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There a few websites that are trying to do something similar to our proposed business. The difference is that the existing websites only offer directories of services, they are visually unappealing and the websites do not offer a pleasant experience to the users.

I reviewed the first 10 pages of Google and Yahoo and I found the following websites to be our potential competitors:

Note: By directories I mean: providers’ directories: entertainers, food, venues, party supplies, etc.

1- http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/

This is a content website that offers party ideas. They also have a directory of providers.

2- http://www.birthdayexpress.com/

This website has a shop and offers content about parties.

3- http://www.party411.com/guides.html

This website has content and offers advertising.

4- http://thepartyworks.com/

It is a shop and has content. The ideas contributed by users offer simple, cheap party ideas.

5- http://www.kidsparties.com/

This is a directory of services for kids’ parties. Directory by state and category.

6- http://www.partydirectory.com/

This is a party directory for all types of parties. It does not seem to be an active website

7- http://www.partypop.com/planning/Birthday/

It offers complete directories for all types of parties. It also has some rudimentary interactive tools for budgets and offers ecards and boards.

8- http://www.kidspartyfun.com

It offers directories by state. It is a fun site; a mom created it.

9- http://www.kidsevents.com/

This is a local Fairfield county, CT and Westchester county NY directory. These counties are two of the richest counties in the country next to Beverly Hills and Nassau and a couple of others. They offer directories and other kids’ activities. It is one of the best-designed websites and the co-founders look like very smart people. They do not pop-up in search engines with the regular terms. We found them with very different terms, which are usually not used by people searching. I had a hard time finding them. These guys have the juice to become strong competitors, if they can scale the model nationally.

You may visit their advertising page to get an idea of their services.

http://www.kidsevents.com/advertising/index.cfm

10- http://www.expressbirthdayplanning.com/

This is the closest competitor to our plan. It offers directories of services related to the birthday party. Party directories by state.

They charge the providers for the listings and have many packages.

Sample of their charges:

Step One: Pick a Service

BASIC LISTING :

Select 1 category for your listing plus coverage in up to 3 area codes - $49.95/yr.

ENHANCED LISTING:

Select 1 category for your listing plus coverage in 6 area codes - $79.95/yr.

WEB PAGES OPTIONS are:

ONE WEB PAGE link including 2 photos and 1 title/logo plus text - $95.95*

THREE WEB PAGE links including 8 photos, 4 titles/logos/graphics - $275.00*

* One time fee. Customer must supply all text, graphics and photos.

An Express Birthday Planning representative will contact you within 24 hours of

your purchase to arrange transfer of all elements by mail or email.

MUST HAVE BASIC OR ENHANCED LISTING TO ORDER.

Step Three: Create Your Own Web Site & URL

Instead of our Web Pages residing on our server, we will set up your own domain name and upload your files to your own URL. You will have your very own registered domain name that you can use to refer people to on your business card, news letter and stationary. I.E. http://www.YOURNAME.com. A $30 domain registration fee will be applied if it hasn't been already registered. PLEASE NOTE: We can transfer the Web Pages created in STEP TWO to your own virtual domain, or you can create your own from scratch.

"Express Birthday Party Planning" currently offers 3 hosting options: CLICK HERE to view more information about our hosting plans.

Must have a Basic or Enhanced Listing to order.

Starter - $14.95/mth, 10 megs disk space, 1000 megs data transfer, 5 emails

Power - $19.95/mth, 75 megs disk space, 6000 megs data transfer, 40 emails

E-$$$ - $29.95/mth, 125 megs disk space, 9000 megs data transfer, 60 emails

Similar business models

The knot and the wedding-channel

Both are best in class in wedding and related events planning. They have been in business sine late 90s and have deep pockets.

The knot has extended to all types of media including TV and magazines.

The Wedding channel is the largest in number of visitors and users. It is a wonderful website, very well designed, provides a very pleasant user experience, and is easy to navigate. They work with wedding publications to advertise and attract target visitors.

They offer to providers:

Banners

Direct marketing (ezines)

Local listings

To the users they offer free:

Wedding planning

Articles and very good interactive tools such as:

1- Planning check lists.

This includes list of activities and times (schedule)

2- Wedding Website

You can:

Share your engagement story

Communicate event details and provide maps

Give out-of-town guests travel and lodging information

Display all of your registry information in an etiquette-appropriate way

You also receive:

A choice of designs, including flash animation

A FREE custom web address, good for 2 years

A guest book manager that lets you delete posts

24-hour access for you and your guests

3- Save the date

It's fun and easy to do!

