Steve Jobs Stepping Down From Apple - Sad End of an Era

Last week, Steve Jobs announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Apple Computer.

I felt sad when I heard the news because of his recent history of pancreatic cancer and having a liver transplant. If he stays alive, and can contribute as chairman of Apple, then it is ok. But, I'm worried that he might be terminal. I hope I'm wrong.

Apple ran into trouble after Jobs left the first time. But, because of that experience, I have heard that Jobs has gone out of his way to imprint his philosophy into the company.

I really admire Steve Jobs - he has two great qualities for success:

1. He can anticipate what people will want.

2. He practices zen minimalist design - The key isn't what the device does, it's what it doesn't do.

This last quality is especially at risk, now that Jobs has stepped down. It's hard to consistently exercise restraint, and push back on engineers, sales people, and marketers who want to cram in the latest and greatest features found in competitor's products.

Apple under Jobs didn't invent the mp3 music player or the smart phone - but they conquered these markets by concentrating on a few essential requirements and perfected them. These self-imposed limits benefited the consumer by making the devices simple and robust to operate.

Apple's products compared to the competitors' are like haiku vs. serious prose. They touch you like a light breeze and then leave you free, instead of enveloping you.

There's no straining or effort required to integrate Apple's products into your life.

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How Can Two Unrelated Businesses Cross Promote Each Other?

Internet Marketing expert James Brausch "retired" to South and Central America, but he consulted with some brick and mortar businesses there and he advised two of them - a taco restaurant and a spa - to cross promote each other.

He had the taco restaurant give out, with each purchase, a coupon good for a free 10 minute back massage. He had the spa give out to each paid customer a coupon for a free burrito.

These coupons were not announced before hand, so customers did not know that they would receive them until after purchase. By only giving out coupons to paid customers, he increased the chance that, when the customer used the free coupon, he would be more inclined to purchase from the other business.

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Grant Achatz's Next and Doughnut Vault: How To Succeed In Business By Playing Hard To Get?

I was reading in the Chicago Tribune about two new restaurants that are thriving despite (or maybe because) they make it hard to buy their food:

1. In order to make a reservation at "Next", you have to buy a non-refundable ticket from their website. There are 14,000 names on the email waiting list, so tickets are going for up to $600 on Craigslist. Remember, this is just to get in - the actual dinner cost is separate.

2. Even more intriguing, a small doughnut shop called "Doughnut Vault" (just a order/pickup window in an alley) opened in Chicago's River North area without much publicity, and they sell only coffee, and 5 kinds of expensive ($2 - $3 each) doughnuts.

But the lines are jammed every morning. People start lining up by 7:30 am, but the shop has no set hours. They could open at 8 am or 9 am. They send out a Twitter just before opening time. Once open, they sell out fast, because they only make so many.

The Tribune interviewed one woman who lined up for hours twice, and didn't get any doughnuts.

With "Next", it is a bit understandable, because the chef / owner is Grant Achatz - who is a celebrity chef. His "Alinea" restaurant has three Michelin stars and is considered the best restaurant in the United States. He even gets his $100,000 Viking ovens almost for free, in exchange for them to mention his name in their marketing materials.

"Doughnut Vault" is owned by Brendan Sodikoff, a veteran of famous restaurants like Alan Ducasse, who also owns Gilt Bar and Maude's Liquor Bar. But, this fact isn't advertised. In fact, there wasn't much publicity or advertising.

What are the business lessons in this?

1. People are attracted and interested in the mysterious and exclusive.

2. Being hard to attain is not the same as anti-customer service or substandard products. People rave about the food quality at both places. Sodikoff told the Tribune that he doesn't like making people wait, and he makes up to 600 doughnuts a day.

3. Restaurants and food tend to be fads. Especially with "Doughnut Vault", it is possible that there will be no wait in 6 months, or it might even have closed down.

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Reverse Global Marketing: Disney's Duffy Bear

Usually, Disney creates new characters through their movies and TV shows. Then, they create merchandise and introduce the characters to their Disney World theme park. Finally, they take the character global.

Duffy Bear is different, and is a good example of how the global economy doesn't always revolve around the U.S.

Duffy Bear has never been in a TV or movie. Originally, he was introduced at Disney World in Orlando (as Disney Bear), but flopped.

