by: Geoff Ficke

The Cincinnati Native Who Created the Pet Food industry in the Mid-19^th Century 

Since the domestication of the dog some 10,000 years ago, man’s best friend enjoyed a very limited diet of table scraps, grains and scrounged bits and pieces scoured from fields and city streets until the mid-19^th century. The idea of a commercial Dog Food product dedicated to the culinary and dietary needs of canines was inconceivable in a world where people toiled mightily just to nourish themselves. People kept dogs for much more than companionship. They worked for their keep just as hard as any feudal serf. 

James Spratt was a lighting-rod salesman from Cincinnati. On a business trip to England in 1860 he witnessed a gaggle of street dogs wolfing down a pile of discarded biscuit hardtack that had been tossed to the dock from a British merchant ship. This inspired Mr. Spratt. He immediately went to work to create a product that would satisfy canine hunger and afford him a great business opportunity.

 James Spratt’s brainchild, The Patented Meat Fibrine Dog Cake was launched in Holborn, London. The original product was a hard biscuit cake made from a concoction of beetroot, wheat, grains, molasses and meat. Spratt was always very secretive about what type of meat he used in his Meat Fibrine Cakes. Initially the dog biscuits were sold to English gentlemen for their prized hunting dogs. The Company that Spratt formed was the first Consumer Product Brand to Market using snob appeal and Product Positioning based on the pampering aspect of the pet food was a major factor in the Brands success. 

Spratt’s Patented Limited Co. soon received a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria. A Patent was issued for the recipe and blending process that James Spratt perfected to manufacture the dog food biscuits. Sales boomed as aspirational dog owners wanted the best for their pets in an age when the industrial revolution was in full gear, prosperity was spreading and leisure was an exciting new lifestyle component for the middle class. James Spratt recognized these demographic changes and they whetted his Entrepreneurial instincts. 

After taking his Company public, James Spratt opened an American subsidiary based in New York City.  Distribution spread quickly across the United States. Spratt was one of the first great Consumer Product manufacturers who invested heavily in Marketing, Branding, Billboards, Packaging Graphics, Advertising and Sponsorships. 

The Company bought the front cover of the first ever journal of the American Kennel Club and actively participated in dog shows. Spratt began to target health conscious dog owners and the concept of dog life cycles was his creation. This total immersion into Marketing Pet Foods lead the Company to expand rapidly to many other Pet Care Products such as Travel Boxes, Collars, Leashes, and Kennel accessories. Booklets were given to consumers detailing how to treat common dog maladies utilizing Spratt products, medicines and Shampoos. Food products for cattle, poultry and other livestock were added. 

James Spratt died in 1880. The Company he founded, based on a simple dog biscuit, has endured. In 1950 it was bought by General Mills. 

The genius of James Spratt was not simply the creation of the first commercial Pet food. It was his vision and belief that as industrialized countries prospered, people would buy a product for their dogs that they had never needed. Today there are 77 millions licensed dogs in the United States alone. There are big box stores devoted exclusively to Marketing and Sales of Pet Products. Every Supermarket, Drug Store and Mass Merchandise retailer has a dedicated Pet Food department. 

This is the legacy of the great Entrepreneur James Spratt. He acted with creativity, purpose and determination to create a market where there was none before. His inspiration was piqued by watching street dogs devour hardtack on a Liverpool dock. This is a wonderful example for nascent Entrepreneurs to study.

by: Geoff Ficke

Time Is Never on the Entrepreneur’s Side 

In the early 1960’s, when the Rolling Stones were trying to become successful as a “blues band”, their first commercially successful recording was a ballad called “Time is on my side”. For the Rolling Stones time certainly has been on their side. For almost five decades this grizzled group has entertained audiences all over the world with their songs, videos and concerts. They are Rock and Roll’s richest, most famous (or infamous) and successful group. 

If you are an Entrepreneur, however, time is never on your side. A certain hint of paranoia is always an important presence in the successful Entrepreneur’s makeup. This paranoia should be generated by the fear that the great Consumer Product, idea or Business Model they are developing will be commercialized by competitors. They must be concerned about the possibility of being beaten to market. They should always be proceeding with the fear that someone somewhere is working to create a spot on or very similar product. This makes prudent respect for time a most important consideration when preparing the project for Market Launch. 

About a year ago my Product Development and Marketing Consulting firm was approached by an Entrepreneur with a wonderful Gourmet Food Product. The product was of excellent quality and possessed all of the elements essential to become a commercial success. It was a nicely convergent series of flavors that were not currently on the market. Packaging options were plentiful, Cost of Goods was in line to provide significant Gross Profit margins and the Marketing Strategies that could be utilized to drive Brand Awareness were unique. 

