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24 June 2014
Sergey Mitrofanov: “A Beautiful Bran Is Born Inside an Entrepreneur’s Mind”
Sergey Mitrofanov, a well-known marketing guru, knows everything there us to know about positioning a startup in the market. Sergey taught a master class for entrepreneurs just starting out on the topic during the GenerationS 2013 contest. Now, just as strtauppers are getting ready to participate in acceleration programs of the different tracks, we have decided to recall the most striking and useful statements by the marketing expert.
You cannot be for absolutely everyone. This is something you have to keep in mind. Try to find your niche. This is the most important thing.
Any beautiful brand is born in an entrepreneur’s mind. Here and now, not in a consultant’s office or when you have a company with billions of dollars in sales.
I believe in capitalism. I am sure that entrepreneurs do change the world – they have the power and the will to do it.
When all you have is a customer and a half, you can change the name of your project every single day if you feel so inclined. Startuppers often want to know my opinion about the name of their team, but I’d rather not answer questions like that. This just isn’t something you have to think about just yet. This isn’t your brand yet, it’s just a name your project is going to be associated with.
You’re the ones creating the name. You cannot make it through advertising — only through your own efforts and labor.
Do not use words like pro, nano, group, international in your name. This only gets in the way and can be pretty distracting.
It is enough for your project name not to cause you any aversion. Ideally, you should like it, but this is not the most important thing. When you start working under your new project name, you will feel how you should change it.
Do not use letter combinations in your business name that are hard to handle for your international business partners. Otherwise, you will have to answer the question: “How do you spell the name Schastye Zdes in any European alphabet other than Cyrillic?”
A team developing a brand should have only three things in mind: what they are selling, to whom, and who the competitors are.
Never position yourself versus relatively well-known brands. Saying something like “My product is an Instagram killer” all but says directly that you are never going to be successful in the market because Instagram is already there. Mentioning any big-name companies in a presentation of your own project is a mistake. You are automatically no longer talking about yourself, even though your audience wants to hear about you. Indeed, a presentation should have an Our Competition slide, but all you have to do is show their logos and then say in what ways you’re better than your competition.
The idea of your business resides in you personally. Entrepreneurs have asked us on several occasions to help them make it “like Virgin.” However, the foundation and the core idea of Virgin Inc. are Richard Branson himself. And his idea is straightforward: everything must be revolutionary and entertaining. Branson realizes that brands are not mathematical calculations by communication agencies, but first and foremost the soul of products and services.
Startups have huge opportunities these days. Multinationals have a big problem – their entrepreneurial impotence gives away more and more opportunities to new, innovative businesses. Large corporations are increasingly becoming more like investment funds, which are constantly on a lookout for new sources of growth. And you may well see yourself becoming part of a global product.
Think about what idea you want to put into people’s heads. The quality of our life and development depends on entrepreneurs, their products and services.
Your personality is a brand, because you are the first one to sell your product. Nowadays, at the time of open communications, not only your formal brand is important, but also the entrepreneur behind it. Steve Jobs was an excellent example of this. His departure made Apple highly vulnerable, defenseless even, because Jobs always had the final say on most matters, and now the company is relying on a committee to make decisions.
This story was originally published on Firrma.ru in a modified form.
Any beautiful brand is born in an entrepreneur’s mind. Here and now, not in a consultant’s office or when you have a company with billions of dollars in sales.
I believe in capitalism. I am sure that entrepreneurs do change the world – they have the power and the will to do it.
When all you have is a customer and a half, you can change the name of your project every single day if you feel so inclined. Startuppers often want to know my opinion about the name of their team, but I’d rather not answer questions like that. This just isn’t something you have to think about just yet. This isn’t your brand yet, it’s just a name your project is going to be associated with.
You’re the ones creating the name. You cannot make it through advertising — only through your own efforts and labor.
Do not use words like pro, nano, group, international in your name. This only gets in the way and can be pretty distracting.
It is enough for your project name not to cause you any aversion. Ideally, you should like it, but this is not the most important thing. When you start working under your new project name, you will feel how you should change it.
Do not use letter combinations in your business name that are hard to handle for your international business partners. Otherwise, you will have to answer the question: “How do you spell the name Schastye Zdes in any European alphabet other than Cyrillic?”
A team developing a brand should have only three things in mind: what they are selling, to whom, and who the competitors are.
Never position yourself versus relatively well-known brands. Saying something like “My product is an Instagram killer” all but says directly that you are never going to be successful in the market because Instagram is already there. Mentioning any big-name companies in a presentation of your own project is a mistake. You are automatically no longer talking about yourself, even though your audience wants to hear about you. Indeed, a presentation should have an Our Competition slide, but all you have to do is show their logos and then say in what ways you’re better than your competition.
The idea of your business resides in you personally. Entrepreneurs have asked us on several occasions to help them make it “like Virgin.” However, the foundation and the core idea of Virgin Inc. are Richard Branson himself. And his idea is straightforward: everything must be revolutionary and entertaining. Branson realizes that brands are not mathematical calculations by communication agencies, but first and foremost the soul of products and services.
Startups have huge opportunities these days. Multinationals have a big problem – their entrepreneurial impotence gives away more and more opportunities to new, innovative businesses. Large corporations are increasingly becoming more like investment funds, which are constantly on a lookout for new sources of growth. And you may well see yourself becoming part of a global product.
Think about what idea you want to put into people’s heads. The quality of our life and development depends on entrepreneurs, their products and services.
Your personality is a brand, because you are the first one to sell your product. Nowadays, at the time of open communications, not only your formal brand is important, but also the entrepreneur behind it. Steve Jobs was an excellent example of this. His departure made Apple highly vulnerable, defenseless even, because Jobs always had the final say on most matters, and now the company is relying on a committee to make decisions.
This story was originally published on Firrma.ru in a modified form.
