This post is a transcript of the video interview Tax time and the stimulus package. Read More→
If you read my last blog post you would know that David and I recently had a four night getaway at Hayman Island in the Whitsundays, a venue which is also hosting a major Australian leaders forum this week, that you can read all about at Business Spectator.
Our trip though was for R & R and not business thankfully though while we were there I couldn’t help but notice how many things done by the Hayman team and in delivering the Hayman experience, provided some unique insights into concepts that could be deployed in other places and other businesses.
One of these was the notion of offering a ‘peak experience’ to the customer base, not something that everyone will want to do, and the cost of it can be one of the factors that makes it exclusive, but something that can be nevertheless considered a pinnacle experience, a really neat thing to do. Read More→
Building on fantastic, Hayman a lesson in constant improvement
Monday, August 30th, 2010By · Comments
When David and I sat down at the offices of our mentor Dr Terry Cutler in the warm summer days of January 2009, our goal was to draw up a mud map of our experiences starting up, growing and then selling Arts Hub.
However, we didn’t just want to map out and then tell the Arts Hub story, we wanted to condense the journey into some key lessons for those who wanted to venture into niche publishing. It was our belief then and it still is that one of the great frontiers online that has only partly been exploited is that of niche content.
What we mean by that is that if you can provide content of a high quality in a specialist or niche field for a bunch of people who are interested in or work in that area, then you can create a product that those people will pay for. Many of us understand that it’s important to keep abreast of the trends and challenges in our industry or even in an area that is a hobby for us, and pulling this sort of information together for people has a value. Read More→
Michel Hogan is a brand expert and advocate for brand. She talks here to Fiona Boyd about some of the features that make up the luxury brand, and what features don’t.
Michel Hogan writes weekly on all things brand in her blog called Brand Matters on Smart Company. You can find out more about the work she does and how she helps companies get all aspects of their brand right at Brandology.
This interview was inspired by an event moderated by Michel Hogan at the Melbourne Churchill Club on luxury.
Just prior the Federal election on Saturday 21 August, Michel Hogan the founder of Brandology spoke to Fiona Boyd about the political brands of the two key players in the election, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. With the hung parliament result leading to possibly another week before a minority government is formed, the political brand of both players still has currency, especially with the Independents who have the power to decide which party gets to govern for the next three years. Michel talks more about the political brands of Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Bob Brown.
Michel Hogan is an expert in the field of brand advocacy and runs the company Brandology. You can also read her latest thoughts on brand at Smart Company’s Brand Matters blog.
Australia is currently in the grip of a federal election campaign and until this week there’s been little focus on policy and a lot of focus on personality. Michel Hogan, founder of Brandology talks to Fiona Boyd about the Julia Gillard and the Tony Abbott brands.
Michel Hogan writes regularly about all things brand on her blog at Brand Alignment and on Smart Company at Brand Matters.
One of the things that happens when life starts to speed up again and all systems are starting to crank up is that as an entrepreneur it’s really easy to get stressed and feel the strain of a zillion balls all being juggled at once.
I mean you’re the one at the top of the company leading the charge, everyone looks to you for a decision, and if there’s just you rolling out a big vision, well then, when do you get time to sleep? Read More→
Personal brand is an area that brand advocate Michel Hogan of Brandology coaches and counsels company leaders and influencers on, and it’s one of her favourite topics of discussion. With the recent filing of a lawsuit against iconic department store David Jones, various board members and the ex-CEO, Mark McInnes by a former employee this week, it’s worth asking what was going on with the personal brand of the former CEO that led to this state of affairs? Michel Hogan explores that grey space between a leader’s personal brand and and the company’s brand and why things can go horribly wrong if they’re not aligned.
Michel Hogan talks to Fiona Boyd regularly about all things to do with brand. Michel also blogs about her brand insights at Brand Alignment and her weekly blog on Smart Company called Brand Matters is an ITM must-read.
