Consumers are exposed to over 3,000 marketing messages a day. TV spots, radio ads, billboards, logos on t-shirts, packaging labels, coupons in the mail, pop up ads on the internet, kids selling cookies at the door – they are everywhere. And yet you think the consumers you want to talk to are going to filter through over 3,000 messages a day – just to find yours. And because this task alone is not daunting enough, most businesses decide to make it harder by hiding their messages....
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Strange New Products: Said to be the world's first "energy potato chip", the line of NRG Potato Chips ushers in a new age of television snacking.
Containing a energy-boosting combination of Taurine, Caffeine, and B-Vitamins, NRG Potato Chips are sure to make a couch potato bounce their legs ad-nauseum throughout an entire sitting of the Rocky Balboa series.
The potato chip's website says its now shipping to stores all over the South-East. I guess that's where people burn a lot of energy watching television.
Productdose: Electric bikes are nothing new but the design of the Pi will turn heads. Ride this around town and lookers-on will wonder why you're not slidng off the back. It offers 750 watts of power and a range of 30 miles (add an optional battery and roam for 60 miles) on a single charge and tops at 20 MPH. You won't find this in normal bike shops. They're being sold exclusively through Design Within Reach for $7,500, starting October 2007.
Electrobike Pi [Productdose]
San Diego Metro News: Strobe lights, the smell of stale beer, martinis and toddlers. As they say on “Sesame Street,” one of these things is not like the others.
But that's the scene at Aubergine nightclub in San Diego's Gaslamp district on a Sunday afternoon. Young families line up behind a velvet rope to get into a Baby Loves Disco event, where kids can boogie to the beat and their stylish parents can either join in or watch from the sidelines with a drink in hand.
It's the brave new world of parenting, where child and adult worlds often intersect. Forget the old idea of parenthood, a life filled with minivans, Elmo sneakers and trips to Chuck E. Cheese. A growing number of new parents are trying desperately to hang on to their pre-kid lives, replete with cool clothes and hip hangouts, just with slight modifications.
BornRich: Here is another interesting thing for the uber-rich to spend their money on. AquaDomi is a modular system of floating houses and it gives the owner the opportunity to create his own house in his own style. Although the images shown on the site are computer generated but, it looks like these floating houses are available for sale.
AquaDomi has already constructed cafes and restaurants using these design principles. The latest line of the floating houses from the company is Noma series, which include three new houseboat models. The Noma houseboats have a floor-to-ceiling height of 300/250 cm or 250/240 cm. The houseboat can also be used as a combined home and office. Family Noma is spacious and largest of all the series. The houseboat is accessible through the terrace/court.
The two bedrooms are fitted with wardrobes and each one has its own terrace that is accessed through sliding doors. AquaDomi offers a wide selection of light, well-arranged quality kitchens with all modern equipment. The dining room and living room are connected to the kitchen. The houseboat is connected to the public infrastructure for water, waste water, electricity, telephone, community antenna and internet.
Webware: There's something to be said about Web services that been set up to help people coordinate things in the least stressful way as possible. I dig sites like CircleUp that offer a way to set up polls, or solve quick logistical questions amongst a group, without requiring the creator--or the users to agonize over interface and execution. That's why MyPunchBowl's new checklists feature is pretty much the best addition to a party planning service yet.
The idea is simple: you as party creator make a list of things you need for the party. This list is just for you in a GTD sense. You can hit one button to add any items to your "potluck" list, which is made public to all your invitees. Your party goers can then claim each item that they'll (hopefully) bring to the party, or add their own items, helping you avoid harassing e-mails or phone calls to coordinate.
The new checklist feature launched alongside several other updates. The service is continuing its foray into the world of themes with about two dozen Halloween templates, and a new duplicate party feature that lets you clone a party you've already made to reuse--which is helpful if you want to recycle things like a guest list and directions. There's also a bounce notifier to let you know if your party invitations never made it to your addressees' mailboxes.
PR Web: Jokari® is adding to its product offering a new innovative product called Cool-UpsTM. Cool-Ups are re-usable ice cream serving cones with a built in push-up handle that do double duty as an ice cream scoop and a serving vessel. This handy little contraption is mess-free and provides welcome refreshment on any day. They are easy to use, easy to clean and come in four bright fun colors. Cool-Ups are also designed with a protective cap to store ice cream in the Cool-Up in the freezer to serve later. They are available in packs of 4 for $4.99.
