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This week's selection of new business ideas includes Max Brenner's new chocolate culture, luxurious restrooms in Paris, help for Dutch kidpreneurs, a convenience store for women in Japan, and more. |
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Dutch Postbank (part of the ING Group) recently started a campaign aimed at budding entrepreneurs. Children who open an Easy Blue account receive a briefcase containing materials for printing their own t-shirts (aka bizznizz attire), stickers, letterhead, flyers, and business cards. To get started, the young business person logs on to bizznizz.postbank.nl and decides what type of business he or she would like to run. Postbank suggests washing cars, walking dogs, household chores and mowing lawns, as well as an intriguing 'entertainment' category. Although we hardly want to promote child labour, it can't hurt to nurture young people's inner entrepreneurs, teaching them about money, responsibility and the ABCs of doing business. It'll keep 'em busy during those long summer holidays, too. ;-) Website: http://bizznizz.postbank.nl |
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Located at 26 Champs-Elysées, POINTWC offers luxurious surroundings for 'une pause pipi'. For the modest sum of EUR 1, members of the public can enter an oasis that's nothing like an ordinary public restroom. Customers are welcomed by smartly dressed bathroom attendants, who also sell items in the boutique WC's boutique shop. Impulse buys vary from diapers to designer toilet-paper holders. Needless to say, the bathrooms look (and smell) impeccable, and are cleaned after every single use. Women are provided with a powder room -- a '21st century boudoir' -- which offers hotel-sized toiletries, ample mirrors and good lighting. Each bathroom has a different theme: classic chic, ethnic, zen, high-tech, etc. This works well to display products by POINTWC's sponsor: the Roca-Laufen Group, one of the world's largest manufacturers of sanitary ware and tiles.
Naturally, this would also be a great setting for tryvertising, especially for makeup and skin care brands. POINT WC isn't currently partnering with anyone other than Roca-Laufen, but the company's director told us that he would love to distribute samples. Estée Lauder, Nivea, Clarins -- what are you waiting for?! ;-) The concept, which opened in June, is a smash-hit both with Parisians and tourists, and POINTWC is planning to open more points in France and abroad. Related articles: Tryvertising & flickering flames, Baby brand spaces Website: http://www.pointwc.com |
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Letting consumers recharge and relax, while very subtly showing off your (or a partner's) wares: that sounds like a prime example of what trendwatching.com has dubbed
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Spy Media, a Silicon Valley-based news photo marketplace, lets both amateur and professional photographers sell their photos at a price they set. They've just added a new twist: buyers can request a photo of an event, place, person, product or whatever, and place a bounty on the image. Buyer sets the price, and the first photographer with the right image gets paid. Current bounties include "Would like a picture of my first home once owned in SJ, CA" (USD 20), and "Red Bull Contest - The Photo with the Prettiest Girl and a Red Bull" (USD 100). This takes the citizen journalism model (which we've written about before: ScooptWords, Reporter.co.za, and OhmyNews) and turns it into an online photo classified system. Anyone, anywhere can tap into the global brain, and can send photographers on 'image errands'. Besides news-related bounties, one can imagine FMCG companies requesting real-world shots of in-store marketing efforts, or potential homebuyers looking for realistic photos of a property's surroundings. Not to mention all the other errands you can get minipreneurs to do... Time to start up a global errands intermediary, with easy access to members from Bangkok to Boston? Website: http://www.spymedia.com |
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Springwise loves forward-looking ventures that manage to stick around until their time has truly come. Like webcastmywedding.net, which broadcasts weddings to a couple's friends and family unable to come over from (or to) far flung places. Customers need a video camera, laptop, and high speed online access. The company then charges USD 395 for setting up a live stream of the event, support for up to 25 simultaneous viewers (who are sent a url and password), and an on-demand archive of the wedding for 10 days. More streams and an annual archive account can be had for an extra fee. Business is thriving, thanks to a powerful mix of tech and social developments: everyone is online; the infrastructure is in place (the web is finally about broadband and video: thank you, youtube!); more and more couples choose to get married in exotic locations far from most of their friends and family; globe-spanning immigration means family members literally live everywhere; while jet setting couples have friends in every major city in the world. Not to mention Generation MySpace, who, when they eventually choose to get married, will have virtual friends in every country with an online connection. This is one of those simple, timely ideas that are ripe to be copied to virtually every country in the world. Perfect for minipreneurs, too. Make it ‘virtual’ like webcastmywedding.com, or go for the premium product, providing a fully equipped online video crew for couples who want the full deal. A match made in online heaven? Website: http://www.webcastmywedding.net |