There was only one problem. The owner was a dawdler. We declined the opportunity to work on the project because it was obvious from our first meeting that this person was not driven, passionate and fully committed to getting to market ahead of any possible competitors and sealing the key “First Mover Advantage” that is so crucial to Consumer Product Marketing success. There was a strong touch of the “dreamer” present in this man. 

Last week we were walking retail stores to study new products and Merchandising Trends. While touring a major national supermarket store my team was stopped in its tracks. There on an end cap aisle display was a Sales Promotion for a product that looked amazingly similar to the Gourmet Food Product we had analyzed last year. As we studied the Packaging, Flavor assortment, Label Statements and the Point-of-Purchase Sales Collateral we were surprised at how closely this product resembled the line we had declined. There were differences, but there was not a vast chasm of differences.

The line we had discovered had won a “First Mover Advantage’ over our old acquaintance. In Marketing this is crucial. Many product categories are highly specialized. Retailers will typically carry only one product in this type of niche category. 3M’s Post-It-Notes are an example. 

The “dreamer” whose product we had reviewed and declined did not believe that there was anyone capable of duplicating or improving on his line of Gourmet Food Products. He was wrong and those that believe this sort of drivel are proven wrong again and again. When I called him to see how he was progressing with his New Product Launch he was still planning, tweaking and procrastinating. 

Time is never the driven Entrepreneur’s friend. The example I cite here is not unique and we see it occur all too often. If an idea is worth pursuing, it is worth pursuing with aggression, a customized Marketing Strategy and with a healthy fear and paranoia of probable competition.

by: Geoff Ficke

The Pioneer of Personal Success Literature Should Be Required Reading for Today’s Leaders 

When I was a young chap just out of college in 1969 and about to start a business career I was very fortunate to have had a mentor. This gentleman was a successful manufacturer in Lexington, KY where I had recently graduated from the University of Kentucky. For reasons I never fully understood he took me under his wing and patiently guided me toward a life of opportunities that I never thought existed. He was successful. I was the first person in my family to ever go to college much less to graduate. He had travelled widely and enjoyed many interesting experiences. I had almost never been out of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He had much to teach. I had very much still to learn. 

One of the great lessons my mentor provided was the importance of constantly studying the traits that make people successful. In this vain, he gifted me a book when I graduated. After years of study and struggle to complete my degree studies another book was not exactly on my list of highly desired possessions. This book, however, was a difference maker in my life. 

The book was Napoleon Hill’s classic “Think and Grow Rich”. Written in 1938, this book is considered a pioneering study in the emerging field of Personal Success Literature. Today Self-Help publications are ubiquitous. The book “Think and Grow Rich” was really the progenitor of the evolutionary contemporary phenomena whereby individuals search for myriad ways to find the best path to achieving their goals, whether personal, social or professional.

Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 into grinding poverty in Appalachian Virginia. He became a mountain reporter for local newspapers at the age of 13. As his journalism career slowly advanced Mr. Hill enjoyed a bit of life changing luck in 1908. He was assigned to conduct an interview with and write an article about Andrew Carnegie, the great steel industrialist. The topic was to be about the achievement of success and how great accomplishments could be obtained in many areas of life. 

Andrew Carnegie was impressed with Hill. He shared openly with him a philosophy that he believed was the key to his success and could be transferred to enable others to climb the ladder of success. Carnegie encouraged and assisted Hill in interviewing over 500 of the most important, successful men of the day, including: William Howard Taft, Elmer Gates, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller. The goal was to discover the common thread that ran through the successes that each of these leaders in their fields had utilized to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals. It took many years for Napoleon Hill to accumulate the data that he believed was essential in enabling ordinary people to improve their status in life. 

The resulting code was established in Hill’s “Philosophy of Achievement”. This formula was originally published in the multi-volume “The Laws of Success” in 1925. The book became a sensation. Soon it was released in the famous home study course “Mental Dynamite”, also a huge critical and commercial success. 

The four cornerstones of Napoleon Hill’s “Philosophy of Achievement” were freedom, capitalism, harmony and democracy. His stated belief was that success in any chosen field of endeavor could not be realized if even one of these cornerstones were missing. America had prospered mightily for 200 years because of these traits that were so unique to this country. Negative emotions such as fear and selfishness were always present in unsuccessful people according to Hill’s philosophy. 

Note that the philosophy that enables success is positive. Negative emotions are cornerstones of failure. 

