Really Really cool Boo Day costume – must be a Purdue engineer!

Have A Happy Friday: These Duckies Did

Repositioning/Repurposing Products

Sometimes entrepreneurs can reposition and/or repurpose their products for different target markets with slight modification. Likely as not, it’s the result of unintended consequences; the intended target market doesn’t buy but other markets do and use the product/service in a way not envisioned by the originators. This blog is about a subject that I was personally involved in, what is now known as the Whirley-Popper.

From Amazon.com

Way back in time on a foreign planet called earth and way before the internet was invented – yes, people actually walked upright then, a peddler named Bill Felknor started a little company in Nashville, TN called Felknor International. It had one product in two forms, both popped popcorn. Now Bill just like to sell things, and knew squat about manufacturing or other intricacies of running a business – he just like to sell stuff. His poppers were at that time manufactured in Mexico and Taiwan. Needless to say, quality of product at that time greatly suffered, and shipping times were measured in months. A company that I was a consultant to took Bill under their wing [eventually took the product line too, but that's another story], brought all the parts and pieces back to Monticello, IN to a temporary facility, and made what they could from the remainer of Bill’s outsourcing attempt. At the same time, a Purdue Industrial Engineer was hired, and he put together a proper line to source parts and assemble what is now known as the Whirley-popper. It was off and running in stores like Williams-Sonoma etc. It is still being sold in countless stores across the country as this Google search indicates. However, just how many popcorn poppers can one sell?

Enter repurposing of the basic Whiley-Pop by morecoffee.com. Morecoffee drilled a 5/32″ hole in the lid, inserted a basic thermometer, and viola, what was once a lowly popcorn popper is now a custom coffee roaster. We all know there is a large class of people out there that “normal” coffee does not do the trick for, my wife included So now, by simply adding raw coffee beans to their repurposed popcorn popper, coffee aficionados can whirl their own custom beans/brew. Makes me feel good to be an American. Hank

Entrepreneurs Never Give Up – BbB

When faced with failure, a true entrepreneur will pick themselves up and find a new passion to drive their life.

One such entrepreneur is Sigrid Olsen.  Sigrid began her career as an artist making and selling hand-printed textiles near her home in Rockport Massachusetts.   Her prints were inspired by nature and featured leaves, fish, shells and flowers.  What really made her wearable art appealing were her unique color combinations.  Her soothing blues and greens reflected water with a beachy feel.  Her cheerful combinations of pink and orange reminded one of a beautiful sunset.   Sigrid’s line sold well and by the late 80’s her clothing line could be found in hundreds of independently owned stores all across the country.

Even though her business was doing well, Sigrid was offered a deal she thought she couldn’t refuse by Liz Claiborne in 1999.  Instead of buying Sigrid’s company outright, Liz tempted Sigrid with a couple million dollars, a percentage of ownership and the title of creative director.  The goal was to grow the Sigrid Olsen name brand to include more than 50 Sigrid Olsen stores across the country with sales of over 50 million dollars.  That goal was achieved, but less than 10 years later, in 2008; Claiborne closed all 54 stores, left Sigrid unemployed, and remained in control of her trademark name.  Still worse, Sigrid had signed a non-compete agreement which prevents her from designing another clothing line until 2010 and she will never be able to use her own name on any apparel product.  Liz Claiborne instead, has the right to use Sigrid’s name on any thing she wishes; even if it’s dog poop. ­­­­

With a fighting entrepreneurial spirit Sigrid’s experience, along with a bout with breast cancer,  “ made me want to make sure that the years I have left I’m doing what makes me happy and that I don’t have to spend a lot of time doing what other people tell me to do.”  So, Sigrid is happily beginning again with a small art studio, retail store and website where she is quickly growing a following of both new and old customers who love her unique style. You can read more about Sigrid at this link: and view a clip about her here [nice video!}.

Her path hasn’t been an easy one.  What could Sigrid have done differently? Beth Carroll [aka, BbB] My profuse thanks again to Beth. Hank

VW Targets iPhone Users

“Volkswagen of America is launching the newest-generation GTI exclusively via an iPhone app, a cost-efficient approach the automaker said is a first for the industry.” [link] This demographic [see graphic below] results in  “a highly targeted strategy to directly reach the GTI customer, a tech-savvy, social-media activist who spends time on mobile devices, most often iPhones.” So instead of spending millions, like sixty, to roll out the 2006 GTi, how about $500,000 for the game FREEMINT Real Racing GTI.

