to start a new business or build a new product, the usual thing to do is market research. Look into what people need, if there is a good market and generally what the problems are.

For a change I suggest you do something different. Look at what problems you are facing that you can resolve. Build a product that you need or you would take your wallet out and buy. That's what I did in my latest personal project CPU Wars and it has proven to be a great success. I combined my love for games and computing, and built a card game that I would buy without a second thought.

This not only provides you an immediate market (with 7 billion people, you can bet there are more people like you), but it also gives you one of the most important elements of a successful brand, Passion. Take a look inside and you will be surprised at what you might find.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

What's Your Market? #BackToBasics

The best way to achieve this is not by competing in existing markets. Your brand will be the strongest if you create your own market. You need to position your brand in a way that makes it stand on its own and carve your very own niche.

By doing this you will get a lot of benefits. You will be the first in that market so people will think you are the authority. It will be easy to get publicity in the media since people are interested in what's new (no-one wants to hear about yet another company that does what is already being done). You will have virtually no competition. Finally you will be able to provide better service and quality as you are not trying to do too many things.

Branding can help you stand out from the crowd, by creating your own market. The reality is that you will never be able to please everyone, so focus and get the recognition you deserve.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Barking Up The Wrong Tree

This determination and close-mindedness can be detrimental to most companies. You put all your effort selling to the wrong audience and when you strike out, you feel devastated. Fortunately this can be avoided.

It's fine to decide who your audience is and if you are lucky you might have found the perfect fit and everything will go well. If you haven't, then you need to be able to change and adapt. Look at who is searching for your product/service and focus on who has already used your services or bought your product. Even if they don't fit the original profile that you built, it's fine. 

When Zynga was developing FarmVille, I'm sure they were thinking of an audience in their teens. The reality is that the key demographic for this game is women in their forties. If you had gone 5 years ago to investors or a bank and told them that you were building an online social game for 40 year old women, you would have been shown to the door. 

The key lesson from this is that at the end of the day people decide if they are going to be your customers. They will make the final choice. What you can do, is provide them with the right information to make the right choice and lead them to your direction.

Posted by Helen Amygdalaki // Lelou