Junk mail!

[crackah]

Hey, after checking my letterbox yesterday, i had stacks of junk mail. I complained to a friend who said, now way! i love junk mail..... so it made me think, these business spend alot of money, and waste alot of paper on this junk mail.

I though about setting up a site, where they can all upload the brochures for a fee, and i would have a nice, easy website to navigate and browse.

Save the environment etc. currently in aus, there is a site which does it, http://www.junkmail.com.au/ but its shit. Before i do anything, i would probably need to talk to a few of the businesses who advertise like this, as see if its interesting to them.


What do people think about the idea?


Thanks.

[richkid]

I think the thrill for people is just sitting down and reading the the junk mail, i don't think doing it on the internet would have the same affect. Plus I think you would lose a lot of people reading it, cause a lot of the people who read it cause its in their hands wont go to a website to view it.

[crackah]

That is one of the things i was thinking, but obviously i would try to recreate the effect.

I may have to ask a few people on what they think.

[akula]

Hey, after checking my letterbox yesterday, i had stacks of junk mail. I complained to a friend who said, now way! i love junk mail..... so it made me think, these business spend alot of money, and waste alot of paper on this junk mail.

I though about setting up a site, where they can all upload the brochures for a fee, and i would have a nice, easy website to navigate and browse.

Save the environment etc. currently in aus, there is a site which does it, http://www.junkmail.com.au/ but its shit. Before i do anything, i would probably need to talk to a few of the businesses who advertise like this, as see if its interesting to them.


What do people think about the idea?


Thanks.

No...that's not really an opportunity. Google has had a product like this for a while, but it's not popular.

The problem: What you need to do is to help offline retailers upsell their prospects. The problem for retailers at bourke street mall (and other places) is being able to retain the foot traffic that comes into their store. Everyday, hundreds of people walk in, walk out and never come back - either because they didn't have enough money on them at the time, or didn't have the time to make a decision or the shop didn't have what they were looking for.

The solution: The crude solution for this problem is for you to lease some laptops and plonk them on the retail counter or on a stand of some kind next to the door. So when the customer leaves, they can input what they're looking for, punch in their email and have an offer sent to them in the future.

You would charge the shop keeper a flat fee for installation, and an additional fee for each address you collect. If it's costing like $20 per week to hire a lap top, and you're collecting 100 addresses per day - you don't have to charge much to make a profit.

[crackah]

Ah i see. Google does everything ay?


Thats not a bad idea akula, but would you get .

Have you seen something similar to that?

It would be like a ekiosk. similar to this
http://www.ekiosk.de/ekiosk/en/792b8...startpage.html

http://www.sitekiosk.com/en-US/SiteKiosk/Default.aspx
Mmhmm.

Would it be profitable for the business?

They would need to i guess build up a mailing list through it etc.

Do you believe a business would get $20+ benefit out of this everyweek?

I think so, depending on what it would have, could have a list of every product the store has, can do a simple search etc.

[akula]

Have you seen something similar to that?

It would be like a ekiosk. similar to this
http://www.ekiosk.de/ekiosk/en/792b8...startpage.html

http://www.sitekiosk.com/en-US/SiteKiosk/Default.aspx
Mmhmm.

Would it be profitable for the business?

They would need to i guess build up a mailing list through it etc.

Do you believe a business would get $20+ benefit out of this everyweek?

I think so, depending on what it would have, could have a list of every product the store has, can do a simple search etc.

Great points and excellent questions!

Yes, I think it would be a very profitable business (low costs, high margin). No I haven't seen many of these solutions around. And yes, I think that the problem even for small foot traffic customer (not to mention large foot traffic operators like stadium, concert, museum operators) is compelling enough to pay $20+ on a weekly basis.

Sure, the software for these terminals can be written to do all kinds of things (i.e. recommendation engines etc), but in the end, as long as the solution collects the emails, segments them into different lists (i.e. by age/location etc) and allows the customer to easy create and send out offers to their prospects (either to email or sms) - these core features would be enough for v1.0...and any decent email autoresponder, does all of these things perfectly fine

I have no doubt that an adhoc survey of the market would certify strong demand for this product. It's a great opportunity.

[crackah]

I will have a look, this could be a possible summer project for me. I finish exams soon, and i will call around some businesses and see what they are interested in.


I think that there maybe a demand, like for a clothing store, have their catalogue on a touch screen, so you can scroll through, find what you like, find what current stock, and put your name down on a list to get a email when its in.

The biggest cost would be the software costs.

I will have a think about this. Talk to a friend, and call a few businesses and see if its something that would interest them.

I guess this is really bringing technology into your shopping, something which i have only started seeing, with ads in centres etc.

[crackah]

I guess it would be technology assisted shopping.... Would stores need/want it? another question i would need to research.


After thinking, there would probably be various levels of functionality depending on the store, like cheap for less visitors, to larger, better for FMCG stores.

Just quickly, im sure you would know akula, who would be the best person to talk to, to interview/question about such an item at their store. Which position in the company i mean.

[mungo21]

Im working with a company in the UK, who sell build and design such an item,
information kiosk look here
http://www.dicoll.co.uk/

hope this is usefull

[akula]

I guess it would be technology assisted shopping.... Would stores need/want it? another question i would need to research.


After thinking, there would probably be various levels of functionality depending on the store, like cheap for less visitors, to larger, better for FMCG stores.

Just quickly, im sure you would know akula, who would be the best person to talk to, to interview/question about such an item at their store. Which position in the company i mean.

the MD, or the marketing manager...but I'm not sure

...in terms of large scale, the ARA has the rolodex and the systems to help you implement a solution like this at thousands of locations on a national scale

[crackah]

Thanks mate. I will have a look.

I think the biggest issue would be development costs, and costs per unit to get something which is very usable.