Niche Markets, Trader Joe's and Law Firms - Which of these things is not like the others?
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at September 23, 2005 10:40 PM
How does Trader Joe's define itself? A former vice president of operations for the chain put it this way: "It's a mix of supermarket, grocery store, and international gourmet shop with wholesale club pricing." Industry analysts and various other retail experts generally classify Trader Joe's as a specialty retailer or niche marketer. But which niche? Basically, the chain's simple but brilliant marketing strategy is to take a little from each concept and offer great products at fantastic prices. There really are no complex marketing strategies--just good solid execution based on giving consumers something different.
What do you do differently? How do you make a difference to your clients? What about your firm's story - what makes it different from every other?
Who are your clients?
Who are your clients? Who are your best clients?
When I work with new clients, I often encounter the following request: “I want more clients.” My response is a question: “What kind of clients do you want?” The (wrong) answer I most often get: “It doesn’t matter as long as they have money, we get a little bit of everyone in here.”The right answer takes a little more thought.When you really get to know your clients, you will find a small percentage account for most of your profits. In fact, it is common for less than 20% of your clients to account for nearly all of your profits. The big problem? Most businesses have no idea who those “perfect clients” are!
Rethinking the sales pitch - are you ignoring someone?
Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at September 21, 2005 10:29 AM
Last night, my wife and I wandered through a few furniture stores after we celebrated our anniversary with a nice dinner. In the last store, one saleswoman followed us throughout our entire survey of the establishment (about 30 minutes). She asked my wife several questions that went way beyond “is there anything in particular you are looking for.”
The saleswoman ignored me….literally ignored me…the entire time (she even introduced herself to my wife and asked my wife her name….and never even glanced over at me).
Ignoring me was a safe bet, right? After all, it’s a furniture store…and I’m a man. With a wife. Is there any chance in the world that I’m a potential customer? The saleswoman is just smartly concentrating her efforts on the likely decision-maker, isn’t she?
Funny thing is this…I am the potential customer. My wife and I are looking for something in particular — furniture for my home office. She’ll have input, of course, but it’s my office and my furniture…so I’m deciding and I’m buying.
I snickered to myself as we left the store, reflecting on the lesson a senior attorney gave me when I was first staring out: “Treat everyone as a potential client. You never, ever know.”
Think of how embarrassing it would be if you paid exclusive attention to one person in a group because you thought, for whatever reason, that they were the decision-maker regarding the procurement of your services and it turned out that another person, one whom you ignored, either had input on the decision or was in fact the decision-maker.
And you never know, the person you ignore may later become the decision-maker.
Truth is, there’s no way to have perfect knowledge on the issue of who controls or has input on the decision to hire you as a service provider. As a result, the safe approach is to treat everyone as a potential client. Hence, the senior attorney’s lesson to me.
And that’s not just good business…it’s also a sound approach to human interaction.
Here’s the fun part of my story. I actually saw some furniture I like in that particular store. I’m going back in a few days…without my wife and with the checkbook. That’s going to be fun.
Bigger isn't always better
Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at September 14, 2005 12:51 PM
If you enjoy Rethink(IP)...you'll enjoy this article from the current (August 2005) IP Today: LITIGATORS CORNER: Who Says Contingent Fee Lawyers Are the Biggest Moneymakers? [PDF]
Money quote:
No wonder large companies think litigation is too expensive. Their own need to hire big firms, coupled with runaway legal fees, is the largest part of their problem. A defendant that shoots itself in the foot shouldn’t blame someone else for its own stupidity. Their corporate mentality, which equates size and expense to quality, is the main cause.
RSS / E-mail Patent Lawsuit Filing Notices
Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at September 12, 2005 04:59 AM
The fact that a lawsuit has been filed can be an incredibly valuable piece of information, especially in the practice of patent law.
Today, Rethink(IP) announces the availability of another tool that allows you to acquire that valuable piece of information, every week with little to no effort.
Why is the existence of a lawsuit such a valuable piece of information?
First, the defendant might not know that he/she/it has been sued!
Your company, or your client, might have no idea that a patent lawsuit has been filed. How can this be? Remember that in the United States, a plaintiff has 120 days from the date of filing to serve a Complaint upon the defendant(s). To reserve a preferred venue/forum, many times a plaintiff will preemptively file the suit and not serve the Complaint, spending up to the next 120 days putting their case together, acquiring additional evidence, and (sometimes) attempting to settle the dispute.
