Revisitation

Imagine if I published the same article each week. You would give up reading after a while.
What if everyday was just like yesterday, exactly the same second for aching second, 24 hours of monotony with your only consolation being that it will be repeated again tomorrow.
Same food, same bad jokes, same mistakes, never moving forward, stuck in an endless cycle of repetition, revisiting where you have already been.

For more on revisitation have a look at http://emergingideas.com/the-revisitation

Break the cycle in your business that keeps going over the same ground.

Expand!

You would not rate the death of a loved one on the same scale as say breaking a cup. The emotion is different; the intensity of the pain varies hugely. Yet when your life is filled with small things the scope for level of intensity narrows immensely.
Everything is so small that the same emotion gets attached to everything. That is why people can become paralysed by the smallest infraction in their little world.
A few years back in the UK a drivers’ strike caused panic buying by people who feared massive food shortages (they obviously knew nothing about Zimbabwe).
A woman in the supermarket was overheard complaining that “there is no butter!” because her particular brand had run out, despite there being 10 brands available. Small thing. Narrow world.
It is the perspective that matters. You can choose to focus on the pebbles on the path or you can look to the top of the mountain you are climbing and imagine the view from the top. Keep small in its place. And let the small help you accomplish the big, not the other way around.

A Coffee Experience

Follow the story of Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters as reported by Emerging Ideas. Some great lessons on bootstrapping, a vision and some excellent coffee.

How to Build an Oscar Winning Business

It was with tumultuous joy and celebration that I went off to the newly refurbished Eastgate movie house to watch a 3D movie. Not just any movie, mind you, but a recent release less than a month after its US release date. Well done to the crew at Ster-Kinekor. They not perfect yet (I had a glitch at the ticketing system) but they are making a stand for the way things should be. The movie was excellent, the theatres clean and the popcorn good. It is with great pleasure that I shall watch their effect on the pirate movie scene. I had already spotted a copy of the film I watched at the flea market happily promising an impossible 'DVDrip' quality. I don't know about you, but I would much rather pay a dollar extra to watch a flick on the big screen than trying to make out the sound on a poorly-recorded, ripped version. Ster-Kinekor have set their pricing most competitively and are using social media to market what is coming out. Should they continue to provide up-to-date movies they will continue to have my support.

The movie in question that I went to see was the much acclaimed, first instalment of 'The Hobbit'. Based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkein, at the time of writing it has generated nearly USD500 million in revenue (against an estimated budget of 300 million) and has lived up to the hype and expectation surrounding it. Which brings us to the question 'What makes a successful movie?' Note that I said successful and not great, sorry to all the 'Twi-hard' fans in the world but the Twilight franchise is successful, not great (but that is a matter of personal opinion). Many great ideas often fall short because they never go on to be a success and generate enough income to sustain their viability.

Well a successful movie has a good story (well usually). A storyline that can be followed easily, and sustains the suspense till the last credit has rolled off the screen. Basic stories involve a protagonist (the good guy), the antagonist (the bad guy) and a problem to be solved (which creates suspense or you would stop watching). The product you sell is the protagonist in your personal story to solve a problem that your client has (which usually doubles at the antagonist). Include a bit of emotion and you have a potential best seller.

Movie makers have a plan. Most movies have a long planning stage. Budgets, scripts, casting, location choice, shooting schedules, costume design, set design, the list goes on. Too many people start a business with a half-baked plan and then wonder why they end up with a half baked business. Plan properly. If you have never done this before then ask someone.

Successful movies develop a cult following. Once in a while what is considered a 'B grade' film captures a niche market's attention, the first 'Underworld' managed this and was able to spew out sequels based on the initial success. You have a group of core believers that utilise your product to the exclusion of all else. This clique are your best sneezers and the people you can market to. 'The Hobbit''s success can be attributed perhaps to the legion of 'Lord of the Rings' fans that have been awaiting the release date for the last year. In many ways the groundwork for 'The Hobbit' was laid when Peter Jackson first started filming 'The Fellowship of the Ring' a dozen years ago. Which brings us to the next point.

Successful films have an appropriate marketing strategy. The trailer timeline for Jackson's latest saga started nearly a year ago. There has been a year of ingraining the fact that the movie is coming into the world's subconscious for a year or more. The best unexpected marketing however was the disputes over directors and acting guilds that gave the film free publicity in the press. Go study their website and examine all the little bits that are thrown in not just to give you something to do, but to help sustain the image of the movie in your mind. Free ringtones that reinforce anticipation everytime you hear them. Games targeted at people who will appreciate the story. Games targeted at people who won't appreciate the story. Smart marketing. Smart design. It is a SIMPLE website that offers, for the ease of navigation, a huge amount. Has it been a successful website....well USD500 million in under a month tells me that it probably has been.

Success, even the overnight version, is based on conscientious planning and hard-work and some good choices. Let us engage in some more of that this coming year. All the best for 2013 and Happy New Year.