My Speech at Aalto University Helsinki Finland Entrepreneurial Marketing -cource Opportunity recognition Aalto University 2013-03-14 Ilkka O. Lavas Serial Entrepreneur Offering Market Fit

1. Opportunity recognition
Offering-Market fit
(Product-Market fit)

3. Ilkka O. Lavas
• 2 books about entrepreneurship
• Partner, board member, investor
– Portfolio of 12 businesses
– 10+ aquisitions done
– 3 exits
• Young Entrepreneur of the year
2009 in Southern Finland –area
• 34years, 2 boys, 1 wife, 1153 fb
connections, 1035 linkedin
conns, twitter @lavas

4. Portfolio
EXITed:
EXITed:

5. Motto
When you spend 8 hours doing something, you
should be able enjoy it
Most important in work-life is to enjoy work and
your achievements at work itself
you need to have good feeling to go to
work every day
if you don’t like your job or don’t feel good at job:
QUIT

6. Entrepreneurial Marketing
• Agility as a success
factor?
• What is agility?
Photo by Tarja Ryhannen Mitrovic /
Flickr

7. Secrets of Entrepreneurial marketing
MARKETING AS A CONTINUALLY
OPTIMIZING LEARNING PROCESS

8. AIDA
• A - Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of
the customer.
• I - Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on
and demonstrating advantages and benefits
(instead of focusing on features, as in traditional
advertising).
• D - Desire: convince customers that they want
and desire the product or service and that it will
satisfy their needs.
• A - Action: lead customers towards taking action
and/or purchasing.

9. Outbound marketing
A - Action: lead Choose your
customers towards Target Audience
taking action and/or
purchasing. (Segment)
D - Desire: convince
customers that they A- Attention
want and desire the (Awareness)
product or service and Marketing message,
that it will satisfy their Getting noticed (push)
needs.
I - Interest: raise
customer interest by
focusing on and
demonstrating
advantages and benefit
© Ilkka Lavas 2012 W3 Group Finland Oy

10. Inbound marketing
1. Attract traffic 1. Get found
2. Convert visitors to 2-4. Convert
leads 5. Analyze.
3. Convert leads to sales
4. Turn customers into
repeat higher margin
customers
5. Analyze for continuous
improvement

11. Outbound marketing
A - Action: lead
customers towards
Target Audience
Inbound marketing
taking action and/or
purchasing.
Convert Analysis
buyers to buy
more and Create
create Audience
recurring
sales
Collect Data,
Analyze, Learn and Tell your audience
D - Desire: convince Convert
customers that they leads develop (tweet, facebook, A- Attention
want and desire the to sales email) (Awareness)
product or service and Marketing message,
that it will satisfy their Getting noticed (push)
needs.
Convert
visitors to
leads
I - Interest: raise
customer interest by
focusing on and
demonstrating
advantages and benefit
© Ilkka Lavas 2012 W3 Group Finland Oy www.w3.fi

12. Where to start ?
CHOOSE YOUR SEGMENT

13. The business model canvas
Something
Somebody
Who?
START BY
THINKING
TO WHOM
SHOULD I SELL

14. Customer Segment Example
Finns in Finland
5.400.000 ppl

15. Customer Segment Example
Finns living abroad United States 700,000
400.000 Finns + Sweden 470,000
Kids 800.000 Finns Canada 131,040
Brazil 90,000

16. Case: Suomikauppa.fi
OFFERING – MARKET -FIT

17. Search For business idea
• Search for business idea
– Living abroad
– Need for Finnish food and products
– There was no online-shop where you can buy finnish
products.
– Relatives sent Finnish Chocolate Fazer Sininen and
Juhla Mokka Coffee. Difficult.
• Common sources for new ideas: Customers,
Employees, Friends, Other Entrepreneurs,
Magazines, Seminars, Common-Life-
Problems/Situations

18. Happy family. Product
Kids educated with finnish food-culture
I want to have Finland –party for
my finnish kids.
Experience I want to tech my kids how to make
Enjoy finnish candies rye bread yourself.
Safe milk for the baby I want Fazer Sininen Chocolate Now.
Delivered directly to home I need to feed my babyborn.
Safe for my kids. (vs china) Eat something luxury
Customers Customer
Gains Jobs
Customer Pains
Is it safe to order online?
What happens with the customs?
How long time do I have to wait?
How much do I have to pay?

20. Timing
• We we not first. There was one pioneer who
failed. We learned from pioneer and harvested
the benefits.
• Payment systems? Online payment?
• Are your customers used to pay online?
• Are your customers willing to buy?
• Do your customers know that you exist? How do I
reach my customers?
• Do your customers already recognize the need?

21. Be trustworthy
• ”Finland is not a country, it is a club.”, everyone
knows somebody who knows you.
• You can sell easily once, but to sell second time
you must have done first delivery well.
• Returning policies
• Customer Service
• Good relations with the customs
• Import licences (US FDA, Australia etc)
• Export licences
• Reliability even during high peak seasons

22. Be ready to learn
• You should never become so ready that you think don’t
need to learn anything anymore.
• Learning is about the joy of imperfection.
• Listen to your customers, our first 400 product were
from our customer wish list, Now we have more than
3000 products.
• Our customer knew better than we that they want
Taffel Chips and Harwall Jaffa delivered to more than
100 countries.
• We did not think that many Finns can’t write or read
finnish properly anymore if they have lived 20+ years
abroad.

23. Our predessor failed, and we did learn
• 1996-1998 there was competitor with similar
products and same market.
• They did not meet the needs of customers:
– Only 30 products
– Slow delivery
– Service only in Finnish
• Business opportunity Time window was not
open yet:
– Paying online was not very common

24. If we can deliver finnish products abroad, who else may be interested?
EXPANSION:
CHOOSING ANOTHER SEGMENT

25. The business model canvas
Something
Somebody
ELSE
=Different
message!

27. Team Entrepreneurship
1+1+1+1+1=11111

28. Team Roles
Consider team People with different
entrepreneurship strengths:
• Best growth companies • Financial
are run by 3-5 people • Lawyer
teams (Source TEM • Marketing
kasvuyrityskatsaus 2011).
• Sales
• Hr
• Technology
• Design
• Visual
• …

29. Sales?
MARKETING IS CONNECTED WITH
SALES

30. Example marketing funnel
Visitors to Web Site
1000 Other Paid
Organic Traffic SEM
-96% lead sources
40 Marketing Raw Leads
-50% Registered Visitors
20 Qualified Leads
20
Inside Sales
-50% Sales
Closed
10
Deal

31. Other Cases
• Technological change
– Print media vs Digimedia, Case CITY
• Regulatory change
– Case Samex, E-customs software

32. New book this year, (in finnish)
Pysäyttämätön yrittäjyys 2013
Entrepreneurship is great! (Unstoppable Entrepreneurship)
OFFERING-MARKET -FIT
Follow me on twitter: lavas
QUESTIONS Facebook: facebook.com/ilkkaolavas/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ilkkaolavas