Choose your wording

Select your favorite design

Then, send to everyone you're inviting to the wedding.

4- Guest list manager

Enter guest names once, and we help you:

Total your invitations and RSVPs

Print lists of names for envelope and place card calligraphy

Record table assignments and menu selections

Track gifts and thank-you cards

5- Scrapbook

In order to start your own Scrapbook, you need a FREE WeddingChannel.com membership.

The best way to save all your favorite ideas!

Your Scrapbook makes it easy to organize your favorite photos, add comments to each, and even email them to friends. Plus, your FREE membership gives you unlimited access to all WeddingChannel.com's easy-to-use planning tools.

6- Budget Calculator

To use our Budget Calculator, you need a FREE WeddingChannel.com membership.

Tell us your budget amount and we:

Suggest how much to spend on the gown, flowers, cake and more, based on national averages

Track deposits and balances

Help keep your budget balanced with at-a-glance totals

Reveal insider budget tips to help you save!

They also offer a huge catalog of gowns, party places, etc. That is how they make their money.

They have gift registry services.

They work with some shops that let the clients access the registries (all the articles) from the wedding channel website

Rates for local directories:

Local listings rates:

Premier Listing

$75.00 per month ($900.00 per year)

A web page custom-designed for your business (we take care of all the technical details).

A complete description of your services, along with pricing information

A company logo

A Photo Album of your work (up to ten photos)

A map and driving directions to your front door

A pop up window for special offers or coupons (can be updated monthly)

Geo-targeted banner ads - $30.00 per month

Promote your business with banners that appear in entire region of your Premier Listing

Top tier - $62.50 per month

2- Spa-addicts.com

This is not an ideal model, but perhaps some of their ideas can be part of our offering.

This is how their regular listing works:

National Spa Directory

You can choose from Bronze, Silver or Gold Directory Listings. (Platinum Directory Listings are reserved for Red Hot Special advertisers only.) Prices range from $8.25 - $18.25 per month, plus you receive FREE EXTRA SPACE to offer a spa-addicts EXCLUSIVE special of your choice (encouraged but not required). There is a one-time $50 setup fee for each listing.

Bronze. $99 per year. $199 destination spa

Silver. $169 per year. $269 destination spa

Gold. $219 per year. $ 319 destination spa

Labels: birthday party, business analysis, business plan, competitive advantage

What’s true in life is even truer in business: Isolation does not allow free exchange of information among industry peers and, thus, limits opportunities for developing new ideas or building on existing solutions. Sharing of information builds trust and allows companies to exploit information for the overall good of the industry.

We are all familiar with the expression, “No man is an island,” which, of course, implies the need to be involved in other peoples’ lives and to have them involved in ours. The same could be said about businesses — “No company is an island.”

Yet, a vast majority of packaging companies have a tendency to embrace an “island mentality” primarily because they are able to partner with a select group of large customers, and thus, don’t need to pursue additional clientele. This is further compounded by a tendency among their customers to discourage the packaging suppliers from working with competitors.

Thus, large packaging companies align themselves with their key customers, forming some kind of a loose keiretsu, while small- and medium-sized companies have to constantly work hard to access new customers. This situation also limits the ability of small- and medium-sized companies’ exposure to the latest developments in technology.

Relationships – handle with care
There is another reason why I am emphasizing the importance of moving out of the cocoons that packaging companies have lived in for decades: the increasingly fragile nature of relationships in today’s ever-changing environment.

Several packaging industry executives have indicated to me that their customers who had done business with them for years, and even decades, have suddenly decided to try a reverse-auction process. The message is clear — the relationship lasts as long as it has a positive impact on the customer’s profits. The moment customers figure out ways and means to improve their profitability using an alternate source, there is no incentive for them to continue their relationship with you even if you have memorized the names of all the kids of the purchasing manager.

Isolation may retard innovation
What is true in life is even truer in business: Isolation does not allow free exchange of information among industry peers and, thus, limits opportunities for developing new ideas or building on existing solutions. I am aware of several packaging companies that are so paranoid about their proprietary information that they do not allow their employees to speak to their peers in the industry.

