Insights With Trent Munday

The airline industry has been decimated by the COVID-19 crisis. There is an urgent need to re-think the traditional airline business model. Mark Ross-Smith suggested some time ago that Government-owned airlines could become marketing arms for their respective countries. And that looks like what Garuda Indonesia is doing.  The national carrier has announced they are merging with 8 other state-owned tourism companies. Interesting idea. Interesting times. #airlineindustry #businessmodels #marketing

Survival Bias is a form of selection bias whereby we focus on those that succeed or survive and ignore those that don't. Whilst focussing only on those that succeed may at first appear logical, the fundamental problem with it is that in doing so you are only looking at half of the story. Often times it is not what a person or a company does that allows them to succeed, but what they do not do. And that is the power of analysing those that do not survive. #biases #businessanalysis #businesssuccess

The Venus One Tourism Academy in Bali is allowing students to pay their fees...in coconuts! This is brilliant on so many levels... 1. Students who can't afford the education, can now get it. 2. They're learning, not just academics, but how to make real products. 3. They're also learning about creating and running a business. 4. They're learning important lesson about the environment & sustainability. 5. Specifically, they're learning valuable lessons that will be an integral part of the tourism & hospitality business in the future - namely, sustainable business practices. Well done! Here's a link to the story - https://bit.ly/2Ulym2X PS: Thanks to Prof. Gerry Bodeker for the link! #sustainability #businessmodels #hospitalityindustry

The folks over at the Global Wellness Institute have added a bubble to their famous Global Wellness Economy Monitor bubble diagram - Mental Wellness Economy. And they've assessed a valuation of USD $121 billion. For sub-segments have been identified... - Senses, Spaces & Sleep at $49.5 billion - Brain Boosting Nutraceuticals & Botanicals at $34.8 billion - Self-Improvement at $33.6 billion - Meditation & Mindfulness at $2.9 billion Here's a link to the Press Release from the Global Wellness Institute - https://bit.ly/3nf1BB4   #mentalwellness #wellness #wellnessindustry

If you're looking to raise money for your business, you should think long and hard about whether you're taking Dumb Money or Smart Money. Dumb Money is where the investor brings nothing else to the table except the money itself. Whereas a Smart Money investor brings the money but also adds value to the business in other ways. It may be that the investor brings with her lots of contacts and connections that can help your business grow. Perhaps the investor has a specific set of skills that will help your business. Or maybe the Smart Money investor has other businesses which could add strategic value to your business - with a distribution platform, for example. Smart Money is obviously preferred. But sometimes Dumb Money is the only option you have. In that case, Dumb Money is ok. Just be sure you don't give away too much equity in your business too early to a Dumb Money investor. You may live to regret it in the long run. #smartmoney #funding #startups

A great way to get a handle on your brand identity and brand personality is to think about your brand as a person. Who is the person that best personifies the type of personality traits that you would like your brand to have? It might be a movie star like George Clooney, as it was for Nespresso.  But it doesn't have to be. If you're treating this as an internal exercise, to get your team all aligned around your brand, it can simply be someone that all the people in your organisation are familiar with. If you understand that brands need to act and interact with people, the idea of looking at your brand through the lens of a personality makes perfect sense. #branding #brandpersonality #brandidentity

There's a positive message to be found within this negative statement. Right now, many people around the world are feeling anxious due to a sudden lack of options, choices and alternatives. But...and I know this is often easier to say that to do...if you can accept that sometimes it is exactly those options and alternatives that have been holding you back, you can find a way to make that lack of them your superpower. For when we have alternatives, we often don't give our all to the current choice.  However, with no other options, we are left with no choice but to give this way our absolute all. Good Luck! #alternatives #motivation #resilience

Comedian Dave Chappelle, in his chat with David Letterman on his Netflix series suggested people often assume that their suffering is mutually exclusive to everyone else's. I guess it is human nature to worry about ourselves first. But the reality is, just as you may be suffering right now, so too are many. many others. Acknowledging that doesn't make your pain any less important, to you. I think that's a nice little lesson in compassion. #compassion #lifelessons #humannature

David Letterman, the former late night TV host, has been around a while. So you'd expect him to drop a little wisdom in between the wise cracks once in a while. That's exactly what he did on his Netflix special interview with comedian Dave Chappelle. Chances are, if you and I agree on something, we haven't ever really considered all possible angles, arguments or perspectives. But if we disagree, you can bet your life I will throw every possible argument I can think of at you to convince you I am right. #alwayslearning #disagreement #differentperspective

Here's a quick Self-Awareness Check. If you're a basic Reader, you read something interesting and say, 'Well, that's interesting.' If you're a Teacher, you read something interesting and say, 'Now, how can I help others understand this?' If you're a Thought Leader, you read something interesting and say, 'What is my perspective on that? Why is it this way? Is there another angle to consider'. So...honestly...which are you? PS: Thanks to Thought Leaders Practice for the inspiration. Here's a link to that book - https://bit.ly/30pr7e1 #selfawareness #thoughtleadership #thoughtleader  

