Great new business plan! Need a little help with Step 2.


Vort
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I sell solar across the USA and our parent company is always running ads trying to drum up new business. 
 

Utah, for those who don’t know, is likely the worst state in the lower 48 for solar (or at least amongst the worst 10). Our company started offering “free Tesla battery” with any solar bought in UT. This is the equivalent of a car dealership saying “if you buy our 2021 Honda civic, we will upgrade it for free to a 2021 Ford Raptor!”

Now, despite Tesla batteries being $10,000, this is actually a doable in many states since the margin on most sales are extremely high… but Utah is a different story. To meet this ad’s offer of a “free Tesla battery” We either have to sell a $20,000 solar system for $30,000 and use that extra margin to include the tesla and say “see :) free tesla!” OR tell the customer “hey, it’s a stupid ad” and then pull back the curtains of what a “free tesla” actually means and ask them if they really want 1/3 of their solar price to be covered by a battery that will only last 10 years.

Sooo… Step two is this. Open a store selling something people need or really want, but aren’t familiar with how to price it, then sell it for a high profit, but also tell them they will get a free Apple Watch. They are already getting it, might as well go with you and get a watch too!
 

Health/life Insurance companies do this with Apple watches and fit its all the time (with stipulations of course). Apple watches are great because the luxurious factor makes it appear FAR more valuable than its given or actual value.

Edited by Fether
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Even better business plan - sucker people into stealing things, in order to trick them into not starving during famines: 

https://www.historynet.com/ask-mhq-king-frederick-ii-of-prussia.htm

Quote

Discovered by the Spanish when they invaded Peru in 1532, potatoes were brought to Spain by Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada in 1565, and by 1600 had spread throughout Europe. Initially peasants used them to feed livestock, but not themselves. The Russian Orthodox Church declared them unfit for human consumption because they were not mentioned in the Bible.

King Frederick, however, believed that eating potatoes could lower the price of bread and even substitute for cereals in the event of a shortage. In 1744, he introduced potatoes into his army’s diet. In 1770 his soldiers and their Austrian counterparts spent so much time between battles fighting over rations that that phase of the fighting became known as the “Potato War.” Frederick’s troops called his Bohemian invasion of 1778­–1779 the “Potato Campaign.”

During a famine in 1774, Frederick offered free potatoes to the peasants and ordered a national cultivation program. In a typical response, the town of Kolberg declared: “The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?” Frederick threatened to cut the nose and ears off any peasant who did not plant potatoes, but soon resorted to a different tack, establishing a heavily guarded royal potato field. Local peasants, noticing their king’s admiration of potato flowers as well as the tubers themselves, sneaked in to steal and plant the royal crop—exactly as Frederick had intended.

 

Edited by NeuroTypical
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29 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Even better business plan - sucker people into stealing things, in order to trick them into not starving during famines: 

https://www.historynet.com/ask-mhq-king-frederick-ii-of-prussia.htm

 

It reminds me of a story I once heard about Captain Cook. The Royal Navy was starting to fight scurvy (the curse of long voyages) by making all the sailors drink lime juice once a day. The sailors had seen limes being brought aboard, and had clearly heard stories about how vile the juice tasted. So they sent a deputation to the captain telling him that they would NOT under any circumstances drink it.

Cook's reply was something like "YOU drink lime juice? Don't make me laugh! These limes are for officers only! They're not for the likes of YOU!"

After a hasty fo'c'sle meeting, the deputation returned to the captain, saying it WASN'T FAIR and demanding that THEY be allowed to have limes, just the same as the officers. Cook, after fake show of reluctance, bowed to public pressure and everyone got their lime juice!    

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16 hours ago, Vort said:

I'll give 25% to the person who can make this a reality. I'm generous like that.

 

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That's basically how most "freemium" games work. 

You can play the game for free, but they charge if you want in-game boosts and power-ups. 

One of the worst offenders is a recent Harry Potter app game, where your character burns energy doing various tasks and has to recharge their energy over time. The game has several sequences where the task at hand requires more energy to complete than what's in your character's energy meter, and so players have to choose between leaving their character stuck in the middle of a dilemma for several hours or paying up to get more energy so that they can finish it all at once. 

 

Checkmate Creative, at least, sells T-shirts tied into their biggest game, so if you want to throw them some money to support them you'll actually have a tangible good you can show off. 

Likewise, the infamous "Doki Doki Literature Club" appears to have been guerilla marketing for a horror survival game, so Team Salvato probably ate the whole thing as a loss on their taxes. 

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On 6/7/2021 at 4:59 PM, Vort said:

I'll give 25% to the person who can make this a reality. I'm generous like that.

 

image.png

2. Give credit to G-d.

In addition #3 should read "Profit eternally!"

 

The Traveler

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