Aalto University Product Market Fit 2016

Ship in harbour may be safe, but this is not what ship is built for.Choose your destination . Draft your route.

Remember: Success is not a destination, it’s the journey.

Ilkka O. Lavas, City, Improve Media at Aalto University 2016. Photo by Riza Nugraha (CC BY 2.0)

Identifying and evaluating market opportunities.

Entrepreneurial methods

Photo by Lavas @ Burma Sprite Clone In Burma / Myanmar Is example of innovative method.

Ilkka O. Lavas• 3 books about entrepreneurship

”Unstoppable Entrepreneurship, Amazon”

• Partner, board member, investor– Portfolio of 15 businesses– 10+ aquisitions done– 4 exits

• Young Entrepreneur of the year 2009 in ’Southern Finland’

• 37years, 2 sons, 1 wife, 2,8k+ fb, 1.1k insta2,7k+ linkedin, Snapchat @ilkkalavas5,5k+ twitter @lavas

@lavas

EXITs:

Import & Export software

@lavas

Entrepreneurial Marketing: Agility

• Agility as a success factor?

• Lean Startup methods• What is agility?

Photo by Tarja Ryhannen Mitrovic / Flickr

http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/business_model_canvas_poster.pdf

MARKETING IS 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 loop

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

1. Choose your segment

Where to start ?

The business model canvas

Something SomebodyWho?

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 JobsCustomer PainsCustomers 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 teach my kids how to make rye 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 of your existance? How do I

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

your offering?

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 the second time you

must have been successful with the first delivery.• 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 too self-assured that you think

don’t need to learn anything anymore.• Learning is about the joy of imperfection.• Listen to your customers, our first 400 products were from

our customer wish list, now more than 3000 products.• Our customer were more experienced than us that they

want Fazer Chocolate, 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 the pioneer with smaller offering at the same market.

• They did not meet the needs of customers:– Only 30 products (we have over 3000)– Slow delivery (we deliver very fast and reliable)– Service only in Finnish (we have 8 languages)

• It was not right time to do business: 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

Something Somebody

ELSE=Different message!

MARKETING IS CONNECTED WITH SALES

Sales?

Example marketing funnel

Organic Traffic SEM

Visitors to Web SiteOther Paid

lead sources

Raw LeadsRegistered Visitors / coocies / emails /

retargeting data

Qualified LeadsWe know this customer is about to buy

Inside Sales

Closed Deal

Marketing

Sales

1000-96%

40

-50%

20

20

-50%

10

Other Cases

Living in market turbulence:Technological changes

TurnaroundPrint media vs DigimediaCase CITY-magazine

City Digital3rd fastest growing company in Finland

SCALABLE DIGITAL SERVICES

Presented ad network

…

URBANITES

Market Opportunity, Growing Market

1985-2012

Business: print magazine

Area: HKI, Tre, Oulu, Vaasa, Turku. Local big cities

Customers:Local, Finnish customers

Circulation 200k-450k

Unique Visitors on website 100k

Content creators: 20

2012, 2016 ->

Business: Digital media family

Area: Finland, Global

Customers: Brands, local, Finnish and International customers and brands

Circulation 1100k

Unique visitors 8000k (8M)

Content creators: 150-200

Never Give Up!

1. Know where you

are

2. Decide, where you

want to go.

3. THEN GO

4. Fail and Learn

4. Be better

BUILD

MEASURE

LEARN

How can I start from learning

Build-Measure-Learn orLean-Build-Measure?

REMEMBER.YOUR MISSION IS NOT MONEY.

MONEY IS RESULT

OF AWESOME EXECUTION

Ship in harbour may be safe, but this is not what ship is built for.

www.improvemedia.fi

Ilkka.lavas@city.fiTwitter: @lavasFacebook: IlkkaLavasGsm +358 400 997969Instagram:@ilkkalavas

www.life-changing-secrets.com www.city.fi/profiilit/lavas/blogihttp://www.linkedin.com/in/ilkkaolavas