The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

Last Friday Business Pundit published a story about Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, calling them washed-up celebrities scratching and clawing their way back into the spot light with the launch of a new jewelry line. The author claims that it will be difficult for them to turn a profit with a name that no longer has any brand power, but as a closet fan of tween (kids ages 8-12) entertainment, I’d say that there’s really no need to claw your way back into something that you never left. Normally I’m in complete agreement with BusinessPundit, but on this particular post I think they missed the fact that the Olsen twins have actually maintained their tween stardom throughout the years.

Their names and faces may not be as visible as they once were, but their brand is still strong. Dualstar Entertainment Group, the company that the girls founded when they were 6, has since grown into a billion dollar consumer-goods empire. Throughout the past few years, the girls have made the Forbes list of the 100 highest-paid celebrities and Fortune’s list of the richest people under age 40. The money isn’t coming from reruns of Full House on ABC Family or Nick at Nite; it’s coming from the sale of their clothes, fragrances, accessories, etc. They pioneered a tween market that now grosses more than $300 billion a year, and even though the market has more recently been dominated by Hannah Montana and High School Musical, Dualstar still holds a large chunk of the market share.

The girls must have realized that as they grew older they would need to make a shift in marketing, so with the launch of their bedroom-furniture line about a year ago, they deemphasized their names and faces as the focus of the Dualstar brand. I have no idea if their new jewelry line will be successful, but if history is any indication I’m sure it will do just fine. Whether you think they’re totally cool or totally lame, you can’t say that they aren’t smart, business-savvy young women. Chances are they make WAY more money than you do.

Seriously! What is the deal? I anticipated a bunch of blog posts yesterday and this morning about the release of the iPhone, but a “bunch” is not what I got. Instead what I found is that time has completely stopped still in the tech world. Apparently NOTHING else of any importance has happened in the past 24 hours.

The blogosphere has taken the iPhone story, beat it to death with a baseball bat, run over it with their cars, and then written one more story on it…just in case. This is just madness. Unless the new iPhone also doubles as a jetpack (like from “The Rocketeer”), and I can fly around Peter Pan-style with it, then I’m not interested in adding to the hysteria.

I said it before when the iPhone 3G was first announced, and I’ll say it again. I’m not writing one word about it.

I would absolutely LOVE to do an interview with someone from the Victoria’s Secret marketing department. Why? Quite frankly, they’re brilliant. No company knows its customers quite like Victoria’s Secret. They are always on the ball…with everything. They are the premier retailer of high-class, luxury lingerie, and yet they find a way to reach all women. For decades the chain has used intense branding to maintain an upscale image, making women feel glamorous and sexy, yet paired it with department store-like price promotions, making it an affordable luxury.

On top of knowing women in general, Victoria’s Secret marketers know their individual customers as well. Every year for my birthday they send me a gift card, which even though I’m sure was done by computer is still thoughtful. They even send one of my coworkers a gift card a few weeks before his wife’s birthday and send her a card before his. How do they even know to do that? It’s genius. The one that really suckers people in is the “one free panty” coupons that they frequently send in the mail. You go into the store planning to spend nothing and come out having racked up a $200 bill.

Small businesses can learn more about marketing from Victoria’s Secret than they could from just about any other company in the world. If anyone from the marketing department at Victoria’s Secret happens to stumble across this post, please, please, please email me at startupblog_at_partnerup_dot_com…pretty please! If you do, I promise to go on a huge spending spree. Just throwin’ that out there.

I love a good marketing promotion. I’m that consumer who gets sucked in by the prospect of saving a buck on something I don’t even need or possibly winning a million dollars. It’s sad, I know. I’m sure that I’ve wasted more money than I’ve saved in the long run. But I can’t help myself, and neither can many other consumers. So I thought, just for kicks, that I would highlight my three favorite promotions ever, why they were so awesome and how they kept (keep) me coming back for more. (more…)

About a month ago I shared with you my gripe about text messaging and emailing while driving. I think it’s stupid and dangerous, and now I have California and Washington to back me up.

Today marks day one of their statewide bans on use of handheld mobile devices in the car, according to a TechCrunch post this morning. Offenders will be charged a $20 fine, nothing too financially draining, which is a bit disappointing. I’d prefer to slap a steep fine on each and every one of them, particularly repeat offenders. On a side note, hands-free devices are still allowed.

These aren’t the first states to enact such laws; New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C. and Connecticut have had similar laws for years. But they are obviously the most recent, and they reinforce the need to focus on newer technologies. Perhaps a workable, voice-activated, in-vehicle system that translates text from emails, text messages or the Web in to sound, so you can listen to the information you need rather than read it.

Who knows what the future holds for such a technology, maybe we won’t need it because people will stop using their mobile devices in the car altogether. Doubtful. Either way, it’s just a matter of time before states and countries everywhere realize the danger hand-held mobile devices pose for drivers and start enacting laws of their own.

I’ve been a political junkie for a long time now. So when I come across a story like “More Regulation, Fewer Entrepreneurs”, from the U.S. News and World Report business blog Risky Business, I instinctively start considering the political implications, particularly where upcoming elections are involved.

The article highlights a recent study by Silvia Ardagna of Harvard University and Annamaria Lusardi of Dartmouth College, and the results basically say that the larger the amount of government regulation, the smaller the amount of entrepreneurial activity.

Not surprising.

The depth and breadth of the study, however, give these results some clout. They also give us a chance to reflect on the upcoming presidential election. (more…)

I try really hard to bring you useful, relevant content and as much of it as I can. But let’s get real, I’m not Wonder Woman (although that would definitely make my day, and my life for that matter). So if you’re looking for additional small business/startup content or any kind of content, I’ve got an awesome resource for you.

Alltop.com, created by the founders of Truemors (Guy Kawasaki, Will Mayall, and Kathryn Henkens), is a new site that highlights great blogs and news sites under 10 different categories and more than 100 subcategories. You can look under “Work” and find the “Small Business” category, or you can look under “Interests” and find the “Motorcycles” category. Once you’ve clicked on the area that interests you, the site will give you a ton of blogs and news sites to choose from, and it lists for you the last five stories on each. All you have to do is click to read them.

It’s super easy to use. I went on the site last week, and it sucked me in YouTube-style. I just wanted to see what it was about and ended up spending WAY too much time reading up on all of my interests. So I encourage you to check it out. It’s pretty cool. 

I first read about the big Cold Stone controversy early last week on Independent Street. Then Business Pundit added to the debate yesterday. Now I feel compelled to contribute my two cents as well.

So here is the gist of the story. A group of Cold Stone Creamery franchisees are attempting to file a class-action lawsuit against the parent company, Kahala Corp., claiming “potential revenue numbers were misleading,” among other things. Cold Stone, on the other hand, suggests the franchisees were not fit to run a business, and that’s why so many franchises are failing. So who’s the culprit, corporate or the franchisees? (more…)