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Whether you call it the Power of Us, Customer-Made or Crowdsourcing, new business concepts continue to pop up that involve large groups of consumers pre-funding an artist's album, pre-purchasing an olive farmer's harvest, buying shares in a whiskey distillery, or colonising a remote island. The project was conceived and is directed by Brighton-based digital film pioneer, Matt Hanson (who is recuperating from a head injury, which explained why the project lost a bit of momentum over the last four weeks, but he’s feeling much better now and ready to get going again). It will be funded and developed with the help of 50,000 Angels joining the Swarm to offer feedback, expertise, and funding (GBP 25 each) to finance the project's execution. The opportunity here? If you’re an entrepreneur, consider every service and every product that might be game for people-funding-power. And if you work for a Big Brand, consider these grassroots projects a fun opportunity to diversify your partnership strategies: get in at the beginning, sponsor, support and participate in what may well be the Next Big Thing in your neck of the woods. Sony to sponsor A Swarm Of Angel’s camera needs? (In a delicate manner, of course, these projects were not conceived with the goal of pleasing big brands.) Oh well, you get the picture. Website: http://www.aswarmofangels.com Forward, comment or link to this entry » Spotted by: Nick Underhill |
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Combining what our sister site trendwatching.com calls ‘Forever Trends’ (as in trends that will remain trends forever), Japanese convenience store Happily exclusively targets women. The thinking behind this concept? Convenience in a time-compressed world is priceless, and products specifically tailored to, oh, half of the earth’s population, make sense. In Happily’s own words, the stores are ‘of, for and by women’. The first outlet, located in Tokyo’s Toranomon business district, offers cosmetics and nutritional supplements. Only 20 percent of the products are the same as those at conventional am/pm outlets. Clerks are all women, except at night. To enable women (and especially female office managers) to have fun and relax while shopping, the store not only offers a wide range of skin-care products and dietary supplements, but also boasts a lavish powder room with a dressing table, full-length mirror, and stool for changing stockings. Aromatic oils are used to scent the air. The Happily store is owned by am/pm, which last year also launched am/pm enta, a chain of outlets that offer DVD rentals and book sales in addition to traditional convenience store fare. Like so many other concepts from Japan, a strong focus tells a story straight away: it’s not exactly hard to understand what Happily is about, and that’s a holy grail in a world of INNOVATION OVERLOAD. Check out a few other concepts that cater to women only: beer, taxi cabs, banks, tools, and see which trends you can add to the mix to create something new. Or just bring Happily to New York, Frankfurt, Singapore… Female office workers around the world will cherish a bit of customised love. Website:http://www.ampm.co.jp/newbusiness/happily |
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Following our previous articles on chocolate's renaissance, another spotting came in from Australia and New York: Max Brenner ("chocolate by the bald man") has set up shop near Union Square. A second NYC store will be opening soon at Second Avenue and Ninth Street. Max Brenner, an Israeli pastry chef and confectioner who trained in Europe, opened his first chocolate bar in Israel in 1996. Over the past decade, another 19 bars followed in Australia, Israel, Singapore, the Philippines, and now the US. Not content with producing and selling high quality chocolate products, Brenner is aiming to create a new chocolate culture worldwide. The centre of this new chocolate culture, Max Brenner chocolate bars are open from morning til late, changing throughout the day. In the mornings, soft jazz music plays while people hug hot chocolate in their hands; in the evenings, the mood becomes more sensual as the music changes, candles are lit and the crowd becomes more intimate. The brand is heavy on storytelling, and on ceremony. Brenner wants to change the way people experience chocolate, turning consumption into a ceremony, with its own special utensils, textures and tastes, much like wine and coffee. The chocolate drinks menu spans four pages, including chocolate granitas and frozen chocolate cocktails for hot summer days. Special cups were created for different ways of drinking chocolate. Shown above are the Hug Mug, shaped for hugging in both hands; Alice, the 'ultimate' milkshake cup; and the Suckao, a special cup with a metal straw and candle underneath designed for preparing thick hot chocolate from hot milk and flakes of chocolate. A small shop accompanies every Max Brenner bar, selling truffle creams, pralines, pastries and cookies, as well as the company's signature mugs and cups. Although the company states that they're currently not seeking franchisees or business partners, it's definitely one to keep an eye on. And if you can't join them: find yourself another snobmoddity to turn into a culture and a worldwide empire! Website: http://www.maxbrenner.com.au Website: http://www.maxbrenner.com Forward, comment or link to this entry » Spotted by: Lorna Marty |
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