Dirty Soap?

As the tide of consumerism is turning towards sustainable, organic, local, eco-friendly products and services, a number of small businesses around the world are taking advantage of this trend like Dirty Soap in New Zealand.


Dirty Soap is a business started by a Maori family in the Far North of New Zealand. Like The Body Shop and other businesses using natural products sourced from the furtherest corners of the earth, Dirty Soap is utilising a lot of ingredients sourced from within New Zealand, if not, their own area like the mud from the hot springs of Ngawha or the honey. Combine that with the tropical ingredients of coconut, bananas, mango or coffee granules with sassy names like "man-bomb", "hippy pippy","troppo", or "mango madness", you have a superb product that not only sounds great, looks great, is natural and eco-friendly, it does the job. It cleans and makes you smell fresh and feel good.

One of the great advantages of being in a business like personal cleaning products is that everyone uses soap (well, I hope they do ;-))...and when it's great soap, or bath bombs or shampoo, how can you resist not trying it out? How can you not miss the aromatic waves that hypnotise your sense of smell? No wonder people walk up and smell the exotic aromas of their different types of soaps in their range. Not to mention the bath bombs and other products they sell. This is the 'luxurisation' of staple products at its best and making the 'everyday' appeal of soap an 'exclusive' day.


Wouldn't it be great to see this business expand into hotels in its raw state rather than those 'piffy' little hotel soaps. If you're going to create an experience in a hotel, include one of these types of soaps in your bathrooms. Airlines too would benefit from using these soaps if they haven't already. Air New Zealand use tea tree based soap as hand cleansers. Tea tree oil is known by the Australian Aborigines for their medicinal uses and is widely used now in many products. Dirty Soap could also expand internationally leveraging its brand as an indigenous New Zealand brand. There are a few New Zealand businesses that are recognised internationally like Fisher & Paykal or Eurekster, so there is no reason why Dirty Soap couldn't push their brand further afield. They could start by distributing through stores like The Body Shop. This would be a great way to feel their way in international markets. Another idea would be to approach souvenir stores in New Zealand and sell through their outlets.

Isn't it great to see small businesses like Dirty Soap combining their knowledge of their culture with a little bit of science to produce a great product? I mean, just look at this message bar packed with Adzuki beans which can be used as a massage oil or an after shower body moisturiser. Wunderbar.

Marketing the Obama Way

After watching the USA Democratic Primaries, it is very interesting to note the new channels of marketing that the candidates for the Democrats and Republicans are developing. It is not a question of which channels of marketing they are using but how they are using them and engaging the general population of the USA. What is also noticeable is the 'real time' response each candidate has now with technology. One of the best exponents of the new technologies is Senator Barrack Obama.

Senator Barrack Obama's public relations efforts is going to be one that many political sciences students will analyse in years to come. Not only has Sen. Obama taken the tried and tested paths of "stump speeches", television and radio, he and his team have taken the utilisation of the internet to another level. The Obama campaign have been the most effective at leveraging the power of social networking applications like Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Twitter better than any candidate from either party which can be reflected in the memberships of people joining his sites. Obama's internet efforts will be one model of success that a lot of other political parties globally will be using as a template for their own campaigns if he fails or succeeds.

One of the most memorable additions to Obama's cause is this music video circulating the internet. This video targets lantino voters and younger latino voters who are more likely to access the web. The video is lively, it's memorable and it's a great hook! Now for all those political marketing buffs who analyse political campaigns, this is one effective way to get your message out to your target market. As they say, if you want to catch the right fish, use the right bait.

Enjoy!...and sing along if you can. Viva!

Freezing Grand Central

Now from time to time, a new buzz marketing effort spreads like wildfire throughout cyberspace and one cannot ignore how COOL the idea is...or more poignantly, how intriguing it would be to actually see it happen with your own eyes or to be a part of such a campaign.

The "freezing of Grand Central" in New York City is one of those ideas. Basically, you round up ten to several hundred people to meet at one place, organise them, tell them the plan and execute. This is flash-mobbing at its best.

