Ryan Price and the Media

I first had Smithwick’s Ale in the Arena (Ann Arbor) at a charity event to raise money for a needy Detroit school. Awesome that a bar and a group of college students in Ann Arbor would put together such a worthy and attractive benefit like that. Good food in the form of unlimited appetizers, and $3 beer across the board. My roommate Erin suggested Smithwick’s (pronounced smitiks), and it was a good beer for that setting.

I was quite into Yuengling at the time, so Smithwick’s was an interesting departure. Similar to Yuengling in color, body, and weight, Smithwick’s has just a bit more bite, and a little less of what I would say is Yeungling’s “fruity” quality. I have always said Yuengling is a good middle of the road beer, good for hops fans and American Domestic fans alike. Besides, Yuengling is cheap in the parts of the country where you can find it.

Both beers are not so filling, something you can drink repeatedly without feeling too wieghed down. Smithwick’s was $7.99 for a sixer at the 500 Beer Store, not so bad for some good flavor, but a $6.50 pack of ‘Lager’ (the colloqiual name for Yuengling in Pennsylvania) would have sufficed for the budget-conscious drinker.

Smithwick’s is made by Diageo, the same folks as Guinness, an Irish brew, and a fine beer. Fans of Guinness will notice there are no similar qualities to these beers aisde fromt the manufacturer, but a beer connisuer should check it out.

What is the pinnacle of your carreer? What defines the greatest achievement for a young entrepeneur like myself? How about writing a report for guys down at Wizards of the Coast? I think so.

I got a wierd random email from Erik of Unity Entertainment asking me how to access the web stats... I thought this was a little out of the ordinary, so I informed Erik that he would have to ask me at the exact time he wanted to see the stats, since I don't have instant control over stats.

In talking to Jeff one time, I was trying to explain that I have to query support every time I need new stats, and he said "Well, why not just buy a server?" I reply "Well, that costs $170!" He says, "As long as we could make money, then whatever!"

I think it would be a bad idea to go into business wiht a client to resell hosting and have to play sysadmin to bunches of users just because I was sharing profits with Mr. Jeff. No offense to him, but... no thanks, Jeff. The end of that is I will most likely be hooking up a Virtual Private Server pretty soon, and I will be getting a small chunk of a server that lets me control it like it'y my own dedicated server, meaning I get root access and i can run scripts whenever.

But back to the topic at hand. My special special report. It turns out the reason why Erik wanted to see the stats is because Wizards of the Coast was running a number of TV ads on Adult Swim with location-specific endings, like the Florida ones apparently advertised my client Unity Entertainment and MY website. SWEET! The goal was to prove that the advertising was driving traffic to the site, and that it would be profitable to run the ads again for future events.

WELL, I knew it would be pointless to start the report until Sunday, since the event was a Friday to Sunday thing. I emailed the dudes Sunday afternoon and asked them to run my stats. Then I got lazy and didn't check very often, so I went to hang with my friends for a little while. By the time I got back, it was after 1 AM, and I still had barely written any of the report. I spent the next three and a half hours cranking away at it, and then emailed it to Jeff, with instructions to wake me up at his earliest convenience. Around 10 AM, I get the call and the instructions to actually write something based on the data. I said "The advertising worked", and I got a pat on the back. Hooray. Now I get to charge Jeff for time well spent.

My report is going to be reviewed by the largest gaming company in the world. I mean, they are owned by Hasbro, and they own almost every major gaming license they could get their hands on, including Dungeons & Dragons. That is major.

I doubt you'll be seeing my name in lights anytime soon, but I feel special today.

This topic was broight to my mind by Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian of Marketing Online Live, two guys that have a Podcast related to their Marketing Online magazine.

iPods aside, ask anyone in the business or marketing world, 'What business is McDonald's in?', and they will reply, 'Real Estate'. Most people will say, 'I thought they sold hamburgers and plastic toys and... fruit.' Oh no, my unknowing friend, think about it:

• Franchise owners will buy more land than they need, and sell the remainder to other businesses like mini malls. The street corner grows up around the McDonald's
• McDonald's owns more land than Disney. For kids from Florida, that means something.
• Much like a realtor will sign up with a national firm like Watson, an entrepeneur will spend millions of dollars just for the right to use the name of McDonald's.

All that other stuff is mostly there to intice you, the consumer, to want to go to the real-estate and spend your money, and come back to it many times, because you trust the product. You can get the product anywhere—a hamburger, a spongebob toy, a playground, and a clean place to sit. You want the product, but you are investing your time in that piece of real estate.

Now, let's take the iPod. What are Apple and Steve Jobs really selling here? Music? Digital freedom? Podcasts? Photos? No way. If you haven't noticed, when you buy a new iPod, it is empty. You have to buy the content, or rip it yourself. Without good content, your iPod is worth nothing. However, you paid $300, bitch. Why?

You're buying a brand. A brand that is so damn exiting that HP didn't even bother to make their own, they freakin' re-sell Apple's! The thing doesn't even play video! WHY? Because they have got your loyalty. They are McDonald's. Not only do they control your real-estate and your brand loyalty, they also control the means of distrobution.

The smartest thing they ever did was give me something for free. Every week, the iTunes music store gives away two or more songs. In order to download these songs, I have to sit my butt in the seat, open their application, go to their music store (which I can only open from their application), and download the free songs. Now, I don't exactly have to walk in the front door, because I can link to it directly from outside the application, but I am already there. They've got me. And you know what? The songs you buy on iTunes can only be played on an iPod. That means you need to visit their real-estate to use their product.

The same can be said of McDonald's. The only place to get a happy meal is underneath the Golden Arches.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. There is a handy comment form below.