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evernote in under 200 words…
In a classic Simpson’s episode, the town is convinced to buy a monorail by a slick salesman. What distinguishes a good salesperson from a good pitch is a message that is not only persuasive, but is competitive and marketable. This company – Evernote – smartly offers a free basic service (that can be upgraded), employing the foot-in-the-door marketing strategy. After watching a quick company overview I had a better idea of the product, but for a product in this competitive market, I would want to know in the pitch what they have that others don’t (competitive advantage). The CEO is confident, giving a quick overview of the benefits and selling features. The product is definitely marketable; a tool that manages all of your information is welcomed in today’s hectic world. The fact that there is a high rate of compatibility across devices and browsers is a selling point. For a product that is supposed to clarify information, I would expect the audio and video quality to be higher. The CEO is wearing a t-shirt/blazer combination and refers to notes at several points, which are distracting, but not a confidence killer. Overall a great idea, and an OK pitch.
Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
bcourey 4:41 pm on September 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I have been using Evernote for some time now, and I am a huge fan of the tool, but if I had watched this pitch first, I may never have tried it. For a quick pitch, there should have been a greater effort to catch my attention – having the CEO standing still in front of the camera, speaking a bit too quickly in my view (at times it was not easy to distinguish his words). I would expect this type of pitch to come from a high-school student who has just created his first free-ware assignment in class. Maybe I am being too harsh, but I would not buy his product, let alone invest in it….and like I said, I love his product after all!! How did I learn about it? Word-of-mouth by trusted friends who are also big fans of the product. The idea is great…but I find the pitch far too amateur-ish.
Karen Jones 6:03 pm on September 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I also find that both the appearance of the presenter and the lack of “visuals” leave me unclear and uninterested about most of the products promoted by these elevator pitches, including this one. I guess the CEO’s Everclear logo t-shirt and clean, non-distracting background are improvements over some of the pitches on Youtube, but I guess I need the motivation of an assignment to listen to any of them twice! Maybe I have “caught” ADHD from my students. Perhaps, if my money was on the line …?
jarvise 6:51 am on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Karen,
I have been noticing the lack of visuals in these pitches as well. It doesn’t seem as though the presenters are taking advantage of what new media has to offer. I keep wondering if this is something that is a key characteristic of elevator pitches (that we are supposed to be focusing on the person face to face). I did a little digging and found the following article that debates the current status of the elevator pitch: http://www.theworkbuzz.com/career-advice/is-the-elevator-pitch-outdated/
Karen Jones 5:52 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey! Great link, Emily. It did make me reflect about this whole process, and how sometimes when I’m being a talking head up at the front of the class, the best approach would be an elevator pitch, especially given the short attention spans of my victims, I mean, students.
David William Price 12:37 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I’m not a fan of feature lists as pitches. I prefer to hear a story about a problem and how their venture will solve that problem and take advantage of a huge market and competitive barriers to entry to build on their solution. I realize EverNote is a successful app, but I nearly fell asleep during this pitch. No passion about how EverNote can change my life…
Karen Jones 5:54 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I like the clarity that your summary brings, David. I think those key points are at the heart of assignment 3, as well.
mcquaid 3:52 pm on September 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
You had me at Simpsons. Classic pitch in that episode by Lanley – not sent by the devil (since he was on the level), as he reassured us.
I also thought that the foot-in-the-door marketing strategy was smart. Giving something good away for free that can only get better with a small amount of money is a great form of, well, manipulation. I would have mentioned it as you did, but you did so first and actually knew what to call it (well, I assume that’s what it’s called).
I think, to encourage a bit more interest (if the pitch were a longer venture pitch, perhaps), I would either further develop or promote the compatibility and tagging/organization/searching. I’d like to see some more in the lines of automatic tagging, labeling, and organization. Not everyone is ready for the semantic web yet. If or when we’re all on that train, something like Evernote won’t be as useful. Their time to strike is now!