gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

I had a look at Martin's hamster/gerbil housing, and some of the models have wire flooring. Feet slip through wires, and legs break. Bad.

At least he's got the good sense not to sell wire wheels...

--Milan

Hugh,
This is actually a comment on Avin's post, but he brings up an aspect of GMB's that might be of interest to you (and your readers).

How much does location matter? In Avin's post he talks about Luigi the olive oil producer. If Luigi was based in Florida (USA) instead of Italy, would the brand have the same impact globally? I don't think so. Or perhaps it would create a different type of brand in Florida.

My point is that .... Location matters.

We all have preconceptions based on location (or as Seth Godin says in "All Marketers are Liars", our own "worldview") and these preconceptions influence how we value certain products.

Having said that, as marketers we need to recognize what preconceptions exist in our location and which ones, perhaps, might hold us back.

For example, I have a note card company that makes limited-edition, high-priced note cards based on contemporary art. The high-priced part could leverage the fact that they are made in Connecticut USA (near Greenwich). The contemporary art could leverage New York City.

Of course both of these statements are "in theory", since I still need to take my own advice and revamp my web site, www.notewordy.com, but that is another story for another day.

Hope this adds to the conversation about Global Micro Brands !

Dave Wheeler
Founder, NoteWordy Cards
WriteOn! blog: www.theshot92.blogspot.com

Hugh, do you define a difference between a niche market and a GMB? It seems to me it's jsut another word for the same thing, and people have been doing it for a long time.

Does a firm have to be very small to class as a GMB? In the Global Microbrand Rant you mention Stormhoek, at least I assume that's the small South African Vineyard you mention, but are they that small? I would think to be supplying chains like Sainsbury's they much have a decent output, require more than a couple of staff. And is selling wine a microbrand?

If so, I wonder if the company I presently work for, of 30 people, selling Educational Software counts as a GMB?
Now we're a ltd company, not the kind of thing I think you're really on about, but it is a relative niche market, educational establishments cover something like 90% of our business.
So really I'm just wondering how broad the idea of a GMB can be.

What seperates the likes of Stormhoek and English Cut from any other company selling wine or suits suing the Internet?

My point isn't that a GMB is new. My point is with the internet (and especially with a blog) a GMB is easier and cheaper than ever to build.

When I started English Cut, the plan was to create a GMB. That's what I called it. I didn't call it a "niche market". I could have. Why didn't I? I'll let you figure that one out ;-)

Also, Stomrhoek is a small vinyard of about 250 acres. Pretty micro compared to the tens of thousands of acres Gallo and Jacob's Creek command.

Does a GMB have to be a producer / manufacturer? How about stockists / distributors? A small business like Atelier de Beauté could also be a GMB even though it stocks beauty products not actually manufactured by Elodie. The reason being that the ethic seems to be one of niche / specialty products. www.atelierdebeaute.com

English Cufflinks has both a great product and great customer service. I've purchased a couple sets from them. They've got some stunning cufflinks.

When one set arrived scratched (they fell out of the holding elastic in the mail), they offered to ship them back and replace them, all at their cost, to pay for having them repolished, or whatever else would work out for me. I wound up taking them to a local goldsmith in Santa Cruz, Thomas Mantle, who polished them up at no charge and sent me on my way.

And then, Mr. Macfarlane (of English Cufflinks) sent me a free pair of cufflinks. No warning or anything; they just showed up in my mailbox. Nice!

(If it weren't for the british postage, I'd never know that I was getting personal service from someone 6000 miles away.)

This is astonishing - there I was (I'm the above mentioned of English Cufflinks) quietly checking the comments on this post when one of our customers from some time back remembers us and showers us with glowing praise (thankyou Mr Lechner). This is really what Global Micro Branding is all about and what the self regulating blogosphere is at too. If I had treated my customer badly (perish the thought) it could easily have come back to haunt me. GMBs therefore have to build a reputation of trust. And if one treats people...well, like people then this trust builds, Globally. It also helps me sleep at night.

Didn't IBM talk about this kind of marketing in their TV-ads back in the Dotcom boom? I remember images of some kind of italian producer selling their classy and very loal stuff worldwide thanks to their IBM software. (I don't know if the ads are still on, it's some time that I had a TV.)

In any case I am wrecking my mind on how to turn my cartoon site http://www.shtikl.com into a GMB, actually gaining more than lots of compliments - and maybe leaving the beaten path of the usual Cafepress-Attempts.

(I came to like Hugh's manierism of ending sentences with an "etc". I hate the "...", but "etc" is good. Seriously considering plagiarizing the "etc" ;-))

Keep it up etc.

"My point is with the internet (and especially with a blog) a GMB is easier and cheaper than ever to build."

Fair point, I'd certainly agree with that considering the tools around these days.

I'm guessing 'niche' doesn't cause the 'market disruption' you like, it's a term people are familiar with and so doesn't illicit the same response as a new name for the same thing ;) Or maybe I'm just cynical there, heh.

If Stormhoek were to grow, and unlike with EnglishCut which is all about Thomas, I imagine there's the possibility there for them to do that, would they stop being a GMB?
I'm sure Jacob's Creek were a lot smaller when they started, so given the ability to sell globally they could've been a GMB as well.

Not critisising the idea, I like it :) Just trying to work out how you are defining it. A small player in a much larger industry, making the most of itself to sell around the world, seems to be along the right lines?

Adrian, I think making GMBs and "niche businesses" synonymous is too simplistic. There are a lot of GMBs that don't make any money, that aren't even businesses. Gapingvoid, for example.

Point taken, good example.
I think I'm getting at least some of the difference between a 'niche', which would be a tightly focussed product/service, as opposed to a GMB which would be more a small scale operation spreading it's message as wide as possible (conversing with as many people as possible) and ignoring as many physical boundaries as possible.
Which is made a lot easier with tools, like blogs (as the overheads are much reduced compared to more traditional means), to communicate.

Hugh,
Thanks a lot for the mention !!!

Yes me too, thanks Hugh. I got a whole bunch of traffic from your link.
-AndyT13

Perfect name for a sweet concept. Don't mind if I quote you from time to time.

http://thebrandbuilder.blogspot.com/2005/10/microventures-global-microbrands.html

I couldn't agree more.