By the time of his death in 1970, Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” was one of the most successful books of all time with sales of over 20 million copies. He was among the leading inspirations for a generation of subsequent “success coaches” such a Norman Vincent Peale, W. Clement Stone, Dr. Robert Schiller, Peter Drucker and Tony Robbins among many others. The 21^st century philosophy of personal prosperity evangelizing has roots in Hill’s teachings. 

Unfortunately much of the wisdom that was gifted us by thinkers such as Napoleon Hill has been diminished by the modern tendency to blame others for misfortune and seek protection from the vagaries of life. Fewer and fewer people today are willing to confront challenges and overcome any type of obstacle. The government or society is expected to provide comforts, basics, and yes, the ugliest word in the American idiom, entitlements. Children are pampered with participation trophies. Winning is frowned upon, no one should suffer a loss. The crucial life’s lessons we learn from losing a game or competition, or God forbid failing at work or in business, is being neutered.

Life does not work this way. There is more opportunity today than at any time in history. It simply must be seized. Instant gratification creates selfishness and envy to possess material things which others own, many have not worked for but for which they still crave. This is negativity at its ugliest. 

Men like Napoleon Hill, and the hundreds of successful people he studied to develop his “Philosophy of Achievement” would not understand much of what is occurring in today’s entitled society. I would bet that the subsistence farmer, shop owner, seamstress or day laborer of 1908 would not either. There was no free lunch. America was the land of opportunity for all who wanted to come, get in the game and compete, taking advantage of this country’s four great gifts; Harmony, Democracy, Freedom and Capitalism. 

21^st century politicians, educators, religious leaders and intellectuals should study the principals that are espoused in all of Napoleon Hill’s writings. If they did, and took the time to digest his clear message, they would not be so quick to promote class differences, agitate for lame social policies which impoverish and reinforce the illusion that a distant government has the answers to every problem. Self-reliance is not only the best way to a fulfilling life; it is the most rewarding on so many levels.

by: Geoff Ficke

The 5 Personal Traits Essential for Achieving Entrepreneurial Success 

I have worked with Entrepreneurs, Inventors and businesses large and small all over the world in my career as a Consumer Product Development and Marketing Consultant. For every 20 opportunities we review, possibly one will take the plunge and commit to the arduous processes required to successfully launch a new product, service or business. Why is it that such a small percentage of possible new enterprises ever even attempt to become a start-up, much less succeed? 

There are many reasons for this tiny conversion rate from dreaming to realization of the American dream. The most obvious is that it is hard work. But hey, if it was easy everyone would be successfully doing it. Unfortunately, one or more of the personal traits necessary to achieve commercial success by Entrepreneurs are usually found lacking.   

The 5 Personal Traits Essential for Achieving Entrepreneurial Success are the following: 

1. FOCUS

An old adage states, “If you chase 2 rabbits, both will escape”.

I place this first in importance because it is the trait we see most abused. For many creative people it is exceedingly difficult to chart a course, define a goal and stay totally focused on attainment of that goal. The successful entrepreneur knows this is crucial. They will focus like a laser until the task is accomplished, only then moving on the next project. Focus requires discipline. 

    2.    Courage

No one can learn or be taught courage. People either have it or they do not.

I have never met a successful self-made person that did not possess a modicum of courage. Courage is the oil that makes people act, move, commit and stare down and overcome sometimes great odds.

    3.    Self-confidence

The quiet belief in oneself, your ideas, abilities and the benefits your concept, Product, Marketing Strategy or Business Plan will provide to Consumers and/or Investors is essential to success. We all have doubts. For too many people, however, doubt or lack of self-confidence causes inertia. The self-confident Entrepreneur does not have to shout or boast. This person has conducted proper due diligence, studied the market and   marinated themselves in every aspect of their project. They are anxious to present their ideas. This work becomes fun when true self-confidence is realized.

    4.    Diligence

The successful Entrepreneur DOES NOT TAKE shortcuts! They are diligent in conducting proper research, finding answers, seeking help and most crucially never letting the undeniably unpleasant word “no” stop their progress. They hear this nasty little two letter word all too often. But it is not a wall, just a bump in their road to achieving goals. They never alibi or blame others for their condition. Diligence, perseverance and ambition are essential to the DNA of successful self-made business people. 

    5.    Honesty

Being as honest with yourself, as you must be with others is crucial to achieving success in any communal or business endeavor. Providing a valued Product or Service in return for fair reimbursement is a given. Giving a bit more than you receive is always the best way to insure a lasting, beneficial commercial relationship with clients, customers, investors. We all know right from wrong, the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments. Honesty is essential. 

