More than five decades in the business world have taught Sculley growth and marketing strategies that he treats as touchstones to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cEntrepreneurs are different from other people,\u201d he says. \u201cEntrepreneurs are insatiably curious. Entrepreneurs are risk-takers \u2026 Entrepreneurs are the ones who come in, and they say, \u2018There has to be a better way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are Sculley’s top four tips for growing your business idea and marketing your way to success.<\/p>\n
1. Use perceived weaknesses to your advantage.<\/h2>\n
Sculley was head of Pepsi\u2019s marketing efforts during the height of the \u201ccola wars\u201d — a series of head-to-head campaigns between PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoke was the most valuable brand in the world at that time,\u201d Sculley says. \u201cThey owned reality — everyone looked to them as leader.\u201d Because of that, he knew that if people saw the brand names next to each other on bottles, they\u2019d likely choose the popular option: Coca-Cola. But when a series of blind taste tests resulted in people preferring Pepsi, Sculley decided to encourage people to think differently about the industry.<\/p>\n
The ensuing campaign, called the \u201cPepsi Challenge,\u201d launched in San Antonio, Tex. — a market where the beverage was outsold by Coca-Cola 12 to 1. They filmed people taking blind taste tests, then ran commercials featuring those who chose Pepsi. \u201cThe more [Coca-Cola] complained, the more we sold,\u201d Sculley says.<\/p>\n
Make a list of any fears you\u2019ve adopted about why your business idea won\u2019t work. Then spend time brainstorming ways to turn them into advantages. If you\u2019re worried your product or service would trail competition, think about ways you could to turn it into an industry dark horse. If you don\u2019t have as large of a team as you would like, bill your endeavor as an intimate business that individually responds to each customer. Changing your mindset could very well change your business outcome.<\/p>\n
Related:\u00a0<\/b>The Most Successful Entrepreneurs Start With ‘Noble Causes,’ John Sculley Says<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n When Steve Jobs dreamed up the iPod years after the launch of the MP3 player, he didn\u2019t ask consumers, \u201cHow would you like to have a miniaturized disk drive or a faster processor?\u201d Sculley says. Instead, he\u00a0told his audience<\/a>: \u201cThis amazing little device holds 1,000 songs, and it goes right in my pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n As the saying goes, \u201cYou don\u2019t really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.\u201d No matter how complex your idea is, you need to be able to explain it simply to anyone. This won\u2019t just help you sell your product or service — it\u2019ll also help attract quality people to team up with.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When gearing up to launch the first Macintosh computer in 1984, Apple was running low on time. Sculley remembers an engineer showing Jobs the computer\u2019s motherboard before the launch event — and Jobs rejecting it on sight because of its layout and aesthetics. Sculley remembers the engineer telling Jobs, \u201cNo one will ever see it — no one will know!\u201d Jobs allegedly responded, \u201cI\u2019ll know.\u201d And that was that. The motherboard was redesigned in a classic example of Jobs\u2019s \u201cno compromise\u201d approach to his products and user experience.<\/p>\n Sticking to your guns — what you believe in from the very beginning — can be key for success as an entrepreneur. \u201cThe greatest companies are focused on the customer from the very start,\u201d Sculley says. Take Amazon, which focused on reimagining supply chain for consumer ease. The company\u2019s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, was recently named the\u00a0richest person in modern history<\/a>\u00a0with a net worth of more than $150 billion — but he says he\u00a0still reads emails<\/a>\u00a0from his public inbox (jeff@amazon.com) to stay involved with Amazon\u2019s customer base.<\/p>\n [source<\/p>\n2. Be able to explain your idea in a simple way.<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n3. Don\u2019t take any shortcuts on customer experience.<\/h2>\n