Collaborating with unexpected business partners could lead to successful results

Last week, one of my criticisms was that companies place too much of an emphasis on design and not enough "innovative thinking" into implementation. This weeks article, Why Coke is Bringing Solar Power to Rural Kenya, highlights the ingenious way a medical supply company used Coca-Cola's intricate supply management system to ensure it's drugs reached people in remote areas.

At the last startup where I worked, Lyft, it joined forces with another product, Carstache, to help get the word out about the product.  Lyft is a peer-to-peer mobile ride sharing app where individuals use their own car to give rides to users in designated cities. Since the cars in the program are of various makes and models it can be very difficult to a) locate your Lyft vehicle and driver as a passenger and b) get word of mouth out about your service to customers if there is no distinguishing marker for the cars on the platform. That is when Lyft decided to have all drivers don a pink Carstache on the front of their cars grill to help make it easier for passengers to find their ride. Since the pink mustache is a rather unique identifier it ended up being a brilliant marketing ploy to spread the word around San Francisco about the new service. After seeing a smattering of pink mustaches around the city, it lead many people (including myself) to Google: pink + mustache + car to find out what was going on. Very little money was spent on marketing the application, the car 'stache and growing list of positive experiences from passengers did all the work for it. This brand marketing strategy is being employed in various cities across the country as Lyft expands to other cities.

As scaling a venture  (especially in rural areas) is a large hurdle for most companies to get across, an important question for entreprenuers to ask themselves is: What company might I team up with to effectively reach my user base? Perhaps this could be an opportunity for Pepsi-Cola to get more of Coca-Coca's market share and gain life long fans by teaming up with companies like Plumpynut in developing countries?














Article: Why Coke Is Bringing Solar Power To Rural Kenya (Fast Company,June 14,
2013); www.fastcoexist.com/1682126/why-coke-is-bringing-solar-power-to-rural-kenya

Source: http://www.carstache.com/