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Acting appropriately at DJs by Amanda Gome (Business Spectator)
DJs’ lesson on the lecherous (Business Spectator)
Yesterday David and I had a rather lovely meeting with a gentleman who runs the Law Institute of Victoria’s beautifully organized and rather enticing bookshop on Bourke Street in Melbourne city. Owen Hyde didn’t explain how long he’d been in this role but hearing how he’d been involved with early explorations into taking the bookshop online and how after five long years the movement to online distribution of niche legal content could really be seen to be happening I’d guess it was long enough to be really meaningful.
Owen runs both the real world LIV bookshop and its equally successful online version and because they are so well organized lawyers and those needing access to specific legal content from all over the country, purchase their content with the LIV bookshops. They have become the de facto national legal bookshop – a perfect niche in my opinion.
For me this was a really interesting meeting as I’ve not spent anytime at all in the world of law institute lawyers and all of my dealings with lawyers have been pretty much through the businesses David and I have been involved with and we’ve dealt mainly with commercial lawyers, who while still legal fraternity, are not really hallowed halls and unique precedents and arguments.
As I’ve written in previous blog posts, David and I and our little company Webzing Pty Ltd started a new venture, actually with specialist lawyers, the team at Erskine Rodan & Associates Immigration Lawyers a few months ago. Christine and Erskine Rodan had published in 2009 a unique book that drew on their vast knowledge of and practice in immigration law called Migrating To Australia: A Guidebook, that was one of only a couple of publications targeting the immigration law space.
This wonderful book was available in the Law Institute of Victoria bookshop and as Owen told us it sold really well and they’d sold out. The issue the writers found with the book was that in the area of immigration law there are at least a couple of legislative changes every month and therefore the book fairly quickly became out of date, even though it had been three years in the researching and writing. This issue of losing relevance as soon as there is a significant change to immigration law isn’t one that goes away in this fast-changing area of law, so a solution to this needed to be devised.
In our collaborative venture with the Erskine Rodan & Associates team we’ve completely updated and a 2nd version of the Guidebook and decided to make it available as an e-book, giving us the facility to do a major update and rewrite as soon as the legislative changes start to make the content of the book look out-of-date and out-of-touch. But interestingly in our discussion with Mr Hyde from the LIV Bookshop, there are various really specific areas of the law where the customers really aren’t that worried that the book is out-of-date, that they use it as reference and a kind of text, but that they really like to have access to a hard copy version as well as an e-version.
Which leads us back to the issue of creating a book whose content we know will be out-of-date very soon, printing it on demand, but making sure we keep the customer properly informed via emailed legal updates. Whilst it is early days for Webzing and Erskine Rodan & Associates on this venture, we’re starting to get a bit more clear on how those who want content around immigration law are likely to want to receive it and use it.
Our short journey and interlude at the LIV Bookshop, whereby you can buy a legal reference book which costs you over $500, and those who want and can put to good use the information and content in this book do not hesitate to pay that amount, reminded me that in a really perfect niche the economics are quite different to a mainstream product. With a really important legal tome you may only sell a thousand copies of a version, however 1000 copies at $500 is not a number to sneeze at.
As my life rolls on and so much around me appears to become commoditized I really get interested and excited in those perfect niches where small groups of people congregate, and they congregate around content and ideas that have a really premium value to them. That to me is a perfect niche and I’m looking out for more of those in 2010.
For those of you who are interested in Australian migration law or have someone in your world who needs to get across what’s involved in migrating to Australia, don’t hesitate to refer them to our site www.migrationdigest.com.au. There are two definitive guidebooks available for sale – Migrating to Australia: The Guidebook which is a definitive overview of all bar the tourist visa categories, and Business Skills Migration: The Guidebook a comprehensive guide to migrating to Australia under the business skills and investor visas. You can also sign up for a free weekly digest about all the latest in Australian immigration news and trends at the Migration Digest website.
This blogpost is the transcript of the interview between Fiona Boyd and brand advocate Michel Hogan from Brandology – What to do about the Customerzilla? Read More→
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