The novel design of this product has been entered into the 2008 Housewares Annual Design Awards in the Kitchen Hand Tools category. Winners to be announced at the end of this year.
Springwise: Combining three unremitting consumer trends—convenience, organics and health—YoZone by YoNaturals is a vending machine dedicated to organic products. Based in San Diego, YoNaturals offers an alternative to vending machines that are typically stocked with junk food.
YoNaturals offers a wide range of items, from fresh fruit to products by well-known brands like Tazo (tea), Clif Bar (energy bars), Vitamin (beverages) and Horizon Organic (dairy). Operators and location managers can choose from more than 150 natural and organic foods and beverages, order through an online ordering system, and have the products delivered in less than three days. YoNaturals is actively seeking locations such as schools, shopping centres, offices, hospitals and fitness centres for placement of YoZone machines, seeking to cater to consumers on the go who are interested in healthier food options.
Iconoculture: Residents of the town of Varallo in northwestern Italy are turning kilos into euros through a communal diet project initiated by the mayor.
Men who lose 4 kg (9 lbs.) in a month will receive €50 ($70). Women will get the same amount for losing 3 kg (7 lbs.). If they keep the weight off for five months, they'll receive another €200, or $280.
There is power in numbers. A group approach to a challenge empowers people and provides a sense of community. Denaro (money), even more than health or appearance, can be highly motivational.
Engadget: And you thought non-stick chewing gum was the heat. Turns out, Coca Cola may be plotting a new version of Sprite that actually chills itself upon opening. Apparently, the drink has to be kept at a specified temperature before being snapped up, and once the oh-so-thirsty consumer pops the top, "a mechanism inside creates ice made from the drink, so it is not diluted." Reportedly, the beverage would sensibly be called Sprite Super Chilled, and if it does indeed hit the UK (and prove successful) by "early next year," the technology could then be passed along to Coke, Diet Coke or even "super cold alcoholic drinks, particularly beers."
Coolhunter: Computers could have been the biggest tree-saving invention of all time, yet here we are, “paperless office” still just a dream and trees being cut down faster than ever. Award-winning creative architect duo Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen at molo design in Vancouver, Canada, are not discouraged by this. They have decided to ensure that paper does some serious work at the office.
Their amazing corrugated paper furniture and white “soft” walls are not only fun to assemble, alter and move around, but good for the environment, too. Molo is the product arm of their bigger-scheme practice forsythe-macallen.com. Forsythe and MacAllen have been recognized around the world for their innovative housing and living-space projects and events. The first location for a molo design workshop will open in Milan, Italy by early 2008. It was previewed during this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan.
Popgadget: I love tea and I love being able to make a truly personal and original gift to my friends, which is why I love Blends for Friends.
Blends for Friends is run by a former professional tea taster who mixes custom tea blends based on the personality of the intended recipient.
To help create the most unique blend, you're asked to provide some personal information about the individual the tea is meant for, such as his/her job, hobbies, physical appearance, etc. New blends cost £ 27, but if you wish to order previously created blends the cost is just £ 7 plus postage. The gifts can be delivered anywhere in the world.
Reveries.com: A new service that lets you sign up to receive coupons by cellphone is generating “good” results for Virgin Megastores. The service, called Cellfire, is strictly opt-in. You can either go to cellfire.com or else text message Cellfire from your cellphone. You have to disclose your year of birth and home zipcode, but your phone number is not shared with any of the 200 marketers that so far have signed on to use the service to send out coupons.
You cash in simply by showing the your “cellphone screen — where the coupons are displayed — to a cashier at checkout” (eventually it will be possible to email the coupon from the phone to the cash register).
Yanko Design: Imagine a yoga mat you unfurl from a metal tube that’s actually a stereo. It can take in memory cards or play content off an MP3 player. The real tech candy here is the mat which is made of an electronic paper screen. The idea is you can attend yoga classes from anywhere since streaming video plays right on the mat. You can even “conference” in friends so they can get in the group fun. It’s just a concept but the technologies do exist in some form now.