In Japan, where teddy bears are a cultural symbol, Tokyo Disney renamed him Duffy Bear, and they made up a back story that Minnie Mouse created him to keep Mickey company on his travels. He called him Duffy because he carried him in a duffel bag.

Because of the back story, Duffy became a big collectible hit with young Japanese women. Now, Duffy has gone from Japan back to Orlando - along with a long line of merchandise.

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NBC Interviewed Me Along With Director Oliver Stone For An Article On "Wall Street 2", And Mentioned My Book "Stock Trading Riches"

Here is the interview on MSNBC.com and on NBC Philadelphia.  The interview was syndicated to all the local NBC affiliate websites. The reporter interviewed me last week.  A lot of the interview is with Oliver Stone, but they interviewed me as an expert for background, because I traded stocks and wrote "Stock Trading Riches". They put two paragraphs from my interview into the article. I'm amazed I got this publicity.  But it seems my book developed a following among certain hedge funds, and I'm getting some attention. I knew at least one hedge fund read my book, because they commissioned me to develop some software / spreadsheets on my system.

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Switching "Stock Trading Riches" Description Back

Based on reader feedback, I'm switching the description of my book "Stock Trading Riches" on both my publisher's site and on Amazon.com back to the original:

In today's world of instant trade execution, sophisticated analysis, global markets, and 24/7 news, traders and investors still routinely fail to beat the market. The brutal fact is that a free market is about price discovery. A market works like an organism - "consuming" new fundamental and technical information and rendering it ineffective.

A 30-day moving average may make money for a while - until the market "digests" this parameter. Today's report on CNBC is already reflected in the price of the stock. Only 1% of traders are superstars who can consistently re-adjust, find, and exploit new information. The average trader or investor needs a simple system that is flexible and robust - that does not depend on the market moving in trends, or creating chart patterns.

Praveen Puri developed his system after becoming fascinated with the idea of a pure Zen trading system that would use no news reports, indicators, charts, or parameters to distract from Now. He developed a simple and powerful stock trading system that uses a mathematical re-balancing formula to buy low and sell high.

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New Description for Stock Trading Riches

I've updated the description for my book "Stock Trading Riches" on both my publisher's site and on Amazon.com.

I wanted to emphasize less on the idea of zen minimalism, and more on the fact that it is a practical and successful stock trading system.

I really want to share the system that turned my trading around and allowed me to become a successful investor.

Here is the new description (it will take a few days to appear on Amazon.com):

This book introduces a simple and elegant mathematical formula for successfully investing in the stock market. It does not depend on the market moving in trends or creating chart patterns.

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Mentioned in Article on FINS (A Wall Street Journal Website)

I was interviewed by a Wall Street Journal reporter for their FINS financial website. They even mention my book Stock Trading Riches! http://www.fins.com/Finance/Articles/SB128353087745234097/The-Five-Best-and-Worst-Things-About-Telecommuting-The-Finance-Edition?Type=0&link=FINS_hp_article_photo

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An Example of a Real Niche Website Business

As my regular readers know, I like to spotlight interesting niche websites.

As an advocate for applying simplicity and minimalism to business and financial success, I really believe the way to internet marketing success is to have tightly focused, simple, one-page websites.

Today, I'm spotlighting a really niche website called 1tbharddrive.org.uk - all they sell are 1tb hard drives!

This is a brilliant idea for two important reasons:

1. By including the drive size in the main keyword, they will attract visitors who are ready to buy - rather than those researching hard drives.

2. By presenting only one product (hard drive) at only one size (1 tb), they eliminate indecision on the part of visitors - making it more likely for them to buy.

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Two New Testimonials For My "Stock Trading Riches" Book

 I received some more nice feed back about my book Stock Trading Riches:

"Your book is very good.  I like this approach better than Robert Lichello's A.I.M. I hope you have great success.  There is so much misinformation in the media and in print on investing.  Rebalancing to a constant value is sensible and very simple to do - free from emotion and bias."

Mark H., Dallas, TX


"...It's not a long book. But it is well-edited to "just what you need to know". Puri doesn't give you a bunch of extra crap and promotional hype. He tells you how to implement the system, take it or leave it."

