Creative Coffee Club! meeting - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=264252633706&index=1

1. Moderated by Ivan Vlasyuk,
Freelance Project Manager
ivan.vlasyuk@gmail.com

2. Agenda: CCC meeting26th Jan, Tuesday, 19-20:30
Topic: How to start up your own business – Guerilla Marketing
Location: Starbucks, WENCESLAS SQUARE, 2nd floor
Duration: 90min
Agenda (item - owner - time - outcome):
● Coffee tasting - Starbucks stuff - 5 min - fun & informative
● Round table introductions - Ivan - 15min - team formed
● Definition - Ivan - 5min - understanding formed
● 1st round table question - What experience do you have with
● establishing your own business? - team - 10min - knowledge formed
● 2nd round table question - How much money/time need to be invested to make it work? - team - 10min - knowledge
formed
● 3rd round table question - keep marketing in-house or outsource to professionals? - team - 10min - knowledge formed
●
● Open discussion - 30min
●
● Generating questions for Leaders' Dialogue <www.leadersmagazine.cz/leaders> - 5 min
Starbucks coffee tastes presented by Jiri and Mark:
● Coffee Indonesia – would be good with cheese
● Coffee Kenya (Pacific Sumai) – would be good with citrus, red-fruits or grapefruit
Tue, 26 Jan, 2010 Prague, Czech Republic 2

3. Minutes taken, slide 1
● Guerrilla marketing - as defined by wikipedia.org - the concept was invented as an unconventional system of
promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla
marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional; potentially interactive; and consumers are targeted in
unexpected places. The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept
to generate buzz
● Good to find people who share your idea to create a critical mass for word of mouth effect. Those people would hep to
get connected
● Guerilla marketing could be used for paying customers/projects as well
– For example there was one campaign in Czech Republic for a bank: people created a crime scene (dead people
outlined) if front of the competitors banks... with focus on other banks outrageous fees and charges. Difficulty is
to connect the scene to the customer. The goal was to do marketing provocative and create interest. Result
achieved – people started to talk about banking. And how some banks in Czech Republic abusing the system
with ridiculously high fees.
● In film making could be used:
– Viral commercials
– Vulgar campaign
– Such video add is good to be placed on the YouTube.com
– No logo was linked to one add, yet there was a link to the customers page from the YouTube.com page.
● Example – a Facebook Group – friends are asked to invite their friends.
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4. Minutes taken, slide 2
● Example - O2 experimenting with word of mouth marketing – created a program when they are financing home party –
one can invite people and get budget from O2 for it.
● Can separate marketing for product and for service:
– For Services - it is mostly via referrals, personal relationship, more intimate relationship with clients
– For Products – traditional marketing i.e. commercials more accepted
● For smaller/mid companies the service marketing is linked to Business Development, like tenders, promotions – not
traditional marketing/advertisement
● Social Media is a great tool for non-traditional marketing:
– Participate, get experienced with it
– Be personally engaged and competing
– Write articles
– Develop personal/business site
– Sometimes hobbies site (about kittens, for example) can be more popular then professional
– Give away ideas for free
● Rely on recommendation – based on personal trust and credibility
● Be credible and you would benefit from word of mouth “marketing”
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5. Minutes taken, slide 3
● In a wholesale trade the competition is mainly on prices, not much marketing involved, need to buy correctly (at the low
price)
● Should differentiate:
– Business to Business - can use LinkedIN
– Business to Customer - can use those social media tools
● In some situations - partners are the customers
● When competing on price – the price can also change and go higher as quality differentiation
● In creative industry can work with smaller, less paying customer and enjoy creative liberty, passion and care
● Cheaper. Better. Faster.
● Good money come from performance
– Be more flexible and careful – winning just because of the lower price is not good. People may remember you as
the “cheapest service provider”
– People are not always trust the cheapest offer
– Risk – would overpay for double work if the initial cheapest service provider failed to deliver quality service
● Marketing – face to face meetings – attending events, like Creative Coffee Club for example
● Give away as much business cards as possible
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6. Minutes taken, slide 4
● Online auctions – offer your services as a vouchers at auctioned cost
● Be willing to do things for free
● Build personal network of contacts
● Work with volunteers who are willing to contribute their time
● Also recommendation is to newer work for free for a corporate customer, especially retailer
● Get involved if not for free then with some special deal
● Better to do for free rather then cheap
● When just starting own business – let your friends know... Ask them to pass the word along... participate in events –
music, parties. Ask your friends DJ, Musicians to put a word on your behalf
● For example photographer Dalibor Konopac spent 4 year of transition from 1st commercial photo into full-time
professional photographer. Now involves – 6-7 people (assistants, marketing person, sales person)
– Started as hobby, cast 6 months doing as full-time professional
– Writes blog, comments on other online statuses
– Posts videos from back stage
● Next meeting topic is recommended to be – Getting Things Done, 10min expert lecture then focused discussion
Tue, 26 Jan, 2010 Prague, Czech Republic 6

7. Basic Info
Name: Young Professionals Forum
Category: Organizations - Community Organizations
Description: The Young Professionals Forum is devoted to providing young professionals with the skills, contacts, and
opportunities to help them succeed and become active members of the business community.
Privacy Type: Open: All content is public
www.youngprofessionalsforum.cz
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21748200412
Ivan Vlasyuk,
Freelance Project Manager
ivan.vlasyuk@gmail.com
Tue, 26 Jan, 2010 Prague, Czech Republic 7