CNNMoney: Can camera-equipped mobile phones make families healthier? One Canadian company says yes. Quebec-based Myca already has a hit with a service called MyFoodPhone, which lets users snap photos of their daily meals and send them to the company's nutritional analysts.
Myca is a pioneer in what you might call Telemedicine 2.0. It started modestly with MyFoodPhone. For $10 a month, subscribers get biweekly videos via e-mail offering personalized dietary suggestions based on their phone snapshots. Launched in May 2006, it's already landed more than 5,000 customers.
Doctorphone and Babyphone, both still in development, are more ambitious. Both will let subscribers conference with Myca's network of freelance nurses and doctors. Heart rate and temperature data can be transmitted to a patient's electronic medical-record file, and doctor-patient conversations are archived for future reference.
Babygadget: The creators over at Boon (you know, the Frog Pod) sure have been busy. They've rolled out quite a number of new products, most notably in utensils and tableware.
The Catch Bowl is definitely something I would use and wonder why nobody has done before. The flexible, soft extension catches food and funnels it back into the bowl - perfect, I think, for all the soups the kid loves to eat. A suction cup at the bottom of the bowl keeps it in place.
MobileCrunch: The famous, and seldom attributed quote “I don’t know art, but I know what I like” probably holds true for most of us. I run into very few professional art critics in my daily grind, but everyone and their brother will tell me why opinion on art is wrong. But in fairness I’m more likely to head to the Arms and Armor Gallery at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art than just about anyplace else. And I’ve never been to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, because it sounded a tad… boring.
But today I found out what I was missing. I didn’t visit the museum or even their Web site, but rather heard about the launch of the MFA Mobile program, which is the first of its kind in the United States. It was developed by communications agency Hill Holliday and allows users to wirelessly download museum masterpieces to their mobile handsets. Want a Claude Monet water lily or Egyptian sculpture in the palm of your hands, now you can get it!
A single wallpaper is priced at $1.99, while users may also choose an MFA Mobile subscription for $4.99 a month, which includes up to five wallpapers a month, plus the option to choose a bonus special wallpaper of the month.
Blooper #1: Not telling us why we should listen to you. Never assume that just because you have an audience, we are obliged to listen to you. We may love you (that’s why we came in the first place) but never take advantage of the trust we have for you. It is an extreme turn-off when the audience has to do the work i.e. figure out how your presentation is relevant to us...
- Tips & Tricks To Find Customers
- Beer Pong Opportunity
- The New Work Revolution - Communication
- Entrepreneur’s Checklist
- Serial-preneurs
- What Drives You
- Business Partners Wanted
Can't stand your demanding boss anymore? Start your own business! Before that, be sure to subscribe to our free informative newsletter. BIZNESS! is jointly published by CoolBusinessIdeas.com and GetEntrepreneurial.com What you get in BIZNESS! - the latest new business ideas, small business advice, business tips and info and entrepreneur resources. Everything you need for your brand new business!
Free 145-pages PDF report (worth $75) - "2006's Best Business Ideas" - included with your subscription.Learn more here.
BusinessWeek: France is famous for its relaxed attitude to affairs of the heart (and loins). Unlike in the Anglo-Saxon world, the existence of extra-marital affairs -- from the fictional Madame Bovary to former President Francois Mitterrand -- is taken for granted there. French men even have a term for their mistresses: Le cinq á sept (the 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.). Now French adulterers are being offered a discreet and tailor-made service to help them indulge in their dalliances without getting caught.
The Alibila Web site offers a service for people "suffocating" in their family situation who need some air, or for those in the throes of a "passing adventure" who don't want to jeopardize their marriage. It offers would-be philanderers a range of services, costing €19 ($27) upwards, including diversionary phone calls, merchandise from fake conferences, and invitations to non-existent weddings.
Springwise: Baby-oriented websites provide a unique marketing opportunity, since they’re aimed at a highly motivated readership—new parents—who have a strong desire to learn and share their experiences. For advertisers, the value stems from bonding with new customers at a moment when they’re experiencing a major and (mostly) positive life transition. When a new baby arrives, families must make new purchase decisions on everything from diapers to cleaning products and foods. British website Babyfy is hoping to tap into that marketing potential by publishing expert reviews on baby products, giving the complete lowdown on every brand of stroller/pram/pushchair and dozens of other product categories.
