Probably not. On Michael Parekh’s blog, he describes how Japanese novels, written on cell phones, are now being published in book form. Prior to that, the novels were written on the key pads of their phones, then read by fans on the cell phone screens (lots of doctor appointments in doing that, I’m sure). As publishers caught on, these are now being published in print. Of the top ten published novels written last year in Japan, five of these were from cell phone novels. (My fingers and eyes hurt just thinking how much work went into those… but, I digress).
Bring it back into the US businesses, and look at what is happening in the coffee world.
According to Branding Strategy Insider’s blog, things are not looking good for Starbucks. Starbuck’s is in a league of its own. Where else can you pay more than $4 for a carmel latte? But, was the focus on growing more stores, or selling coffee — or CD’s?Starbuck’s grew way too fast, due to having a goal of 15,000 stores throughout the US by the end of 2007.
As much as I am not a McDonald’s fan, I give the company high marks. Why? Because McDonald’s watched what people were doing, and what people wanted, and now they are going to give customers just that. McDonald’s is moving into the coffee bars world, selling lattes and a coffee bar experience. And, I’m sure will be less expensive than Starbucks. So now, Starbucks will be faced with having a competitor delivering a product that is nearly as good – and that cost less.
How did that happen? How did McDonald’s move into the coffee space? Why did book publishers move into the cell phone novel publishing space? Because someone in the Japanese publishing world and someone at McDonald’s corporate watched what people were doing. They watched what people wanted. They paid attention to what was happening around them.
Are you?
2 responses so far ↓
TrackSuit CEO // January 29, 2008 at 7:43 pm |
I can barely bang out a text message. This reminds me of those guys in prison who make biblical portraits using different colored typewriter ribbons. The work alone is reason enough to offer them a book deal!
Is your product King? « TrackSuit CEO (version 2.0) // January 30, 2008 at 3:10 am |
[...] But, when do products become obsolete? Every product must have a decline at some point. (Typewriters, White Out gunk, floppy disks, two-inch video cassettes, music cassettes, just to name a few). What inventory of yours is not selling and costing you big-time in warehouse inventory? If you don’t know, you better. And, stay aware of what your customers, as well as your competitors, are telling you. [...]