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Another week, another inspiring selection of new business ideas from around the world: team buying in Malaysia, fresh baby food from Sweden and the United States, a system that turns any cell phone into a personal scribe, a bottle cap that lets consumers slam flavour and supplements into their drink, and more. Our next edition is due on 25 April 2007. In the meantime, check out our daily postings on www.springwise.com, send us your tips, and please don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues about us. Much appreciated! |
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Giving customers the opportunity to learn a few words of Korean or Portuguese while en route to Seoul or São Paulo, Air France introduced in-flight language instruction on selected flights this month. An interactive audiovisual language program developed by Berlitz, the service works on regular in-flight entertainment screens. Passengers can learn and practice the basics of 23 different languages, in four main lesson categories: numbers, dates, words and dialogue. JAL and Singapore Airlines also offer Berlitz Word Traveller as part of their in-flight entertainment package, and Virgin Atlantic has experimented with Japanese and Spanish lessons. It's a great example of trendwatching.com's status skills trend. As many consumers are demonstrating a value shift in status from passive consumption to mastering skills, smart companies are offering their customers the opportunity to add to their skill set. Similar initiatives include BMW's Performance Driving Schools, the Sony Digital University or the Viking Cooking School. Watch and learn! Websites: www.airfrance.com - www.jal.com - www.singaporeair.com - www.virginatlantic.com Spotted by: Sophie Schmitt
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Women in the United States can now sign up to test-drive new products in exchange for their honest opinions and reviews at SheSpeaks.com. Similar to Cherrypicka, which we recently highlighted, SheSpeaks is an online forum for product reviews. Only at SheSpeaks, there's no cost for product testers, and products are chosen for reviewers based on their interests. (At Cherrypicka, members do the picking.) And as the name indicates, SheSpeaks is for women only, which isn't surprising since women control over USD 5 trillion in spending in the United States and are responsible for 83% of all consumer purchases. Here's how it works: when users sign up, they complete a questionnaire about their interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes. SheSpeaks selects an appropriate product match, which the members receive in two to three weeks. Products are theirs to keep, as they try them out in their own homes and as part of their everyday lives. In exchange, members provide their candid feedback online on the SheSpeaks website. Discussion boards allow testers to exchange views and opinions with other women who have tested the same products. And after a test is complete, they can get the scoop on how their reviews may have impacted a product before it goes to market, which creates a nice feedback loop. Membership at SheSpeaks is free, and the site also offers free products, special offers and valuable coupons for members to pass onto their friends. Not only does this form of tryvertising equal efficient and effective product research for manufacturers, but it's a great way for them to connect directly with their intended markets. Product testing and sampling combined with an online community: definitely a concept that easily could expand to other product categories, countries and demographics. As long as opinions aren't filtered or censored ;-) Website: www.shespeaks.com Spotted by: Kare Anderson
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A patent pending package design, the VIZcap allows consumers to release vitamins and other supplements into water just before they drink it. The technology was developed in response to what VIZdrinks considers to be underperforming sport and health drinks, which lose their potency while bottles and cans sit on store shelves. VIZcaps avoid that problem by storing the vitamins and supplements in a sealed chamber in the cap. To prepare their drink, consumers remove a seal, press the cap's plunger, hear a 'pop' and watch the ingredients fizz their way into the water. (The website has a video showing the action.) The cap works with standard bottle sizes and can be installed on any bottling line. Not just for sports drinks, VIZcaps can also deliver syrups, freeze-dried crystals, baby formula and even over-the-counter medicines. To reduce the number of plastic bottles used, multiple VIZcap closures can be used with a single, refillable water bottle. Springwise usually only features products and services that have already been launched. But since AGFL (VIZcap's inventors and designers) are actively seeking partners, we thought those of you in F&B might like to explore the concept. Make sure to drop us a line if you're about to market the first VIZzy drink! Website: www.vizdrink.com Spotted by: Paulo Vischi Related: Electro-fizz tablets for athletes