“Volkswagen is throwing in a special incentive. You can win one of the six limited-edition black GTI MkVI so this game has just become a lot more interesting. In the following six weeks you can race the 2010 GTIs as much as you want. The best scores are uploaded into an online database and each week the best virtual driver will win one of the six cars available. The application will also let you send Twitter messages straight from the game and upload videos of your best races to YouTube so you’ll be able to show everyone the race that got you a brand new 2010 VW GTI.” [link]

So I downloaded the app for this blog entry. See the embedded video below. In my defense, I had trouble driving the GTi and staying within the video view at the same time. BTW, in the past I’ve owned and driven a GTi; nice scooter! So here’s the deal: VW is betting rolling out the new 2010 VW GTi via an iPhone app will be a winner. We report, you decide. Hank

Five Fingers – Going Viral?

Sergey Brin, the cofounder of none less than Google, recently was videoed at the Web 2.0 conference wearing Five Fingers. What do you want to bet their sales shoot through the roof?  I’ve included some links extolling the virtues of the “shoes” and embedded a video wherein Sergey is wearing same. This boys and girls, is what virtual marketing is all about – by “accident” not on purpose. Hank

• http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/08/10/review-vibram-five-fingers-classic/
• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/05/07/vibram-five-fingers-shoes/
• http://birthdayshoes.com/

Burton D Morgan needs applicants

The Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition really really needs you to jump in the fray, especially if you are one of my students. I have a reputation to uphold here. So please help me out; get together with fellow ENTR200 or other Purdue students, and submit your initial application – pretty please. Hank

Second Mid Term Presentation + Windows 7 install sucks!

Building on yesterday’s blog, today’s blog highlights Team 7’s subject, appropriately named “DorkCorp,” whose tagline is “Fixing Your Computers..Because, We Can’t Get Dates.” The company, as you will see in the video below, was started by and is managed by Purdue Dorks, aka, engineers. They also have an interesting line of logo-ed clothing which has already captured the eye of some of my female students. They have made some obvious oversights – a 219 area code phone number [probably a cell phone of convenience], and a Hotmail contact email. Since they apparently own the domain Dork-Corp.com, you would think “Dorks” would be capable of setting up their own email account?????

But first, the continuing Windoes 7 installation saga. I tried again, and this time ran Microsoft’s Checker as suggested. It indicated it didn’t like two ATi video drivers, a label program, and a network resource driver needed updating, and the update was available. I deleted the ATi program called Catalyst from the hard drive itself, removed the label  program since I wasn’t using it anyway, did a Google for the updated driver and then installed it. About two hours later Windows 7 had successfully installed itself BUT then downloaded 15 software patches. After they were installed, I manually ran a Update Check and was handed 15 more. The third try yielded one additional update. BUT it wasn’t a clean install. I bought a brand new HP J6430C printer at Sam’s Friday – guess what, no Windows 7 drivers are available for it and the best I could ascertain “maybe November [I hope 2009]. So boys and girls, life is not as The Evil Empire would have us believe. My nephew Craig also ran into “challenges” upgrading Vista to Windows 7. Buyer beware! Hank

Mid Terms in ENTR200

This past week was Mid Terms in my Intro to Entrepreneurship & Innovation classes at Purdue University. Student teams were required to do a video interview with an entrepreneur of their choosing and present their interview in a manner that “amazed” the viewers. Today and tomorrow/Sunday, two innovative approaches will be depicted in the blog.

Today’s entry took a bland subject, Tung Ho [sorry Tung!], and sexified the interview with video skills; tomorrow’s is a Purdue student-based entry with an unusual name. A novel approach was implemented in their presentation also. Team 5’s video is below.

BTW, I purchased the academic version of Windows 7, downloaded it yesterday [little over 3 gigs] and ATTEMPTED to install same on a plain vanilla quad-core Gateway with Vista 64 bit. It churned away for hours and hours until I finally gave up and went to bed. This is while constantly receiving a screen readout that everything was progressing as planned. I woke up early this morning to a screen telling me Windows 7 couldn’t be installed and I was back in Vista. So much for Microsoft’s great Windows 7  rollout. Sucks! The evil empire is alive and well! I bet there will be more stories like this.  Hank

Have A Happy Friday: When…..

Due to the recent interest in how health care is affecting senior citizens, I offer the following slide show as proof they can get along on their own. Hank