Babyfy’s real user value could lay with its reviews of hospitals and the services they provide expectant mothers. Besides offering statistics on aspects such as the ratio of Caesarean vs. natural births, the chart-like reviews focus on occasionally overlooked areas such as parking and visiting hours. Visitors can also rate various aspects of their experience at a hospital and provide their own written comments. The site is currently still in beta: some product categories have yet to be reviewed, and advertising isn’t yet up to the site’s potential. Entrepreneurs bent on setting up a new website for parents-to-by in other countries might also want to review services like childbirth classes, paediatric clinics and day care centers.
Cherryflava: We remember that a couple of years ago SAA painted on of their 747's in hideous colours in an apparent celebration of managing to send an entire Olympic team overseas without loosing all of their luggage.
That plane is probably still lurking around, 'cause it would have been too expensive to repaint the thing.
But, in an ongoing strategy to milk more money out of their human trafficking business model, other airlines are selling fuselage space as an advertising canvas.
Springwise: Appealing to a 'not leaving the beach yet' kind of spontaneity, Danish Sommergrill offers seaside barbecue on speed dial. Consumers can call or SMS Sommergrill from the beach, and the service will deliver a ready-to-go bbq set: marinated meat, salad, bread and dessert, plus a disposable barbeque, plates, napkins, etc. A set for two is priced at DKK 180 (USD 33 / EUR 24 / GBP 16).
Instead of waiting in line for mediocre beach-side (fast) food, Sommergrill's customers have access to gourmet grub, with the convenience of having everything delivered, and the pleasure of grilling it themselves. Sommergrill is a seasonal offering by local restaurant Ricky's Køkken. Vans deliver to two urban beaches near Copenhagen, Amager Strandpark and Islands Brygge, and payment is in cash or by debit/credit card.
TrendHunter: It was only a matter of time until someone applied the green-business model to pizza. Pizza Fusion offsets 100% of energy used with renewable wind. They use hybrid vehicles. They use 100% certified organic ingredients in their sauce, dough, and vegetables. The chicken they use is all-natural, free-range. The beef is 100% certified organic and is free of any hormones, pesticides, antibiotics and insecticides. Save the earth - eat a pizza.
Creative Match: An observational study and consumer workshops revealed just how peckish people get when they see and taste this delicious, healthy snack and Ziggurat Brands. The new Munchy Seeds tubs will be launched in September, feature a host of hungry birds created by hand models and a skilled body painter.
A toucan, goose and rooster appear to peck at the Munchy Seeds typography, which also features seed-shaped counters in the lettering. The Munchy Seeds branding also incorporates other hand-animals – zebra, horse and crocodile which unify the product range and ensure consumer recognition via the single creative idea. It has immediate impact, effectively disrupting the fast growing seed category. The branding works across all marketing collateral and will appear throughout corporate stationery and website communication.
Ziggurat and Munchy Seeds conducted workshops to understand the consumer’s mindset and category nuances, ensuring that the client and the agency shared an understanding for the brand’s essence and desired brand positioning. It was not surprising that the workshops revealed that many parents are increasingly health conscious, wanting to encourage children to eat nutritious foods.
BBC News: The UK's big five mobile phone firms have switched on a payment system that turns handsets into digital wallets. Called PayForIt, the scheme is designed for those buying goods and services with a value of up to £10.
The industry hopes it will be used to pay for ringtones, train tickets, parking fees and eventually as a payment system on web shops and sites. Any cash spent via the scheme will automatically be added on to a customer's phone bill. The scheme standardises the way phones can be used to make payments so the process is the same no matter which operator a customer has signed up for or which handset they are using.
Treehugger: Downtown Manhattanites with a case of the lunchtime munchies can mosey down to Battery Park for a bite at Picknick, a new sustainable food kiosk that considers itself a "mini-model of consumer and eco-conscious food service."