These 5 Personal Traits Essential for Achieving Entrepreneurial Success are not moralizing. They are practical guideposts. All too often we see presentations of Business Concepts that seem too good to be true. They almost always are. One or more of Focus, Courage, Self-Confidence, Diligence and Honesty are missing from these incomplete and thus disposable opportunities.

It is much easier to conduct affairs in a straightforward, honorable manner. Gray areas are always discovered. The entrepreneur who thinks that they can con the marketplace will be obviated. This is never a desired outco

by: Geoff Ficke

The Simple Wisdom We Learn from Studying Ancient Greek Rhetorical Form Chiasmus 

The ancient Greeks perfected and gifted to us the unique rhetorical form known as chiasmus. Simply stated, chiasmus is a figure of speech in which two phrases are inverted to display a parallelism. There are many examples of this device that have become famous and have entered everyday usage. One of my favorites is attributed to Ben Franklin, America’s first great Entrepreneur, Innovator and a Founding Father of the country; “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. 

There is inherent in almost every chiasmus a certain elegantly simple truth or logic. Franklin, in just nine short words, lays down a marker that should be utilized throughout a productive life. He advises us to lay a foundation. Have a plan. Do the research. Have a Marketing Strategy. Prepare for, and consider all options. 

Another famous chiasmus is attributed to Anonymous; no one knows for sure who first said, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. This term is repeatedly spoken and applies to every area of life. We hear it in sports, at work, when confronted with any difficult task or challenge. It is almost too pithy, but is so incredibly true. 

I often refer to a listing of chiasmus phrases I have collected throughout my life, especially as they relate to motivation and positive thinking. These little sayings are lyrical, sometimes whimsical, but always offer a better way to look at and dissect life’s problems, whether personal, social or business related. 

President Dwight Eisenhower, in a speech to the 1958 Republican Convention famously stated, “It is not the size of the dog in the fight, it is size of the fight in the dog”. Who would argue with such clearly stated logic? David slew Goliath using only a tiny sling shot. The United States Olympic hockey team beat the mighty Soviet Union in 1980 in one of the greatest sports upsets of all time. Newcomer Hyundai is taking huge auto market share from much more established, larger competitors. Courage, competitiveness and vision can overcome great odds and disadvantages. 

For centuries little Holland was the greatest commercial colossus in the world. How did such a tiny country, possessing almost no natural resources come to create such a vast trading empire? As described in each of the chiasmus quoted above, the Dutch had a plan, were creative and courageous, and they did not dawdle. They simply outworked, out planned and out hustled countries that enjoyed more natural wealth and assets, larger populations and possessed greater military prowess. The Dutch model is exemplary. 

The little grains of wisdom that are so elegantly framed in chiasmus phrases are more relevant than ever today. We live in a time of change and speedier creative destruction that is roiling life for many people. And yet, this rapid evolution of the global commercial market is creating fresh, new, more exciting opportunities for more people than at any time in history. 

Ben Franklin advised us that it is imprudent to go through life without a plan. Anonymous knew that tough times would always be a challenge and we have to adapt. President Eisenhower counseled wisely that one should never quit, no matter the odds being faced. Use the logic and guidance provided by chiasmus sayings to add a little light to what can sometimes seem a dark, lonely path.

by: Geoff Ficke

Business Should Offer More than Just a Product They Should Try to Offer a Buying Experience 

The hugely successful entrepreneur Debbi Fields was once asked what it felt like to be a winner in the cookie business; she replied, “I never felt like I was in the cookie business. I’ve always been in the good feeling business. My job is to sell joy. My job is to sell happiness. My job is to sell an experience”. This is a mantra that all Entrepreneurs should emulate when creating their Business Model and Brand Marketing Strategies. 

For a great innovator like Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies, the cookie product is simply the vehicle she has utilized to provide millions of consumers her desired sensory experience. Mrs. Fields Cookies are so seductively tasty, visually attractive, fun to watch be baked and eaten, and smell so pleasing that virtually all senses are gratified by the simple experience of purchasing and consuming the treats. 

Mass produced cookies can be bought and consumed anywhere. They taste good.  But a small batch, gourmet baked cookie, such as Mrs. Fields provides a different, more intense experience. It is the identification and creation of a product that enhances the consumer enjoyment on so many levels that makes Debbi Fields unique, and her success so compelling.

