Opportunity recognition

Offering-Market fit(Product-Market fit)

Ilkka O. Lavas

• 2 books about entrepreneurship• Partner, board member, investor

– Portfolio of 12 businesses– 10+ aquisitions done– 3 exits

• Young Entrepreneur of the year 2009 in Southern Finland –area

• 34years, 2 boys, 1 wife, 1153 fb connections, 1035 linkedin conns, twitter @lavas

Portfolio

EXITed:

EXITed:

Motto

When you spend 8 hours doing something, you should be able enjoy it Most important in work-life is to enjoy work and your achievements at work itself

you need to have good feeling to go to work

every day if you don’t like your job or don’t feel good at job: QUIT

Entrepreneurial Marketing

• Agility as a success factor?

• What is agility?

Photo by Tarja Ryhannen Mitrovic / Flickr

MARKETING AS A CONTINUALLY OPTIMIZING LEARNING PROCESS

Secrets of Entrepreneurial marketing

AIDA

• A - Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer.

• I - Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising).

• D - Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.

• A - Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.

Choose your Target Audience

(Segment)

A- Attention (Awareness)

Marketing message, Getting noticed (push)

I - Interest: raise customer interest by

focusing on and demonstrating

advantages and benefit

D - Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the

product or service and that it will satisfy their

needs.

A - Action: lead customers towards

taking action and/or purchasing.

Outbound marketing

© Ilkka Lavas 2012 W3 Group Finland Oy

Inbound marketing

1. Attract traffic2. Convert visitors to

leads3. Convert leads to sales4. Turn customers into

repeat higher margin customers

5. Analyze for continuous improvement

1. Get found2-4. Convert 5. Analyze.

Target Audience

A- Attention (Awareness)

Marketing message, Getting noticed (push)

I - Interest: raise customer interest by

focusing on and demonstrating

advantages and benefit

D - Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the

product or service and that it will satisfy their

needs.

A - Action: lead customers towards

taking action and/or purchasing.

Create Audience

Tell your audience(tweet, facebook,

email)

Convert visitors to

leads

Convert leads

to sales

Convert buyers to buy

more and create

recurring sales

Collect Data, Analyze, Learn and

develop

Outbound marketing

Inbound marketing

© Ilkka Lavas 2012 W3 Group Finland Oy www.w3.fi

Analysis

CHOOSE YOUR SEGMENTWhere to start ?

The business model canvas

SomethingSomebodyWho?

START BYTHINKINGTO WHOM SHOULD I SELL

Customer Segment Example

Finns in Finland5.400.000 ppl

Customer Segment Example

Finns living abroad400.000 Finns +Kids 800.000 Finns

United States 700,000 Sweden 470,000 Canada 131,040 Brazil 90,000

OFFERING – MARKET -FITCase: Suomikauppa.fi

Search For business idea

• Search for business idea– Living abroad– Need for Finnish food and products– There was no online-shop where you can buy finnish

products.– Relatives sent Finnish Chocolate Fazer Sininen and Juhla

Mokka Coffee. Difficult.• Common sources for new ideas: Customers,

Employees, Friends, Other Entrepreneurs, Magazines, Seminars, Common-Life-Problems/Situations

Product

Customer Jobs

Customer Pains

Customers Gains

Is it safe to order online?What happens with the customs?How long time do I have to wait?How much do I have to pay?

I want to have Finland –party formy finnish kids.I want to tech my kids how to makerye bread yourself.I want Fazer Sininen Chocolate Now.I need to feed my babyborn.Eat something luxury

Happy family.Kids educated with finnish food-cultureExperience Enjoy finnish candies Safe milk for the babyDelivered directly to homeSafe for my kids. (vs china)

Timing

• We we not first. There was one pioneer who failed. We learned from pioneer and harvested the benefits.

• Payment systems? Online payment?• Are your customers used to pay online?• Are your customers willing to buy? • Do your customers know that you exist? How do I

reach my customers?• Do your customers already recognize the need?

Be trustworthy

• ”Finland is not a country, it is a club.”, everyone knows somebody who knows you.

• You can sell easily once, but to sell second time you must have done first delivery well.

• Returning policies• Customer Service• Good relations with the customs• Import licences (US FDA, Australia etc)• Export licences• Reliability even during high peak seasons

Be ready to learn

• You should never become so ready that you think don’t need to learn anything anymore.

• Learning is about the joy of imperfection.• Listen to your customers, our first 400 product were from

our customer wish list, Now we have more than 3000 products.

• Our customer knew better than we that they want Taffel Chips and Harwall Jaffa delivered to more than 100 countries.

• We did not think that many Finns can’t write or read finnish properly anymore if they have lived 20+ years abroad.

Our predessor failed, and we did learn

• 1996-1998 there was competitor with similar products and same market.

• They did not meet the needs of customers:– Only 30 products– Slow delivery– Service only in Finnish

• Business opportunity Time window was not open yet:– Paying online was not very common

EXPANSION: CHOOSING ANOTHER SEGMENT

If we can deliver finnish products abroad, who else may be interested?

The business model canvas

SomethingSomebody

ELSE=Different message!

1+1+1+1+1=11111Team Entrepreneurship

Team Roles

Consider team entrepreneurship• Best growth companies

are run by 3-5 people teams (Source TEM kasvuyrityskatsaus 2011).

People with different strengths:• Financial• Lawyer• Marketing• Sales• Hr• Technology• Design• Visual• …

MARKETING IS CONNECTED WITH SALES

Sales?

Example marketing funnel

Organic Traffic SEM

Visitors to Web SiteOther Paid

lead sources

Raw LeadsRegistered Visitors

Qualified Leads

Inside Sales

Closed Deal

Marketing

Sales

1000-96%

40

-50%

20

20

-50%

10

Other Cases

• Technological change– Print media vs Digimedia, Case CITY

• Regulatory change– Case Samex, E-customs software

OFFERING-MARKET -FIT

QUESTIONS

Entrepreneurship is great!

New book this year, (in finnish)Pysäyttämätön yrittäjyys 2013 (Unstoppable Entrepreneurship)

Follow me on twitter: lavasFacebook: facebook.com/ilkkaolavas/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ilkkaolavas