Knowing that your company or client has been sued (but hasn't been served) can be priceless information when counseling them. How's that for a valuable "heads up"?
Second, the filing of a lawsuit can also be a valuable piece of competitive intelligence.
Knowing that competitor X just sued competitor Y may change discussions you're having with competitor X, Y, and/or A! It could also help in decision-making on several issues, such as marketing and product development. Best of all, it may allow you to monitor the case for information that might be helpful in a variety of situations.
We here at Rethink(IP) recognize the value of this information, and have created another RSS feed to deliver it to you.
The new RSS feed covers US patent lawsuit filings. We plan to update the feed at least weekly -- an interval that we expect will deliver value in a timely manner.
Each item in the feed will contain information on the lawsuits filed in the prior period (e.g., the past week). For each individual lawsuit, the names of the parties, name of the district court, and the case number.
A sample weekly report appears at the bottom of this post.
The RSS feed is available here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RethinkIP_SUITS_PATENT
If you don't use an RSS aggregator (blog reader) and would like to subscribe to the feed via email, enter your e-mail address in the following form box and click the button:
Or you can subscribe via your favorite web service:
Remember, if you want to learn about RSS and need help, feel free to contact any of us.
Comments, questions, suggestions...let us know. snipper@gmail.com
EXAMPLE POST DATA
HULL vs. ROTHHAMMER INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Court: candce
3:2005cv03538
Filed: 9/1/2005
ALZA CORPORATION vs. IMPAX LABORATORIES INC.
Court: dedce
1:2005cv00642
Filed: 9/1/2005
NOVO NORDISK A/S vs. SANOFI-AVENTIS
Court: dedce
1:2005cv00645
Filed: 9/2/2005
Rethinking Copyright Terms
Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at September 8, 2005 11:08 PM
I realize that I am just a lowly patent attorney, but I have a copyright question I don't know the answer to. It's a doozie. It is such a doozie that I'm already cringing from the backlash and grief this post is going to cause me.
Patents are clearly a bargain. You tell the world "how" you did it (so we can learn from your great knowledge and invent our own improvements) and we'll give you a limited (in time) monopoly. Without this "trade," you'd keep it as a trade secret and society would never benefit from the knowledge. THAT I get. It makes perfectly good sense to me.
Copyrights...I don't get. Where's the bargain? Why again do we have copyright terms? I'm serious...I can't figure it out. I'm all for rewarding "authors" for their creations. I don't have a problem with copyrights themselves...what I am saying is (this is the doozie part), why do we need to have copyrights NOT be perpetual (renewable)? Is it so 70 years, 80 years, 90 years, or whatever time frame Congress creates in the future, someone will be able to sell $1.00 DVDs of crusty old films that no one wants to watch at Wal-Mart?
Oh, I'm sure this will drive certain people absolutely nuts. I'm not saying this to push your buttons...I seriously don't get it. Explain it to me...(comments and trackbacks are open).
[Note: This rant brought to you by my reaction to
this debate.]
The CEO's are coming
I noticed in this week’s BusinessWeek a one-page ad for the magazine’s online content.
The lead in — “Check out some of the new ways you can receive business insight and tools to help you stay ahead.”
Among the new “tools” — RSS feeds and podcasts.
That’s right, BusinessWeek is going 2.0 on us. The BusinessWeek audience, I’m guessing, includes many executive level business folks. Hopefully, BW’s move will prompt more business folks to go 2.0.
And of course, we’re here to help. Want to learn about RSS and/or podcasts? All you have to do is ask…
Read the label
A few years ago the FDA pushed for the use of a standardized over the counter medication label in order to help consumers better understand the drugs they were using (or at least purchasing over the counter).
Not to be outdone, the EFF recently compiled their own standard...a list of the DRM (digital rights management) and other restrictions that the various online music stores (iTunes, Napster, Microsoft, Real) use. An example of such a restriction (embedded within the music file itself) is the number of different computers you can play the music file on (unlike a CD which you could use anywhere you want).
Maybe next time you purchase music online...you should first read the label.