Early in my Marketing career I worked with the formerly great Cosmetic giant Revlon. Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon was a true Marketing and Product Development visionary. Mr. Revson was once asked how he could justify selling for $6 a mascara that cost a mere $.30 to produce. His famous reply, “I do not sell mascara. I sell hope”! The experience that Revlon offered their customers was as important in the Brand Positioning and Marketing Strategies employed by the Company as the products themselves. There were less expensive Cosmetic, Skin Care and Perfume products in the 1960’s than Revlon, but Charles Revson created a perceived user experience that only his products offered at the time.

There are many other contemporary examples of Branding that includes a formidable experiential element in addition to a supposed better product.

Starbucks is one of the most obvious. 30 years ago, no one in their right mind would have believed that people would willingly pay $4 or more for a coffee product. Starbucks has created the ultimate coffee experience and that includes much more than just the cup of Joe. 

One of the most daunting hurdles Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs and Inventors face is how to differentiate their Consumer Product or service from the established competition. Creating and implementing a unique user experience is one of the best ways to accomplish this essential task. The possible ways to achieve this goal are endless. Make sure this identifiable experience is addressed in your Business Plan, Sales Model, Marketing Strategy and Branding Campaign.

by: Geoff Ficke

Classic French Milled Soap Offers a Lesson in Creating A Proprietary Marketing Niche for Common Products

One of the most difficult realities an aspiring Consumer Product Marketer must confront is how to present their Brand as a fresh, original, worthwhile counter-offering to their much more established competition. What makes the line, service or item unique? Modern Marketing Consultants call this trait a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This is a fancy inside baseball term that simply identifies the product “niche” the brand will fill.

This is the most challenging, and crucial item that must be successfully considered and answered before a customized Marketing Strategy, Sales Model and Business Plan can be assembled. Think about it. If your product, service or project is not identifiably different from the competition, why would it be successful? For Entrepreneurs, Inventors and Small Businesses differentiation is crucial. For large established corporations, product replication and cloning is much more achievable. They have the Marketing and Sales Promotion Resources to push product into distribution and be followers. New entities typically do not. 

So how can you, the Entrepreneur with a great product idea, identify and nail a strong USP. One of the best ways to approach the problem is to study history. In most Consumer Product categories there are stellar examples of Innovators who discovered a niche and filled the space with product that addressed perceived consumer benefits. 

Let’s consider the simple bar of soap. Soap has been produced and used for thousands of years. Various techniques have been used to create the saponification process throughout the ages. Beef tallow, glycerin, lye and other agents have been used to provide the cleansing performance people have expected when using soap. In modern times bar soap has become a commodity. Liquid soap has come into vogue in the past 25 years. 

However, there are specialized milling processes that have been utilized for several centuries to create premium soap bars. The most famous of these is French Milled Soap. This technique is also referred to as triple-milled. 

For most of history soap has been a bar by bar, hand produced product. Industrialization created the opportunity to mass produce Branded Personal Care soaps such as Procter & Gamble’s famous Ivory Soap. However, 250 years ago the venerable, London-based House of Yardley introduced French Milled Soaps that became popular with Europe’s aristocracy. This changed the Marketing of humble Personal Care Soap and helped lead to the popularization and advancement of Perfumery, Aromatherapy and Bath and Body care products. 

Yardley only made soaps from the finest ingredients and essential perfume oils and used special machinery to press separated, dried and cured soap flakes. This triple-pressing, called French Milling, requires custom machinery and separates the lye which normally remains present in hand, or cold process produced soap bars. Owing to the slow curing of the soap flakes, sometimes over many weeks, and the multiple times each bar is pressed and processed before it is finished, French Milled Soap is more expensive than cold processed soaps. It also lathers more richly and is preferred by consumers sensitive to the application of harsh ingredients such as lye to the face. 

The special manufacturing process required to produce French Milled Soaps also allows for unlimited shapes, design cues and special visual effects that are not possible in cold processed bar soaps. The result is that the market for French Milled Soap is wonderfully diverse, creative and artesian. 

Yardley is still a wonderful British Brand over 250 years on. The Company has enjoyed two Royal Warrants assigned by the House of Windsor and has prospered as a Perfumer and Cosmetics distributor with international reach for most of the 20^th Century. However, it is the luxury, individually wrapped highly fragranced French Milled Soap coffret sets that has been the base of the Yardley success. 

This is an example of a Brand utilizing a unique production process, creating mystique and perfecting a customized Marketing Strategy that has stood the test of time. Apply this concept to your project. We have used variants of it repeatedly with clients in various Product Development campaigns and Sales categories. The goal must be to tell a different story about how, and why your product is unique, an enhancement on existing competitive products and deserves to be purchased and utilized by the consumer.