I am not trying to argue that proprietary information be compromised, but sharing of information beyond that should be unrestricted. I continue to believe that despite availability of every single page of document ever published on the Internet, there is no substitute for personally interacting with your peers and sharing information informally. We all know that, for the most part, we do not write down every single idea and thought that we have in our mind, but we might definitely share it during a conversation.

Bridging the islands
The reason I talk about bridging the islands, as opposed to building a continent, is that while companies need to guard their proprietary information, they have to cooperate in developing a better packaging community. As we are already seeing in the automotive industry, large packaging companies need to take similar initiatives and start thinking about sharing information more freely. The technology available today also makes it possible to manage what specific kind of information is shared with which specific outside entities — customers, suppliers, distributors, banks and even competitors — so it is possible to control the flow of information.

Apart from encouraging innovation, free-flowing information allows other, more tangible benefits. For instance, as we all know, more information enables faster and, in most cases, better decisions. When companies build extranets with their key partners, they can also facilitate smoother transactions, reduce manual intervention, minimize paperwork and, as a result, improve the bottom line.

The dangers ahead
Your customers are under as much pressure to improve their profits as you are — and they’ll do virtually anything to achieve it. Accordingly, you have to make sure that you’re able to provide your customers with what they want before they find someone else to do it, probably cheaper and better than you.

Sharing of information builds trust, encourages even more sharing, and allows companies to exploit information for the overall good of the industry. There is no reason for you to hold on to information that may be more productively used by your partners. Companies that fail to take advantages of technology that can help build bridges, may find themselves isolated from their peers, and that can be disastrous.

Labels: alliances, competitive advantage, extranet, intranets, partnership, strategy

I have received several emails recently pointing my attention to some extremely important things to consider before you digitize your business. The number one item that almost everyone has pointed out as absolutely critical in any business process, and even more so in e-business, is differentiation. The reason I’m dedicating this column to differentiation is the fact that the speed at which companies have had to or are implementing e-business programs has sometimes resulted in a difficult situation. Specifically, in some cases, putting an ‘e’ in business has become more important than paying attention to what we have always considered as the core element of doing business, i.e. differentiating yourself from your competitors.

In our industry, we have not prided ourselves on exploiting IT. We are still an industry obsessed with materials and engineering and have come up with some great solutions for our customers. Of course, some IT tools like design software or communication channels have helped us in doing our jobs faster and better, but these tools have not been the drivers of innovations. What that means is that as an industry, our IT resources are rather weak. We have changed only when we had to.

This impacts us in two ways. By not having strong, internal IT resources, we have been slow to embrace technological changes. Secondly, we are forced to rely on outside agencies to help us with some of these programs. While I am a strong advocate of outsourcing, effectively managing your IT provider is still your responsibility. A provider can only know so much about your business and, while this company may have only good intentions for your business, it may still end up providing you with a solution that is no different than what they sold to half a dozen of your competitors.

The solutions providers have another interest in selling you a standard product. If you do not know enough and also do not want to select a customized product, the only way that you can be served is by using an off-the-shelf product that requires minimum tweaking. The outcome is that, while your packaging products may be significantly superior to your competitors, your website is unable to convey that message.

Why is differentiation crucial even in e-business?
So far the pressure on us has been to develop an online platform to conduct business. However, very soon everyone will be there, and the issue will no longer be if you have an online channel, but how effective it is in highlighting the differences and advantages that you have over everyone else. If that is not clearly apparent, the dot com mantra that ‘your competitor is only few clicks away’ is actually true.

As I have indicated in my previous columns, with the elimination of business inefficiencies through better information management, commercial friction will largely disappear, further squeezing our margins. As a result, retaining customers will be predicated on how much value we can create for our customers and what differentiates us from our competitors. Thus, the basic rules related to differentiation from competitors still apply.

Suggested road map
While e-business may be a new channel, the principle of competitive advantage remains essentially the same. You still have to differentiate yourself from your competitors, no matter what. If not, your customers will simply select the supplier with the lowest price every time they have to make a selection.

While developing an online strategy, make sure that you have your strategy managers on the team. If you do not have good internal IT people who understand your business inside and out, get some help from industry experts who understand the packaging business as well as IT. Putting together a team with such diverse backgrounds will enable you to work more effectively with your e-business provider so that you will be able to develop an online presence that duplicates your offline strengths.

Labels: competitive advantage, ebusiness, information technology, strategy