The marketplace is not wise. So says marketing guru Seth Godin. It has no real goals or vision or mission. It is simply a group of people (hundreds, millions or billions depending on how wide you are targeting) looking to satisfy their own wants and needs Nothing more. Therefore, the market alone can not solve the really big issues the world faces. For that, we need to have a set of guidelines, boundaries and parameters.  And for that, we need true leadership. #marketdemand #supplyanddemand #philospohical

Lots of people have great ideas. What they don't know though, is will their ideas actually work. A simple, cheap way to validate your business idea is to just create a simple landing page that explains your product or service and invite visitors to sign up for updates on when it will be available. Or if you want to be really sure, offer them a chance to buy now. To take a pre-order. Or even easier, just create an ad, run it on Facebook or Google and again encourage customers to give you their email address..or better still, an order. #validation #businessideas #leanstartup

Not so long ago many people felt the QR code was dead and gone. It was one of those unique tools that just never seemed to find gather enough momentum to stick around. Now, thanks to COVID-19, QR Codes have had a resurgence. They have replaced just about all in-room marketing collateral in hotels. That's something that's been on the way out for a while now anyway. As I've spoken about before... Blog - Death of In-Room Marketing - https://bit.ly/2Gmvf7E Ep. 174 - Death of In-Room Marketing - https://bit.ly/3kTHWWG  As your customers get more accustomed to scanning a QR code, a whole new world of in-room / in-restaurant / in-store promotional opportunities open up. For instance, you can use a tool like VisuaLead to generate cool, custom QR codes - https://bit.ly/3elfUkb Even more exciting is the variety of content you can put on the other side of that content. Get creative! #QRcodes #marketingopportunities #hotelmarketing

Any time your customers need to stop and pause there's an opportunity to get their attention. To get in front of their eyes and into their minds. Thanks to COVID-19, many stores make you stop and pause before you enter...to scan the QR code for contact tracing and to check your temperature. So at the entry point, is a fantastic branding opportunity. I saw a recent example at a pharmacy where Vaseline had create a branded entrance at the single entry point to the store. No customer can enter the store without pausing at this entrance. Every customer will see the Vaseline brand. If you own the store, create an entrance and approach the brands whose products you sell to use it as a promotional opportunity. If you have a product or service that is sold somewhere else, approach the owner of the store with the idea. #promotion #marketing #advertising

Lots of hotels are trying to tempt locals to come in for a short staycation. Come and stay a night at the hotel and get a discount on the restaurant and spa and any other outlets that are open. But I think they're getting the messaging the wrong way around. Instead, the offer should be, 'Spend $250 in our restaurant and we'll give you a free night in the hotel.' We all need to eat. That's the Need. Staying in the hotel room is just a Want. So sell the Need first, then promote the Want as the add-on. #hotels #marketing #promotions

Consumers are smart these days. No point kidding yourself. If you present them with an exaggerated promotion, they will see through it for what it is. Like those '2 Days, 1 Night Stay' deals that hotels put out there. I'm using one right now.  Check in after 3pm and check out before 1pm the following day. That's a maximum of 22 hours I get to stay. Last time I checked, there were 24 hours in just one day. Feels like this offer was just ever so slightly exaggerated. #promotions #marketing #consumercentric

The TimeShare model for vacations has been around for a long time. A partial ownership type model that allows each 'owner' of the property a limited number of days throughout the year to use the property. But with all that's happened in the world this year, we have been forced to focus more locally. We've also become much more aware of being self-sufficient. That says to me there's an opportunity for FarmShares to become the new TimeShares. #timeshare #newbusinessideas #possibilities

It seems like a pretty obvious thing to say, but people will only buy your product or service or take the action that you want them to take if they understand why. Of course, this is only the first step.  There are then many other factors they must consider, like the cost, the time, the convenience, etc. But too often we blame these other factors when in fact we have not yet gotten our customers to that point of understanding...and that's on us. #marketing #customerbehaviour #understanding

Many business live and die by their Key Performance Indicators (KPI's)...at least they think they do. But in times of crisis like right now, many are finding that most of their KPI's really don't matter much. With many business struggling to get enough customers, the only metric that really matters is the Top Line Revenue metric. Even the Profit Metrics don't matter much for many as they're already operating at a loss. So maybe it's time to consider a Tiered KPI System. Focus on your Top 2 KPI's first.  Only once they're achieved, do you start looking at your next 4 KPI's. And so on. #businessmetrics #kpis #rethink

Once it became obvious that contact, at least for some time, was going to be a bad thing, I figured this could be a BOOM period for Vending Machines. I spoke about that back in Ep. 899 of the show - https://bit.ly/35DEk4t I'm still a believer. Just consider these elements... 1. Flexibility of Product Selection 2. Flexibility of Price 3. Low Labour Cost So whatever the crisis or what ever the trend, Vending Machines can move with the times. #vendingmachines #businessmodel #flexibility