Carnival of the Capitalists on Rethink(ip) - Thank you sir may we have another?
Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at September 7, 2005 11:54 AM
Wow, what fun. Hosting this week’s Carnival of the Capitalists was an absolute blast. We had fun reading the submissions and compiling our narration, and had even more fun reading the positive comments, trackbacks and e-mail messages we have received in response to the post.
“Man that was fun. Let’s do it again.” Each of us has said that at least five times in the last two days.
Hmmmm….what to do? Sign up for another, of course.
Done. On June 5, 2006, Rethink(ip) will play carnival barker again. We hope to see everyone back here for the second Rethink(ip) edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists.
In the meantime, we hope those new to Rethink(ip) will continue reading this blog and that our regular readers will keep following the Carnival. After all, no matter where it’s hosted, you know you’ll get a great show with a little local flavor.
Speaking of which, be sure to visit the Carnival next week at Evelyn Rodriguez’s Crossroads Dispatches blog.
IP Memes and rethink(ip)
If you aren't familiar with The TechnoLawyer Community...you should be. TechnoLawyer provides a number of great newsletters, and a forum where "technolawyers" can ask one another questions about technology (i.e., "has anyone every used _______ and what did you think about it?"). It is an excellent resource for all tech attorneys, and has an archive which I have searched from time to time with questions (what scanner to purchase, whether I should upgrade to the latest version of __________, etc.). The best part? It is free. Try it, if you don't agree you can easily unsubscribe.Over the past year I have been writing a newsletter for TechnoLawyer called “IP Memes.” IP Memes is “a weekly newsletter that explores emerging technology-related intellectual property issues — or “memes” as we call them. Think of it as your coal-mine canary for intellectual property issues.”
Previous IP Memes authors have included Dennis Kennedy, Denise Howell, Gail Standish, Kevin Grierson and Kurt Calia...an amazing group of alumni.
What excites me is the fact that fellow rethinkers Doug and Matt have agreed to join me as co-authors (starting with the September 26th issue). The IP Memes newsletter is subscription only...so, if you want to read it, you better subscribe today!
Is Technorati Dead?
Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at September 6, 2005 06:25 PM
Have you ever used Technorati? Technorati is essentially a search engine for blogs. It is great, when it is working.
However, in the last couple months my search results look like this (for whatever I search) 99% of the time:
Come on! What kind of business model is that? I can understand where you might temporarily have issues...but this is a regular occurrence. How many times would you keep going to a restaurant if the door always had a "closed" sign?
Do we need to pass a hat to collect donations so Technorati can buy some newer servers or what? I guess I am going to have to start using Mark Cuban's IceRocket blog search.
Carnival of the Capitalists - Rethink(IP) Edition
Thanks for wandering on by Rethink(IP) for this week’s installment of the Carnival of the Capitalists. If you are scratching your head trying to figure out what the heck Rethink(IP) is all about – head on over to the Blawg Review (as in “law blog”) and read the synopsis of our blog and our collaborative efforts.
In a nutshell, we are three intellectual property lawyers from three different law firms (that’s right, we’re competitors!). We developed a friendship based on a common belief that there’s a better way to practice law and deliver legal services. The Rethink(IP) project was born out of that common belief.
We each have our own blogs – The Invent Blog (Steve Nipper), Promote and Progress (J. Matthew Buchanan) and PHOSITA (Douglas Sorocco) – and we would enjoy having you stop by over there as well. It is through reading one another’s blogs and interacting (electronically) with one another that we met, a prime example of the “virtual team” Jack mentions.
This version of CotC is, therefore, a collaborative effort as well. These are the posts we found engaging, thought provoking, profound and down right funny. If it is a little bit disjointed, we make no apologies. You’re going to have to deal with it because, in the end and despite all of the cool electronic tools we have, getting three lawyers together on a single document is still a lot like herding cats. It is, however, a great way to “make knowledge.”
As you can imagine, most of the submissions we received this week are hurricane Katrina related. We have attempted to balance CotC with some other noteworthy posts that we ran across the past week.
So without further ado… Carnival of the Capitalists.
Katrina
What a week.