Serving a medley of sandwiches, salads, and sweets, Picknick sources most of its ingredients from small farms and local businesses, while any global vendors must meet social-responsibility standards. A percentage of the company's profits is piped back into the Battery Conservancy gardens surrounding New York Harbor, famed for their views of the Statue of Liberty and assemblage of imitation-Rolex peddlers.
Takeout containers, cutlery, and cups are made from biodegradable bioplastics. Even the kiosk's menu boards are made from Richlite, a fiber composite manufactured using Forestry Stewardship Council-certified paper.
Gizmodiva: Here’s one more option to utilize your iPod to the fullest……even whilst driving your Toyota or Lexus. Your favorite artists will soon play from a glove box in your car seat. Toyota's iPod Integration Kit enables users to plug an iPod into a vehicle's glove box and use the steering wheel or standard audio system to control Apple's portable player. This will give you fingertip control of your music while you drive and clear digital sound through your car’s speakers! Once connected, the iPod can remain attached to the adapter, keeping it safely away from prying eyes. It even stays charged up on longer journeys. This kit actually takes care of all your probs regarding iPod-playing while on the road. It’s simple to install and easy to use. But the only hitch is the pricing at $300. I think its worth it as you wouldn’t need to keep swapping your CDs again and again.
Eating a healthy diet is one of the most important ways you can maintain an active lifestyle and protect against health problems.
The EatSmart Nutrition Scale™ provides nutrition information that helps you make informed food choices. It is extremely valuable to individuals that are at risk of developing certain medical conditions—such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol and osteoporosis, (all impacted by diet)—that require close monitoring of specific nutrients.
The EatSmart Nutrition Scale™ instantly calculates the exact values for 12 major nutrients contained in any size portion of hundreds of different foods which are programmed into the scale in the following sequence by pressing the 1/2/3/4 button on the left-hand keypad.
The EatSmart Nutrition Scale™ is also useful for people striving to control their weight, and for others who simply wish to maintain optimum health by monitoring and balancing their daily nutritional intake of calories, fats and proteins.
By using the EatSmart Nutrition Scale™, you can make your nutrition program as comprehensive as you wish by analyzing the nutritional value of thousands of labeled and unlabeled foods with touch tone ease.
Iconoculture: Brooklyn, New York’s Habana Outpost restaurant combines Latin American food, environmentally friendly operations and community activism.
One of a chain of three restaurants, Habana Outpost is an avant-garde eco-eatery and gathering place for neighbors, environmentalists and artists. The solar-powered restaurant has a courtyard with recycled plastic picnic benches and uses plates made of sugar cane and biodegradable cornstarch cups.
Experts on living a green lifestyle conduct workshops before audiences enjoying Cuban and Mexican dishes. Local filmmakers show their short movies every Sunday. A Kids Corner features coloring books. A flea market takes place every Saturday.
Combining the cachet of Latino tastes with the active awareness of sustainable causes attracts an educated, upscale crowd with disposable income. Some of the most innovative businesses incorporate Latino tastes as part of their business plan.
TrendCentral: From the brand best known for their hardcore rubber outsoles comes a strange yet incredibly cool looking shoe — the FiveFingers. Catering to those outdoor sports fans who'd rather go barefoot, these glove-like shoes allow everyone from runners and kayakers to surfers, climbers and yogis to safely enjoy their activities while at the same time, retaining the sensation of being barefoot with no footwear constraints. Claiming to increase balance, agility, and posture, the variety of styles cater to both sports enthusiasts and the casual hiker, and perhaps, the design-savvy shoe addict as well.
They are made of wood and look like a traditional No. 2, but these pencils work more like a pen. The tip is metal, not lead, and what comes out is liquid graphite. For kids who don’t like stubby pencils, here’s the best part: no more sharpening!
Cellular News: A record label is launching a service that enables music fans to get information about music, simply by taking a photo of the CD case and sending it via MMS to their server.
MMS & Buy is about impulse purchase through picture taking: You are looking at a CD in the store or passing by a promo poster. Aim your mobile, send the picture as MMS, immediately get ringtones, video clips, concert tickets and further information about the music.