Jake W., Anchorage, AK

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Clothing Drive

An example of viral marketing... http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1125919467?bctid=63259762001

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How Proper Marketing Saved Zestra - the Female Viagra

Forbes has an interesting article called Passion Play, which tells the story of how two female ex-consultants bought the maker of Zestra out of bankruptcy, and used female focus groups to change the way it was marketed.

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"Stock Trading Riches" Now On Sale at Barnes and Noble

My book has been picked up by Ingram for wider distribution - so it is not just available from Amazon.com any more. I just saw that Barnes and Noble is selling it.  They have it on sale for $8.63 (28% off). Here is the link.  It's exciting!

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Clever Marketing Refrigerator Magnet

I'm visiting my sister-in-law in Newburgh, Indiana, and I just saw a magnet on her refrigerator for their local tax preparer.

The magnet is clever - it is a miniature 1040 form that has the name, address, and phone number of the company.

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Simple Presentations

The author of the Excellence in Presentations blog believes in simplifying your PowerPoint presentations to only having one idea per slide - with a short phrase and a picture.

Always avoid using bullets.

In this way, the presenter will be forced to converse with his/her audience, rather than recite ideas, point by point.

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Good Post on Simplicity and Marketing

This marketing blog has a good post on simplicity applied to marketing.

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2 Examples of Simple, Minimal Advertising

1. "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" Book Cover.

2. Imodium AD Billboard Ad.

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Business Lessons From Holiday Inn Express

Rich Karlgaard, the editor of Forbes Magazine, recently had a blog post called "The Holiday Inn Express Solution".

In the post, Karlgaard, who travels a lot as a speaker, explained how economic conditions have made him switch from his regular hotels (Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, JW Marriott) to lower-priced ones (Residence Inn, Hyatt Place, and Holiday Inn Express). He found the new hotels surprisingly good (free wireless internet, fresh beds, flat panel TVs, self-serve breakfast buffets, etc).

Karlgaard goes on to explain how these Inns are the "Charles Schwabs" (i.e. discount brokers) of the hotel world. In other words, they are examples of disruptive technology - cheap, easy to use, focus on a simple mission, and achieve it.

He then brainstormed about the need and opportunity to apply this kind of thinking to "broken" industries like cars, banking, health care, and energy. What would be their equivalent "Holiday Inn Express?"

i.e. for the auto industry, in might be a way to configure and build cars like Dell computers.

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"David Beat Goliath" In Airline Wi-Fi by Being Simple and Small

The major U.S. Airlines (United, American, Delta, etc.) have all signed up with Aircell to offer its Gogo Wi-Fi service on its flights.

Boeing, meanwhile, scrapped its Connexion system - taking a $320 million pretax write-down of its investment.

Why did little Aircell succeed, while giant Boeing failed?

The answer is that Aircell followed the KISS principle, and kept it small and simple.

Connexion was a complicated system that bounced signals off satellites, and had 3 strikes:

1. It cost users $26.95.

2. It cost airlines $1 million per plane to install and took the plane out of service for 2 weeks.

3. It added 800 pounds to each airplane.

Aircell, on the other hand, started with the simple objectives that their system would add less than 100 pounds, would cost less than $100,000 per plane to install, and would require only one night of installation. Users would pay as little as $5.95.

They accomplished this by coming up with a simple and elegant way to cover the whole U.S. with only 92 cell towers. The only drawback is that their system will not work on overseas flights, but that is something they can work on for the next iteration.

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Burned Venture Capitalists Now Investing in Web Companies with Non-Ad Models

Forbes magazine recently had an article about how venture capitalists (VC's) are now only interested in funding start ups that do not depend on advertising for income.

They give the example of online real estate brokerage Redfin. Two years ago, VCs were not interested in the company because their revenue model was to collect fees from people buying and selling homes, rather than from ads. Today, Redfin has gotten five or 6 unsolicited calls in the last few months.

Forbes gives two reasons why the ad supported start-ups are out of favor:

1. Ad rates are down due to the recession.

2. Too many copy-cat social networking and MySpace widget companies.

The Forbes article then mentioned a Redwood City, California based start-up called Renkoo, which let people send things like virtual glasses of beer to their friends, and made money showing ads.

According to the article, in early 2008, they ceased being a viable business when their advertising rates dropped from $15 per thousand page views down to 10 cents.

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