Peter Fisk

Oatly was an obscure, local Swedish brand for its first 20 years. Then in 2012, the oat milk company brought in a new CEO, Toni Petersson, with a radical new vision for the brand and with a new look and a tasty product.

Most viewers cringed at the Super Bowl ad, which featured Petersson singing a tune he wrote himself accompanied by his keyboard in a wide-open field of oats. It seems most people felt it was one of those things that’s so bad but you just can’t look away. Yet, the lyrics, which included, “it’s like milk, but made for humans,” and “wow, no cow,” were surprisingly catchy. It was weird, different, and certainly generated a lot of curiosity.

Known for its irreverent approach to advertising and brash, tongue-in-cheek packaging, Oatly takes a bold approach to marketing.

From publishing the actual text of a lawsuit against its slogan “Milk, but made for humans” in Sweden to launching a European-wide ad campaign called “Are You Stupid?” — Oatly’s irreverent approach to winning over consumers has been surprisingly successful.

Though the company has been around since the early 1990s, it only started picking up steam around 2014 when it relaunched the brand under the guidance of new CEO Toni Petersson. With an increased focus on sustainability and health, Petersson and the marketing team crafted a new brand voice: quirky, somewhat flippant, and definitely humorous — it became their calling card, of sorts.

However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for this milk alternative brand — from backlash surrounding chosen investors to fighting Amendment 171 in the EU, Oatly has faced its fair share of setbacks and challenges.

Still, having gone public in 2021 via an IPO valued at up to $10.1 billion, the vegan brand is on the up.

Oatly was founded in the early 1990s by Swedish brothers — Rickard Öste, a food scientist, and his brother Bjorn. The inventors of oat milk, the brothers were researching alternatives to cow’s milk for people who were lactose intolerant.

Though they were successful in creating such a product, Oatly didn’t really make it big on the international scene. That is — until the brand brought in Toni Petersson in 2014 as CEO. With previous roles as CEO in a myriad of companies, Petersson brought a good deal of experience and knowledge to the role.

The first big changes Petersson made? The packaging. Previously, Oatly’s cartons had a small, red “Oatly” logo in the top left corner. Forgettable and somewhat bland, this logo, placement, and overall packaging style had to go.

In a bold move, Petersson opted for a combination of block and bubble letters that spelled out “OAT-LY!” in the center of each carton. Additionally, the packaging copy was changed from Swedish to English in an effort to be more accessible to a global audience.

Petersson also did away with the professional, informative tone of the former packaging and utilized Oatly’s new brand voice and personality. Cheeky and fresh, this new copy proved far more eye-catching and entertaining to consumers.

Petersson’s next move was to focus on Oatly’s environmental impact and sustainability. He commissioned a report in 2017 that would show how Oatly is better for the environment than traditional dairy. The findings?:

“Oatly estimated that its oat drink can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80%, land use by 79% and energy consumption by 60% compared to a same size portion of cow’s milk.”

With this kind of data at hand, Petersson could make bold claims about the superiority of oat milk in the areas of sustainability and environmental preservation — which are included in each carton’s product information.

Another tactic Petersson used in 2017 to promote their products in the U.S. was to get in at the ground floor with local baristas. Oatly actually sent representatives to high-end coffee shops in places like New York City to share and test their products with local baristas.

The thought was that if baristas could recommend and use Oatly’s milk with customers, it would lead to higher rates of interest. Of the strategy, the brand’s U.S. General Manager Mike Messersmith told CNBC Make It:

“We thought about specialty coffee shops and tea shops, where if you were able to take the recommendation of your local barista you see every day, and try our product through an expertly prepared latte or cappuccino that would be a really amazing way to kind of be introduced to even just the idea of oat milk”.

Petersson’s changes paid off. Between 2017 and 2019, Oatly’s revenue in Europe went from about US $15.5 million to about US $69 million. That’s a massive increase for just two years. And in 2020, Oatly reported revenue of US $421.4 million — which is a 106.5% increase from their 2019 revenue.

