BusinessWeek launched a redesign. My favorite part about the magazine is the teasers they put to keep you flipping pages. They know how to keep me interested in the boring economic sections. haha
Business Week Teasers
Author Archives: Rishi Shah
Google’s APIs are amazing
FTD is an awesome business
FTD. The business behind selling and delivering flowers is a great business. Here is why:
No Overhead.
They team up with local flower shops to supply and send flowers. Yes you heard right. One of the biggest flower businesses never actually grows or stores any flowers.
Great for Florists.
Why wouldn’t you want to team up with FTD? They send business your way!
Great marketing.
I see tons of ads for FTD. When I think of flower delivery, I think FTD. (It also helps that they started in 1910).
What other businesses are like this?
Beer of the Month Club (BOTMC)
This business is actually way better than FTD. Beer vendors pay (or sponsor) BOTMC to send beer to their members and then BOTMC also charges their members to get a new beer every month!
HostelBookers.com
Created a massive network of every Hostel and created an interface to easily book hostels.
SkyMall
If you have ever been on a plane you know what this is. An inflight magazine that showcases interesting products to sell.
Hotels.com (or any hotel/travel booking site)
They figure out which hotels have empty rooms, cut a deal with the hotel to give you a lower price, and take a cut of the entire process.
The hardest part of all these businesses is you need to get the network.
Do you know any business like FTD? Let me know in the comments.
Logos that have smiles
Dell’s Welcome
5 days after my purchase from Dell they welcome me to their community, thank me for signing up, and offer me a nice coupon. Perfect timing. I almost forgot about them. I also really like their subject “Welcome to Dell”. Gives me a warm “Welcome Home” type feel.
Eventbrite’s "Invite Friends" button
Pretty cool..The first button you see in the Eventbrite’semail is “Invite Friends”. They must have tested this and realized that the best place to put this button is right at the top even though it doesn’t really look that good in that spot.
In some spots a “Invite Friends” button doesn’t really make sense. But it totally makes sense for eventbrite.
FedEx Drop Box
Pretty cool how FedEx clearly shows you if your package will be picked up today.
Tumblr’s reblog
I love how Tumblr shows you who reblogged your post. You feel so loved when someone does it.
Weebly’s Auto Login
Weebly‘s super convenient “Auto Log-in to Weebly” button in their newsletter is awesome. I bet the get a ton more people to log back in to their accounts because of it. I actually have no idea what my password or username is anymore but I did log in to see whats happening with my Weebly website.
Dove – 1 product, tons of marketing
I love seeing soap commercials on TV. Especially Dove‘s Superbowl commercial.
They pretty much have had the same product for years. They are just marketing it different ways to gain market share. As a product guy I have the mindset of constantly trying to launch new features to out do the competition or be more innovative. But there are tons of ways to be innovative and gain market share by simply marketing your product in different ways.