Consumer goods

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The busy holiday period is a good time to highlight one of the many charity based business models. The revenue model that is being used by these organizations is often not that complex. Many of them simply ask for a donation while others will give a commodity in return. A pencil, a plant, a newspaper and so on. But asking thousands of families for donations is labor intensive so when you’re trying to do something valuable, a B2B charity business model might be a better option. Freeset is such a company. They realize they are not in the product business, but in the reputation business. So when you’re selling the value ‘doing good’ the focus of your branding will not be the functionality of the product. Freeset sells Jute bags so they won’t last forever. But even this lack of quality is being used as positive feature. Using Jute makes Freeset bags biodegradable so that makes them (more) eco-friendly. Not only the product is focused on ‘doing good’. The business model of Freeset is build on top of a revenue model where the profits are being used to fight sex trafficking. Thereby the fair-trade business of Freeset is being perceived as People-friendly as well. So when clients are buying these event bags, they are ‘doing good’ and receive a platform (the bags) to show this to the world. Events itself are generally build to give companies opportunities to get exposure. And sadly it is exposure what you need when you are selling charity to businesses. Doing good, without anybody noticing, is economically not interesting.

Large companies that are trying to be eco-friendly, people-friendly and thereby claiming to do good are having a hard time online. When done right a profitable revenue model can be the result. Freeset is therefor a good example. But brands that are using charity or good causes as a marketing gimmick will be publicly crucified. See how even Apple is trying to coop with bad publicity on their green efforts. They make attractive products but being green is currently not their focus. Consumers have more power than ever. This forces companies like Apple to be more transparent on their efforts. But when you’re active in the ‘charity business’ you better do this over the top like Freeset. Eco-friendly, Fair-trade, People-friendly and so on. Do it and show it to your clients.

Non-profit & public

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Last week at the Creativity & Innovation PICNIC conference in Amsterdam a new remarkable project was being presented. The artist Christian Nold explained his concept ‘Bijlmer Euro’, a name for an alternative currency used only in a specific district of Amsterdam called Bijlmer. In this region he delivers a service towards the local ethnic community. To celebrate the variety of people he gave them their own currency by sticking RFID tags to normal and therefore legal euro bills. Thereby he’s able to track the social relations between these groups. Local shops that are willing to participate receive a RFID reader to scan these bills. Then when local residents are paying with these bills a shop owner can decide to deliver a community experience towards these clients. Examples of this could be an extra gift, special products or just an extra friendly treatment what could enforce the bonding of this community. Do notice that Christian works on this project for free. The return he receives lies simply in the positive image of the project that will enforce his own reputation as an artist. Alternative currencies are a hot topic these days. Many conference speakers like Nick Bilton, Douglas Rushkoff or Bernard Lietaer are talking about new business systems that use these alternatives. As a society we introduced tangible money due to the simple fact that we couldn’t always exchange services and goods directly in our local community. My local barber was not always pleased with me paying him with my own vegetables. As a result a form of currency came in between and I could pay my barber with a tangible bill that he could be use to buy fruits in another village. But today things have changed. Due to the internet customers can again find other people to exchange services directly. For instance I could get my website made by a German student in exchange for a translation of his homework. And when direct exchange still isn’t possible, many online communities are using other means. Credit systems, karma points and beta-invite’s (Google Wave anyone?) are being used to pay each other. Money will always be there but many new forms, both tangible and intangible will flourish in the coming decades. This real-life Bijlmer Euro is only one of them.

Internet & media

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A trip to Las Vegas  for a painting! New York artists Christine Santora and Justin Gignac are painting portraits of all the things they wish to get on WantsForSale.com. Wants For Sale is not new yet interesting to look into further. It is a nice variation on the Intention Economy in which the buyer’s intent shapes the production and delivery of a product or service, as in “I would like to have this” (similar to Igglo, Zillow, Eventful; yet offering a painting instead of money now). Each painting represents things like a new bikini, a month’s rent, gambling money, a customized Adidas shoe, and special experiences on a trip to Las Vegas. People buy the paintings by paying the value of the painted item or by delivering the item or experience itself.

Wants For Sale also follows along the lines of The Million Dollar Homepage and One thousand paintings – selling paintings of all numbers from 1 to 1000. Once featured on BBC, WIRED, boingboing and others, they create enough buzz for companies and individuals to be interested in the exposure and reputation – like iRobot for example. Wants For Sale brings an interesting concept which almost begs to be developed in a broker platform where everyone can post a painting, a song, a performance… for something they want to get! I am sure companies/brands would be interested in their fan’s productions.

Internet & media

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Hollrr.com is a very interesting business concept and that for many reasons. First of all, Hollrr gives regular consumers more tools and power in the business ecosystem. Secondly, it sets a perfect example how businesses are evolving when embracing new currency transactions as descibed in our 10 building blocks model. The most important transaction in their system is ‘reputation for exposure’. Below you see a visual mapping of Hollrr’s 4-player business model. Like always we show only the most relevant transactions and players. This allows us to better compare and transfer business concepts.

How does Hollrr.com work?

This is how hollrr.com tries to give more power to the consumer: Early-adopters try to spot new products and they will actively spread the word about their ‘discovery’. By using trackable widgets, tweets and blogpost they will notify their tribe. A consumer becomes thereby an influencer. This the exposure aspect we talked about.

When later on the product becomes a success, the tribe around that person will recognize that person as the one that was able to spot the product early stage. When someone becomes an expert in discovering potential successful products, they will earn the respect of their tribe. This is the reputation part of the transaction.

But Hollr.com goes one step further. Once the spotted product has become a success, they will reward the whole tribe that spotted and supported the product. The earlier a person talked about the product, the more money they will receive.

But how do they make money?

But who’s bringing in the money to pay those early-adopters and influencers. Hollrr.com gives one solution on their website. Product owners (companies) can add their products to the database of hollrr and pre-pay for clicks, or somehow they can join an affiliate program. But no further details are given so that leaves me with the following problem.

A small starting company that developed a new product, often doesn’t have the resources to pay services like hollrr for pre-paid clicks. However it will be that kind of products that will be the most interesting to the user base of hollr.com. Everybody there wants to be one of the first to support a new interesting product, but when no money can be earned with that hollrr will need another revenue stream.

So my question to Hollrr: How are you going to make money?