The images we have observed have been truly heartbreaking and elicit so many different emotions – sadness, empathy and anger (and one blog has a handy print optimized page detailing all the relief efforts). The blog-o-sphere has once again led in the effort to bring aid and comfort (including insurance information) to those in the gulf coast region (a region that is strategically crucial to the U.S. for reasons other than just oil and gas – namely, transportation of food and goods) – most notably Buzzmachine (Recovery 2.0 Planning) and The Truth Laid Bear have worked overtime to focus attention on the many deserving charities and aid organizations (watch out for the scammers) that have stepped up to the enormous task at hand.
Everyone thinks we will rebuild
Of course, Gadgetopia points us to Google Maps’ response – which is an emotional landscape that is too difficult to even comprehend, especially in view of the diaspora map posted by Gongol. Carolyn Elefant worries about professionals in solo practices (the Working Solo blog timely explores if there is a link between a healthy lifestyle and business success) and Catallarchy has an overview of gouging practices and their effects on consumers. The Drake Review spotlights the problems that small and medium business will be encountering.
Stocks have also taken a hit and the likelihood of a recession is 20% although, as the blog author relates, people who see the glass half full would argue that there is an 80% chance that a recession won’t happen.
Almost every commentator acknowledges that it is time to change and, as succinctly stated by Cheskin, in light of the death and destruction – bling has lost its glitter.
One little bit of good news, it turns out that coffee is actually good for you.
All Hail the Chief
Chief Justice Rehnquist has passed away and the talking heads are all a twitter – like Katrina, some are sad, some are mad and some are downright glad. We can’t post anything past Sunday at midnight, so I guess we can’t tell you who was nominated to replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice.
Business Stuff
Ever wonder if you were ready for management – well, the folks over at the Value Management Blog give us 10 reasons why we should stay out of management including our favorite #5 entitled “You're Too Content with the Status Quo.” Want to know how to be cruel to your employees? It’s easy – just make up an organizational chart. For crying out loud, if you do decide to leave because you just can’t take it anymore – take Larry’s word for it, don’t choose the counteroffer, you’ll thank him for it.
Don’t feel too bad if you misplace your car keys every now and then,
Wonder Branding’s post “A View through the Windshield of Life” reminds us that it is important when dealing with female customers to not judge a book by its demographic cover, but instead examine their values and needs to determine how best to serve them. Multiple Mentality takes a different approach, arguing that companies need to be realistic in reaching out to their potential customers, regardless of what others may say, noting that “[m]ost real women have far more flaws. And that’s why we love them.”
In a lot of ways, networking is like marriage…you don’t just walk up to a prospective mate and say “Let’s get married.” However, patience and the love of a hobby can be woven into an extensive business network. Another promising area for business is through bloggers networking together to form “mutually beneficial business partnerships” (pardon the shameless promotion, but our little rethink(ip) collaboration seems to be a perfect example of such a relationship). The author notes that “the blog connection concept might eventually turn into a business all by itself.” Of course, another way to network is use someone else’s customer list. One way to do this is through illegally stealing someone’s trade secrets, but the preferable (and legal) way is via “leveraged marketing.”
On the tech side, do we now have to worry about hackers in hotel rooms stealing our credit card information and taking pictures of us while we sleep? If only they’d have better marketed themselves to the corporate office the downsizing would have been prevented and their life of crime could have been diverted.
Thinking of switching teams? No, not in the Seinfeld sense, but in the ‘life is a team sport’ sense. No matter what company, family, or gang you’re a member of, they’re all teams (business and gang-bangers in the same post – you’ve gotta love that!). If you’re unhappy with your current team, you’ve got to break free from the one you hate and pick one that suits you better. When switching (and even when thinking of switching), remember that there are winners, losers and victims in the crazy game of life and, no matter your team, the field on which you play the game can have a profound effect on the final score.
Ouch – have you been banned from the really big exclusive geek illuminati important social networking conferences? If you have, you may have been Foo-barred. Speaking of being barred, apparently
“The Importance of a Liberal Arts Education” is offset by claims that Google undermining education by displaying ads for plagiarism and cheating? Damn them!
Are you too old to start a business (or, put another way, have you forgotten to buy long term care insurance)? The answer is, as usual, it depends (no pun intended). If you understand RSS (better yet, how to market RSS) – you are probably ahead of the game and knowing the intricacies of applying for a small business loan can’t hurt either. Another option would be giving your downtown some open heart surgery.
