Here is a simple model to determine success of product sampling in e-commerce. I was presented with some quick performance metrics on an e-commerce product sampling campaign for a supplement startup, which included the cost of the sample plus shipping ($.70), the average order value ($39) and the response rate at 20%. That got my [...]
This is a Quora question I was asked to answer. I don’t look at ROI in terms of consumer products or ecommerce because that number is not as meaningful due to its wide range across categories, channels and geography. EBITDA, net profit margin, payback period, and revenue-to-funding are metrics I prefer. Based on that, [...]
This is a Quora question I was asked to answer. There are a few reasons: Help differentiate the brand better against competitors. You want to capture attention so you use packaging to do that, and if you look like everyone else, then it is hard to do that. Take a walk down a retail aisle [...]
This is a Quora question I was asked to answer. Here’s how I would go about finding customers who will pay the highest price for my products. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) The first thing I would do is create high quality products that customers will rave about. I would create a highly polished brand that looks good [...]
This is a Quora question I was asked and my answer is as follows. The only ways I can think of where this happens is as follows: the existing supplier/vendor is doing a terrible job servicing the retailers and the category buyer is looking for a new vendor to replace them (for example, constant stock-outs, [...]
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld on what it takes to make something great: INTERVIEWER: You and Larry David wrote Seinfeld together, without a traditional writers’ room, and burnout was one reason you stopped. Was there a more sustainable way to do it? Could McKinsey or someone have helped you find a better model? SEINFELD: Who’s McKinsey? INTERVIEWER: It’s [...]
You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. Via Buckminster Fuller
That's my Vizsla, Zooka at 10-months old. He does not stop for anyone or anything, particularly when he is off-lead having a good time bounding through the snow. The evolving consumer product retail landscape is like Zooka, not stopping for anyone or anything. This post is summarizes the evolving state [...]
People will forget what you said People will forget what you did But people will never forget how you made them feel.
The American entrepreneur and investor Sam Altman on persistence and luck: "A big secret is that you can bend the world to your will a surprising percentage of the time—most people don’t even try, and just accept that things are the way that they are. People have an enormous capacity to make things happen. [...]