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Turning any cell phone into an eager personal scribe, Jott transforms spoken messages into text. After signing up for the service online and validating their phone number and email address, users dial Jott’s toll free number (877-568-8486), say ‘me’ or the name of a contact or group of contacts, speak for up to 30 seconds and then hang up. Jott transcribes the spoken words into writing, and sends the message to its destination as an email or text message. Transcription usually takes a few minutes, or up to 20 minutes during peak hours. The original audio message is retained, and is linked to in the email for reference. The service is deceptively simple, and lends itself to countless applications. It can be used to leave notes to oneself, from a reminder to buy a carton of milk, to capturing a brilliant idea. Or to draft emails, memos, or the next chapter of a novel while driving home from work. Lawyers and doctors, accustomed to speaking their correspondence and notes, can dictate on the fly. Intriguingly, Jott has humans transcribing voice messages. Since phones are often used in noisy environments, and Jott’s founders didn’t want members to have to train speech recognition software, Jott uses a mix of machines and overseas agents that also work on medical dictations. For privacy protection, agents have no way of associating personally identifiable information with the recorded jotts they’re transcribing (unless a users makes that information part of the recording). Jott is currently free, but will at one point offer members the choice between a free, ad-supported version, or a premium version for a fee. Which could bring in tidy revenues, since this is exactly the type of service that users are more than willing to pay for once they’ve incorporated it into their daily routine. Jott is only available in the United States and Canada. So, partner with them and/or set up your own local version. Offshore outsourcing will be more difficult if your language is, say, Swedish or Japanese, but that’s a challenge to overcome. And if you work in (mobile) telecom, we’re sure you can come up with a few interesting implications and appealing opportunities. Website: www.jott.com Spotted by: Jason Williams
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While organic and gourmet baby food aren’t new, they’ve mostly been limited to jarred varieties. Start-ups in two categories are widening the options for parents who want to feed their infants something fresh, but don’t have the time or talent to prepare their own gourmet purées. They also provide inspiring examples for entrepreneurs interested in catering to this niche. Fresh First, there’s the refrigerated, prepared foods section. Following the lead of fresh convenience foods for adults, companies like Swedish Gapa are focused on creating fresh, healthy and tasty foods for tiny people. Gapa, which is Swedish for open your mouth, is conservative-free and sold in cheerful containers in Sweden’s second largest supermarket, as well as in four trendy restaurants, a smart move for reaching parents who enjoy taking their babies out for dinner. In the United States, several entrepreneurs have developed similar concepts. Californian Homemade Baby’s certified organic and kosher food for infants and toddlers is freshly made each day. Stressing an important selling point of gourmet baby foods, Homemade Baby claims that “when babies learn what real food tastes like and how good it makes their little tummies feel, they are on their way to making good food choices for life.” Californian tots can also dine on fresh organic baby foods from Bohemian Baby, available for those aged 6–15 months. Bohemian Baby offers home delivery within LA. A USD 45 start kit contains a special cooler and four jars of food. On the East Coast, Evie’s Organic Edibles delivers freshly made foods within Manhattan. Parents can select dishes from menus that vary weekly and are designed to help stimulate developing taste buds. Websites: www.gapa.se - www.homemadebaby.com - www.bohemian-baby.com - www.eviesorganicedibles.com
Frozen Gourmet, ready-made baby food also extends to the frozen food aisle, where inspiration can be found from Mom Made, Plum Organics, Happy Baby and NummyNums, all offering food that’s organic and flash-frozen, locking in flavour and nutrients. Most of these brands are relatively small and regional start-ups, founded by parents who couldn’t find foods they wanted to feed their babies and toddlers. We haven’t spotted any of the major manufacturers venturing into fresh or frozen baby food, so now’s the time to start your own line of delectable and healthy dinners for wee ones (by the time you're up and running, they'll be ready to buy you! ;-). As Happy Baby puts it, "think outside the jar." How to make your brand stand out? Beautiful and informative packaging will obviously help win shelf space at upmarket supermarkets, and Gapa’s idea of selling to restaurants is clever. As are Happy Baby’s combined packs, containing two flavours each, and all of the convenient frozen portion concepts that can go straight from freezer to microwave. Last but not least, home delivery is a good way to get this type of business up and running. So get cooking! ;-) Websites: www.mommadefoods.com - www.plumorganics.com - www.happybabyfood.com - www.nummynums.com Spotted by: Okee Williams Related: Halal baby food
