February 7, 2005
Wish I'd Thought of This - iPod My Photo
The first entry in a new category for my blog, iPod My Photo is a clever service that lets fans be in their very own iPod ad. Customer photos are skillfully edited to yield instantly recognizable silhouettes as used in Apple's own advertising.
Some important things that make the idea work:
- Listening
the idea was seeded in an instant message with a single friend who wanted to use a silhouetted image of himself as a Christmas card.
- Rapid Prototyping
Using resources easily available, the first custom silhouetted image was created within an hour.
- Speed to Market
Rather than spending a lot of time and money on market research, the idea became a business 10 days later with the launch of their website.
- Being buzz-worthy
Bloggers started writing about the site shortly thereafter - anything related to iPods is worthy of note these days, and the idea itself adds fuel to the fire by tapping into the fanbase. No need to manufacture buzz.
- Focus on Quality
As might be expected, knock-offs weren't far behind. However, as this comparison on their site shows, the cheap imitations are exactly that.
So, what business ideas have you missed in recent conversations?
Do you have a new product on the backburner pending market research?
Do something now to convert it from an idea to a prototype. And don't fool yourself into thinking that your concept is too complex: as Tom Peters points out in The project50 :
There is no situation - even at Boeing - where you cannot concoct a sorta-real-world micro-test of some piece of your project... within a few hours or two to three days.
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This came to my attention via Church of the Customer who have an excellent recap of iPod My Photo's genesis posted on their site, excerpted from a letter sent to them by the founder, David Schroeder.
Posted by kenking at February 7, 2005 2:57 PM