Be careful where you put that business – the cost of doing business may overwhelm your Web 2.0 company – in fact, why not look to the prairie states? (where you can actually get a house for the median price) Then again, none of it really matters if you simply dell your customers. (“Dude, you got delled!”) In fact, the signs are that all business will be conducted in Asia by the year 2156. In the end, be careful who you get into bed with…
Meanwhile, marketing to Gen X-rs (is that trademarked – in fact, did a gorilla choose your own company name?) has never been so easy thanks to the Lip-Sticking blog (in fact, it is even easier for women – just make them happy and they will buy). All it takes is a simple little question “What if I started a business that is the Windows of _________? We think it would just be better to stop practicing law and start juggling our money between bank accounts in order to maximize interest or better yet, maybe we should just go to work in the stock market. Maybe there are other things you should put on a “what I want to learn” list.
The future isn’t in plastics, it is the B2B to the hispanic market. The use of celebrities to market to women is discussed over at the Learned on Women blog while the Bizinformer blog wonders how far one will stretch ethics in order to increase profits. Google is, for all intents and purposes, going to own our souls in the very near future – or at least our mobile devices.
The next time you take your printer cartridges to get them refilled (or if you refill them yourself) – be warned. You could be committing an act of patent infringement. At the same time, the invention of the century could be The Life Straw which can clean up to 150 gallons of water by simply sucking through the device. Such life saving devices will be “the play” of the year now that Katrina has struck.
How to Save the World posits the Ten Most Important Trends in Business (echo echo echo…) while the SF Indymedia blog examines the hidden and not so hidden racism of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Meanwhile, with all the graphs, figures and gizmos – is it any wonder why the music industry (supposedly) can’t make any money on the internet?
Maybe the music biz should consider Firing the CEO – as Martha says it’s a good thing? There might be a few folks who disagree with that point – more likely you should fire any attorney who files a million dollar patent application.
Have you ever wondered what exactly ‘Word of Mouth’ advertising means? A lot more than just WOMMA, that’s for sure. Of course, WOMMA is so old school – or is it new school? Who knows – but the Media Guerilla may take a stab at explaining all the crazy marketing mumbo-jumbo to us.
While we are at it – it is good that we now know how to manage losers – as long as we don’t see our coworkers using these tips on us! Since we have our managing hat on, maybe we should fire all of the relatives of employees we mistakenly hired. Marketers would never consider themselves losers (is it the medium or the message), so the rest of us should just learn their language and move on.
Finally, this week’s best blog post -- told in the voice of a rhinocerous -- belongs to The Skwib (if the rhinocerous thing isn’t enough to get you to click that link, maybe “take calculated risks, but no hot dogging” will). Yeah, we ignored the whole oil price thing, even though it did bring out some strange behavior in folks. Sue us (just don’t ask for a referral). It’s all part of having free markets, although others have doctrinal conflicts with it.
Thanks for reading! I would encourage you to stop by the Blawg Review carnival that is going on right now over at Blawg Wisdom. You’ll find the best legal commentary available as well as some thought provoking discussions.
Next week’s Carnival of the Capitalists will be over at Evelyn Rodriguez’s blog Crossroads Dispatches (Evelyn is familiar with surviving natural disasters…she was on Phi Phi Don island off the Andaman coast of Thailand last December when the tsunami hit and blogged about her experiences then). Have a great week!
Carnival of the Capitalists Coming Soon
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at September 4, 2005 08:56 PM
Rocking the SUV
Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at September 1, 2005 05:51 AM
I should have known something was up Tuesday night. As I drove by the local Texaco station I saw an SUV owner pumping gas. An SUV owner pumping gas isn't a new thing to me...what caught my eye was how he had his foot on the running board and was rocking his SUV side to side, apparently working every last air bubble out of his gas tank so he could get four or five extra ounces of gas into the tank.
I'm sure he must be a partner at a law firm we litigated against one time. The case was all but over (his client got whipped pretty good on a case that should have never been filed), yet he kept filing new pleadings, making pointless phone calls, sending more discovery requests, etc. All that to get every last ounce into his tank.
J. Matthew Buchanan 
Stephen M. Nipper 
Douglas Sorocco 