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Beverly Hills-born DoMyStuff.com is an online marketplace where busy people can quickly find others to do their chores, from mowing the lawn or picking up dry cleaning to researching a cruise or planning a party. How it works? Someone posts a task, choosing a relevant category and describing the task in detail. Businesses and individuals then bid for the task. Bids include the total cost to complete a task, when it will be completed and information on the service they will provide. The customer reviews the bids and chooses an assistant. Customers can view in-depth information on the service providers, including their names, locations and the ratings they've been awarded by past employers. In addition to the bidding system, DoMyStuff has integrated several other features that take it beyond posting casual jobs on Craigslist or other boards. First of all, a rating system lets users share information on the quality of service providers. Which is important, considering many chores take place in or around a customer's home, making safety and reliability a key issue. Secondly, to establish trust between buyers and providers, DoMyStuff provides an online escrow system that allows customers to forward payment for a task into an escrow account. While the task is being completed, neither customer nor assistant have access to the funds, but the assistant is able to see that the account has been funded for a specific task. Once the job has been completed to the customer's satisfaction, the funds are released to the assistant. Which protects both buyers and sellers. DoMyStuff's charges service providers a commission if they're awarded a job. Commission rates vary according to a job's category and total cost, ranging from 7–10%. The service is free for buyers, who have the option of paying a small fee to highlight their project, bringing it to the top of a category (much like Google's sponsored links). The company is currently focused on Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. One to start up locally before they go global? Website: www.domystuff.com Spotted by: Josh Reynolds
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What could be better than having an insider walk you through his or her favourite spots in a new city or travel destination? How about having access to a whole library of such tours that can be downloaded right to your iPod or MP3 player? That's what Chicago-based AudioSnacks is offering consumers. Users can download audio tours of select destinations and can put up their own tours for purchase. “AudioSnack is a place to find, purchase, download, listen to and appreciate audio tours that people just like you have created to share, and a place where you can do the same for others.” Tours are modestly priced—some are even free. Many feature downloadable maps to accompany the audio footage, and customers can listen to a sample snippet of a tour before deciding to purchase. Already there are tours available for destinations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and more. Customers get a unique perspective and insights: they can take an audio tour through Chicago with a Jewish hip-hop poet, for instance, or see the sights in Seattle with a hot DJ. Since members are encouraged to create and upload their own tours, the library is likely to grow quickly. The company is also building a new section, offering campus tours for (upcoming) freshmen "who look lost no matter how many times they've looked at their maps." While AudioSnacks isn't the only company offering MP3 tours (see Soundwalk, TourCaster, Tourist Tracks and others), letting users upload and sell their own tours makes for an interesting twist. It's a great example of Generation C(ash): consumers are producing valuable content, and expect to be rewarded accordingly. Definitely one to set up in your own country or language. Website: www.audiosnacks.com
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Last month, we wrote about the Chinese phenomenon known as tuangou, or team buying. In a nutshell, people interested in buying a certain product get together online, and then storm into a physical store at a coordinated time to negotiate a bulk discount. Tuangou is a prime example of crowd clout: consumers using their collective power to get what they want. A new website in Malaysia does something similar, but sticks to buying and selling online. Like tuangou, Tumpang, which is Malay for pooling, makes it easy for buyers to pool their resources to get a bulk discount on everything from fabric freshener to flat screen televisions. However, Tumpang has added an interesting twist on the seller's side. Much like eBay, anyone can post an item for sale, paying Tumpang a listing fee. The seller states what the discounted price will be and how many buyers are needed. Sellers can be regular retailers who want to offload stock, but Tumpang's blog also lists advice for incidental bulk dealers. Which could be anyone hoping to make an extra ringgit by gathering a group of buyers on Tumpang, and then placing an order directly with a manufacturer in China or Korea. Securing buyers before buying merchandise creates a low-risk form of alternative retail. Which should be music to any minipreneur's ears ;-) Website: www.tumpang.com Spotted by: Webwatch Malaysia
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No worries. We've got you covered. All of last week's articles are listed below. And don't forget—you can access everything we've published in our idea database, which is conveniently organized by industry. Enjoy!
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