mardi 3 novembre 2009

CrowdSPRING Analysis




We're the marketplace for creative services.


Crowdspring is a privately held online marketplace for buyers and sellers of creative services, including graphic design, website design, print design, illustration, product design, and other types of design. CrowdSPRING was co-founded in May 2007 by Ross Kimbarovsky and Michael Samson. They launched its online marketplace publicly in May 2008, the company it is based in Chicago.
More than 40,000 graphic designers from over 170 countries work on crowdSPRING, helping thousands of small and medium size businesses from around the world with logos, websites, marketing materials, and other graphic design services.
Unlike traditional marketplaces, where buyers select from among bids and proposals, crowdSPRING uses an innovative business model - buyers choose from actual designs, from multiple designers, to the buyer's specification.

Problem Solved for Owners:
-They handle full project management, file transfer, payment, legal contracts, and communication.

Problem solved for Designers/Creatives:
-Designers can create profiles and create portfolios on the site.
-CrowdSPRING marketplace offers feedback,statistics,ratings,community forums
-Possibility to be better known
-Develop talented people and encourge them to get in touch with potential clients
-Large pannel of creative activities: graphic design, web design, photography and industrial design.

Problem solved for companies/clients:
-Set their price & deadline: saving time & money, affordable for small & developing companies.
-Launch project on their terms.
-Money back guarantee
25 entries or a full refund,including CrowdSPRING fee.
-44,000+ creatives
Virtual design team in over 150 countries.
-Buyers average more than 80 designs per project
-Small & medium size companies can outsource their creative department (less internal costs)
-CrowdSPRING services & assistance 7 days a week.
-Large pannel of creative activities: graphic design, web design, photography and industrial design.
-Designers compete by posting their work, for free and buyers can offer instant feedback.
-Free contract
Customers will have full ownership of final design.


A particular business model:

crowdSPRING was started to help people from around the world access creative talent, and to help creatives from across the globe find new customers.
-Revenue souces:
Fees of 15%

-The Model is unique to the web & Business Model used are:

Community (important in this model: both clients & creative's have a high investment)

Brokerage (bringing buyers & sellers together to facilitate transaction)

Manufacturer (allowing designers to reach buyers directly


-This model could be enhanced developing revenue maximization, creating partnership (affiliation business model) with recognized advertising companies, designer's schools for example. As well as subscribing to freemium services.

-Application to other industry:
It would be interesting to observe the development of a community marketplace model in another creative activity as fashion industry. Where stylist and designers professional or not from all over the world could offer their creative ideas in clothes, shoes & accessories to all size of fashion brands. Creating prizes and fashion show awards.






Similar application of the model (hiring/recruiting expert in this cases):
http://www.guru.com/
http://www.elance.com/

Interesting Links

-Creativity of crowds:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0216/062.html

-Criticism/ Debates on this subject:

CrowdSRING & Competitors are democratizing the industry or is it harmful for the profession of designers? Equal opportunity & access to clients. Internet gives people all over the world the opportunity to access market & clients: professional designers are being devaluated by all this web marketplace industry?

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1253-the-nospec-campaign-vs-crowdspring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQu0292dftA
http://www.netvibes.com/claireallocco

samedi 10 octobre 2009

Vente privée: other industry: Wine

By Isabelle Polomack, Manh Nguyen, Alexandra Gagny, David Caine & Claire Allocco.

Other industry:
Cave Privée Model

Revenue sources
Partnership
Sales on website
Advertising

Problem solved for suppliers:
Permit to exhaust stocks of wine producers
Possibility to be better known to a larger public worldwide
Export shipping (reach a diversified market internationally)

Problems solved for customers:
Add advices from 'connaisseurs' (oenologue) + Food & Wine matching ideas (receipes, dinner ideas)
Receive at home your exclusive drinks (not problem to carry heavy bottles!)
Create special gift box packaging(champagne)
Have access to exclusive bottles (not available on supermarkets or wine shops), little producers, organic wines & champagnes
Extra information in web site with detailed proprieties, chateaux (pictures, interviews with producers & owners)
Interactive website with rating from customers/clients (blog with rates)

Problems solved for owners:
No storage in their own warehouse, directly purchase from wine producers
Partnership
Negotiate special contracts
Cooperative Model
Pre-sell strategy (limited, harvest...)

Innovative@work!

What is It?
Is an internal web-based community, customized by InnoCentive for companies. It applies internal resources to organization's problems so they're solved faster, better, and cheaper. With the objective than cross-ideas and solutions can accelerate R&D.
As the company defines it: ''Employees can see and collaborate on each other's proposed solutions, so results occur faster and are more optimized'' — as measured by significant business impact, creative thinking, higher levels of solving activity.