The company says that the service is based on image recognition engine initially developed by DSPV, and supports recognition of printed and electronic media, TV/ LCD screens, CD/DVD covers, Posters and T-Shirts
Why is it so hard to wake up to a normal alarm clock? Because a normal alarm clock can't detect where you are in your sleep cycle — a continuous cycle from deep sleep, to brief almost-awake moments, and back to deep sleep again. Occasionally, your alarm may catch you at an optimal, almost-awake moment and you wake up feeling refreshed, but usually you grope for the snooze button waking up tired and groggy.
Sleeptracker puts an end to that tired feeling. Once you set its alarm window, it monitors your body and continuously looks for your optimal waking times so it can wake you at just the right moment. Imagine not feeling tired in the morning and getting a few extra minutes out of your day.
Popgadget: The iStraw is a lightweight polycarbonate straw fitted with a special membrane, which uses micro-filtration technology to clean your water. If you've tried chlorine tablets, you know how icky the taste can be, and with the iStraw there's no aftertaste. The company sent one for me to try out so I can attest that the water tastes great (well, as well as tap water can.)
iStraw is handy for personal use to help protect you from waterborne bacteria and protozoa that may be present in drinking water -- whether you're backpacking, camping, sightseeing,or just sipping cocktails in a foreign country. By filtering up to 500 litres of water, it will be some time before you have to change the cartridge.
Springwise: Combining three unremitting consumer trends—convenience, organics and health—YoZone by YoNaturals is a vending machine dedicated to organic products. Based in San Diego, YoNaturals offers an alternative to vending machines that are typically stocked with junk food.
Engadget: And you thought non-stick chewing gum was the heat. Turns out, Coca Cola may be plotting a new version of Sprite that actually chills itself upon opening. Apparently, the drink has to be kept at a specified temperature before being snapped up, and once the oh-so-thirsty consumer pops the top, "a mechanism inside creates ice made from the drink, so it is not diluted." Reportedly, the beverage would sensibly be called Sprite Super Chilled, and if it does indeed hit the UK (and prove successful) by "early next year," the technology could then be passed along to Coke, Diet Coke or even "super cold alcoholic drinks, particularly beers."
MobileCrunch: The famous, and seldom attributed quote “I don’t know art, but I know what I like” probably holds true for most of us. I run into very few professional art critics in my daily grind, but everyone and their brother will tell me why opinion on art is wrong. But in fairness I’m more likely to head to the Arms and Armor Gallery at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art than just about anyplace else. And I’ve never been to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, because it sounded a tad… boring.
BusinessWeek: France is famous for its relaxed attitude to affairs of the heart (and loins). Unlike in the Anglo-Saxon world, the existence of extra-marital affairs -- from the fictional Madame Bovary to former President Francois Mitterrand -- is taken for granted there. French men even have a term for their mistresses: Le cinq á sept (the 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.). Now French adulterers are being offered a discreet and tailor-made service to help them indulge in their dalliances without getting caught.
Creative Match: An observational study and consumer workshops revealed just how peckish people get when they see and taste this delicious, healthy snack and Ziggurat Brands. The new Munchy Seeds tubs will be launched in September, feature a host of hungry birds created by hand models and a skilled body painter.
BBC News: The UK's big five mobile phone firms have switched on a payment system that turns handsets into digital wallets. Called PayForIt, the scheme is designed for those buying goods and services with a value of up to £10.
Iconoculture: Brooklyn, New York’s Habana Outpost restaurant combines Latin American food, environmentally friendly operations and community activism. 
TrendCentral: From the brand best known for their hardcore rubber outsoles comes a strange yet incredibly cool looking shoe — 
Why is it so hard to wake up to a normal alarm clock? Because a normal alarm clock can't detect where you are in your sleep cycle — a continuous cycle from deep sleep, to brief almost-awake moments, and back to deep sleep again. Occasionally, your alarm may catch you at an optimal, almost-awake moment and you wake up feeling refreshed, but usually you grope for the snooze button waking up tired and groggy.
Popgadget: The iStraw is a lightweight polycarbonate straw fitted with a special membrane, which uses micro-filtration technology to clean your water. If you've tried chlorine tablets, you know how icky the taste can be, and with the iStraw there's no aftertaste. The company sent one for me to try out so I can attest that the water tastes great (well, as well as tap water can.)