By using the internet as a tool of organisation and communication through social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, or Bebo, organising rallies of this size can be done quickly and inexpensively by recruiting your friends/family and like-minded individuals to set your idea into action. In a market-place that's full of marketing noise, companies small and large need to take note and understand how to use the applications on the internet as a conduit to pushing their marketing messages out there. Not only is the market-place noisy, it's getting crowded and people are switching off. Just look at the proliferation of TiVo like systems in homes.

So how do you stand out? You develop and record your idea that's going to create some serious buzz. Then you shout and tell every Tom, Dick and Sarah to spread the word for you. Welcome to the world of the networked community. Small businesses with innovative ideas can now spend much much less than their larger competitors on advertising and gain a greater scope in the spread of their message. Scale is no problem because Youtube, DailyMotion, Revver etc take care of that for you.

Take a look at this video. Do you think if you saw several hundred people frozen in your major transport hub make you wonder...what the!?!?

Frozen Grand Central
by abdessao

Smart Seat Covers

Now here's a great business idea. You look out into the market place, you see what is being sold like crazy or is going to fly off the shelves then you develop a complementary product/service that you believe people will buy. Companies like Bemz in Sweden which manufactures seat covers specifically for IKEA sofas to the Air Mac envelopes/covers for the new Air Mac laptop.

Bemz designs custom made sofa and armchair covers for the most popular models of IKEA products. It fits their tag line perfectly: "Give your sofa a second chance!" ...and it's not just a second chance, but a third chance, fourth chance etc etc chopping and changing different covers to suit your taste. Bemz also enables people to mix and match designs through their website. This is a powerful idea to allow people to see what would look great in their homes. Look at the difference between the before and after shots above. Moreover, you can wash these covers and keep your sofa protected and looking new.

5 minutes!

Some time ago, I came across this site called www.5min.com and have watched it grow from it's early beginnings to its large stable of very interesting short videos today. 5min.com is a DYI or "how to" hub of short video solutions for practical questions. It's very similar to the short Watties ads on TV1 before the news except these videos are 'homemade'. You will find videos on "how to change a diaper", "how to plates for pregnant women" to "how to snowboard".

For many visual learners, 5min.com is a great way, along with other video sites like YouTube, to visually see how to do things. A lot of times, a manual just won't work as it misses out on the nuances of actually doing the task. Watching video steams is a great alternative to those boring jargon filled manuals. Outside of that, there are just some things you can't describe in a manual like "how to get girls to go out with you".

Gas Station Attendants

Do you remember the days when your local petrol station had gas attendants? These days, in era of high gas prices and massive profits, I think it would be great idea if one of the gas companies started to give back to the public.

BRING BACK THE GAS STATION ATTENDANT.

In the USA, people pay a premium to receive this service and a discount rate if they pump gas themselves. Why not, introduce a similar tiered rate service? You know when you're on a rush to work and you need to stop for gas but you get to the gas station and the lines are really long and you can't wait. I have a couple ideas:

1. Why not, have system where there's either a booth at the pump islands with attendants awaiting to serve the 'rushers' or an EFTPOS system?

A lot of gas stations still don't have EFTPOS at the pump. That would save a lot of time.

2. Have a coffee machine at the pump islands. Some of us don't mind drinking normal filtered coffee on the way to work. If you want the lattes, espressos etc...then go inside and pay the premium ;-)

3. Have these attendants selling morning papers as well

.......and here's an idea for a budding entrepreneur, identify petrol stations that don't provide these services (selling the paper, coffee etc) and organise with the petrol station owner if you can work their forecourt. In return, you'll hand out any marketing materials they may have.

I don't know the Health Dept and Work and Safety regulations for this, Im just flowing iwth the ideas.

So what do you think?

You got the luuuuuurve!!!

Where is the luuuuuurve!!

WOW!!...a year has almost passed since I showed this blog some lurrrrrrrrve. Sorry blog ;-( I actually forgot I had this blog after all that's been happening and stumbled across it after a chance login. In any case............I'm baaaaaaack again - The "Ideas Guy" ;-)

After writing on a couple other blogs, I've managed to understand more about this blogging thing. It can take up a lot of time so best to be to the point...especially when time is short.

Let me see what I can put here..................check back soon yesssssirrrr.