How is innovative?
Is not just a tool. It's a transformation in how organizations practice R&D. -More than a web platform, it's a comprehensive offering that help to create an internal web-based collaborative community for problem solvers.
Develop educational and communications materials
Write policies for integrating open innovation into your existing processes
With gain experience, move problems from inside the organization to InnoCentive's global scientific community of Solvers, further increasing the diversity of potential solutions.

vendredi 9 octobre 2009

Vente Privée Model analysis

For 10/10/2009 E-Business Class
VENTE PRIVEE Analysis
http://fr.vente-privee.com/VP4/Login/Portal.ashxDesigner brands for smart shoppers

This trend is changing e-business, is requiring permanent adaptation.
The concept of this model is to create a virtual retail online shop selling different brands on a variety of industries (clothes, shoes, cosmetics, manufacture, decoration, kitchen utensils, jewelry, bed accessories…) with the objective to sell those stocks on a very short period of time. There are some special caracteristics of this model, the sponsoring (parrainage), the sponsor/'godfather' receive some incentives (8€ reduction of his next purachase). For Customers, a part from those financial advantages, problems solved are:Purchase trendy products for a cheapest price on the market, convenience of online shop model (goods bought received at home).
For suppliers (brands), the problems solved are huge: the storage period is short and their stocks are exhausted faster.
For the owners, problems solved will be analized further on.

As the article published in the Journal du net highlights the advantages & strenghts of Vente Privée compared to its competitors (as BazarChic, L'Invité des marques, Showroom Privé) .
Vente Privée negotiates privileged contracts with brands creating a quasi-monopole denounced by competition.
(http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/commerce/enquete/ventes-privees-pas-de-salut-pour-les-outsiders/ventes-privees-pas-de-salut-pour-les-outsiders.shtml)

-Sources & Articles related on the topic:
http://www.getelastic.com/social-media-examples/
(110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing)

http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/commerce/actualite/0712/071224-tension-vente-privee-fr-concurrents-24h00.shtml
This is an interesting article explaining the dominant position on the market of Vente privée, argument used from competitors

http://www.supplychainmagazine.fr/TOUTE-INFO/Archives/SCM013/Experience-VP.Com-13.pdf

The classic process is articulated on three pillars: the retailer (industry), the intermediary who sells with a margin and the Client (buys the product to the intermediary).

  • The business model of Vente Privée on line is quite different than this classical model: the intermediary first negotiates with the retailer to reserve a stock of product that the manufacturer/retailer wants to sell first. Once the stock is reserved (not yet bought by the intermediary) this one will put it online on his internet web site before its purchase.
  • The sale will generally last for 3 or 4 days and the announcement is made on the web site 2-3 days before the sells opens (communicating with the potential clients/subscribers through mailing lists) and is not showing the content of the stock or any product before the sell is open.
  • To stimulate clients to buy, Vente Privée, plays with rarity phenomenon, announcing before that stocks are few and rare. The interest of that strategy is to stimulate a strong interest of clients and generate expectation caused by rarity of products sold.
  • The client will buy the product on the web site before that Vente Privée even bought the stocks. The company will then buy the reserved goods to the industrial, adapting the purchase to the offer already made by the client.
  • This business model developed and launch by Vente Privée is extremely profitable due to the stock financing. The client pays before than the company even purchases the stock to the producer.
  • This strategy is essential because this business model allows the auto financing of purchases by clients and a short storage period. In theory, there is therefore no need to require to external financing = problems solved for owners
  • The cash flow produced with a sell is therefore a factor favorable of growth and represents one of the major innovations of the development of Vente Privée model.

This model could be adapted to other industries, as the travel industry who already is applying this model to the travel sector, with 'Voyage Privé' for example.(http://www.journaldunet.com/0606/060626-voyageprive.shtml)

Nevertheless it will be interesting to apply this model to industries where the stock is an important issue, because as we studied before, the stock is purchase by the company only once the client already purchase the goods/products.

It could be profitable to gourmet/wine online shops (luxury drinks, food) that are intermediaries between the exclusive chateaux or wine houses, cakes & pasties artisans with clients providing extra services for weddings, parties for example...

This Vente Privée model is already used in this particular niche, especially in wine & spirits:

http://vente-privee.wineandco.com/inscription.php?email_parrain=melissa031@gmail.com

http://www.v2vin.com/DevenirMembre/?pe=melissa031@gmail.com

http://www.lecarredesvins.com/create_account.php?mail=melissa031@gmail.com&partner=

samedi 13 juin 2009

freemium

Example of Freemium:

Meetic service (online date meeting web site)
Viadeo (networking social web site for professionals)