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•14 The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All Time

from their newspaper who had to borrow the money from his mum. They collected

$40,000, rented an office and paid for some of the help with shares.

Today, people The first 1100 sets cost $75 each to manufacture. They sold them to

play Trivial retailers for $15 a game. These were newspeople, not businessmen, so

Pursuit in 19 their misunderstanding of profits led to a rapid understanding of debt.

different lan- In 1982 the US game company Selchow and Righter became inter-

guages – not ested. It hired a PR consultant who sent a direct mail campaign to 1800 of

bad for an the top buyers at the 1983 New York Toy Fair. And then, for good mea-

idea based on sure, it was mailed to all kinds of Hollywood stars. The mailshot included

the premise a Trivial Pursuit card, often one that had the names of the recipients as

that every the answer or the question.

household has Word of mouth took over. By late 1983, 3.5 million games had been

eight games of sold. In 1984, 20 million were sold. Retail sales have now exceeded $1

Scrabble. billion. And Chris, Scott and their partners have become quite familiar

with the concept of profits.

Today, people play Trivial Pursuit in 19 different languages – not bad for an

idea based on the premise that every household has eight games of Scrabble.

Ask yourself

• Is there some way that you could ginger up your Mailshots with a three-
dimensional aid related to, or a part of, your product?

Idea 8 – Pay in advance (Vodaphone)

Up front money is worth more than the stuff you have to invoice and wait for (see
discounted cashflows Idea 43). So, proving to consumers that they would be wise to do
so is an interesting marketing challenge. The mobile telephone company Vodafone