The Odds of the Davids

The odds of the Davids

 

by Günter Faltin (excerpt from "David versus Goliath" )

First of all: As an entrepreneur, you cannot win in a material battle of marketing. If David fights with Goliath's weapons, he loses.

Classic business administration focuses primarily on economies of scale, i.e. cost savings in large series. But we can also tackle other potential savings. As founders, we hardly have a chance of launching large series of our products or services. We're too small to match the Goliath's arsenal. But we have other arrows in the quiver. Large, established companies usually find it difficult to generate sympathy for their organization. Although they maintain large PR departments and spend a lot of money on them, they usually do not manage to convince journalists to report good things about the company with conviction. On the contrary, the giants run the risk

The sympathy factor

As a rule, the media report positively about the founder, because it is considered courageous and exemplary to dare something new. Media thrive on news, events and stories, especially when they include a personal element. Sometimes sympathy is even the decisive factor: being a tough capitalist no longer pays off today. We should not underestimate the likeability factor. I would even go so far as to say that the entrepreneur can explicitly rely on economies of sympathy. Small companies in particular create an economy of sympathy, in which the people and their attitude become visible. If business is just business, then it's not good business in the sense of business either. Sounds like Karl Valentin, but gets to the heart of the matter. business that makes sense

An example of how to lose the liking advantage is Uber. The public discussion about this - thoroughly innovative - start-up would have been different if the billions of US dollars that the company received as capital injections had not been in the background. Cheaper taxis and better use of private automobiles would undoubtedly be a boon. The sympathy was within reach. But not when big money is involved. And an insensitive founder. Then the criticism even comes from within their own ranks. According to Sascha Lobo, the founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick, is so unsympathetic that he would have trouble winning a sympathy contest against a land mine. And Jan Ole Suhr, himself an entrepreneur in the Berlin techie scene, writes on Twitter, that you have to weigh the disruptive innovation of Uber against 7,600 Berlin taxi drivers, of whom around 3,000 are small business owners. An argument that found attention right up to the New York Times.

“You can stand out for your big mouth and oversize ego in the US” – that doesn’t work as a sympathy factor in Europe.

There is another way.

Red dot action, Hanover 1969.

A protest action against price increases in local public transport. Started spontaneously, without funds, simply with the call to take passers-by in their own cars. Great public approval. No protests from taxi drivers or attempts to ban the rides in court.

Attention does not have to be paid dearly

If your concern is sympathetic, you are more likely to be discussed positively. You will get more attention. This is something that is central to your startup. You want and need to be known, you need to be named and recommended in order to find potential buyers for your offer. Conventional advertising, on the other hand, is expensive.

Thinking differently, being different, that has great entertainment value for contemporaries. French writer George Sand (1804-1876) wore men's suits and smoked cigars. She spoke openly about her love life: "He was like a corpse in bed," was her verdict on Frédéric Chopin. Not exactly what 19th-century society assigned a woman to be a role. She couldn't complain about a lack of attention.

Your chance as a founder lies above all in using your novelty value to get into the editorial parts of the media. I would call this aspect, which also has a cost advantage, economies of attention.

Anyone who gets into conventional advertising has probably not properly used what is probably the greatest opportunity a founder has. The aspect of "generating attention" must be part of the development of a good concept. Being different, hopefully being better, offering a smarter solution – as a founder, you have to showcase these advantages and use them to your advantage.

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At the Entrepreneurship Summit 2020 - from October 9th to 11th in digital form for the first time - our experts will show which unnecessary costs disappear in the marketing backpack, which can be used more sensibly elsewhere. To do this, we have to ask ourselves what sense and purpose marketing should fulfil, what status it currently has in companies and start-ups and what influence it has on the quality of the product or service. Together with our experts, we examine the marketing monster and uncover its weaknesses.