However, Oatly’s success hasn’t made it immune to controversy or bad decisions. In 2020, Oatly sold $200 million in stake to a myriad of investors — with one such investor being the Blackstone Group, a company that has been accused of financing businesses contributing to deforestation in the Amazon and road development in the jungle to export soy.

Shortly after this was announced, Oatly faced backlash from consumers on social media and had to deal with their first “cancel culture” experience. Though many consumers are still not happy about the brand’s association with Blackstone, it hasn’t seemed to damage its reputation or sales in the long run.

Now one of the largest oat drink companies in the world, Oatly offers a wide variety of oat-based products — from milk to ice cream to yogurt to spreads.

John Schoolcraft, Chief Creative Officer at Oatly, has executed the rebranding of the company after joining in 2012, contributing to the expansion of their oat products to over 20 countries worldwide with sales exceeding $200 million this year.

In this keynote on branding, John explains how he fosters creativity at Oatly and how just the will to change the world plays a part:

Saudi Arabia is a rapidly transforming nation, with a Vision 2030 to reduce its dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism.

STC positions itself as the “digital enabler” of this vision,  and much more than a telecoms or even communications business as it originally began in 1997.

While the company STC offers landline and fixed infrastructure, mobile and data services – it has also offers mobile, broadband and cloud computing services – but sees itself much more as the tech infrastructure of a nation that is rapidly becoming a leader in digital services – from shopping to entertainment, banking to transport, health and education.

STC redefined itself in 2017 through its “DARE” strategy. The company doesn’t see itself as a telecom operator but as a digital enabler providing digital services in various verticals.

CEO Olayan Alwetaid says “It’s been great to see how our customers have received our ventures into other areas, such as fintech, IoT, cybersecurity, AI, data centers, connectivity, 5G, cloud computing, e-gaming, and many more.”

As an example, STCpay is a digital wallet, which not only is of great convenience to our customers but is also in line with the Vision 2030 goal of reducing cash transactions. In addition, stcplay is our dedicated e-sports and gaming platform. Gaming and e-sport is one sector that continues to grow, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it, and in fact, we’re playing a huge role in transforming the Middle East’s gaming industry by connecting gaming service providers with gamers to ensure they have the best possible gaming experience.

STC Group made large investments in technology and talent within its data privacy and cybersecurity businesses. The key focus is to clearly understand the threats and risks faced by all our stakeholders and customer demographics, from confidentiality, integrity, availability, privacy, security, and resilience perspectives. Every customer and stakeholder group faces a specific set of unique cybersecurity threats and risks. Our cybersecurity teams work diligently to identify these threats, risks, and vulnerabilities. They use cutting-edge 24/7 cyber defense monitoring, vulnerability, and penetration testing, as well as threat hunting, in addition to governance, risk, and compliance practices involving the support of specialist teams.

While the focus is on technology development, we have also invested in the Internet of Things (IoT), as we tend to establish the country as a regional IoT hub in the Middle East and North Africa region in collaboration with PIF. Hence we founded a new company to expand and become a “one-stop-shop” for IoT solutions by using the experience and technology of existing IoT partners. According to local market research, the IoT market in Saudi Arabia might expand to $2.88 billion (SAR10.8 billion) by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 12.8 percent. The Internet of things has been identified in stc’s “DARE 2.0” strategy among the five strategic areas of investment. It is at our core and aligns with Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation initiatives, supported by PIF.

Moreover, we apt to endow technology in KSA through artificial intelligence, hence the group, with Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to implement many national initiatives to enhance artificial intelligence and digital solutions in Saudi Arabia, as we intend to localize digital solutions and exchange experiences and knowledge in the field of data management and governance. We also seek to support data quality globally within the best practices, along with assisting startups in adhering to data governance and implementing a personal data protection system.

STC further looks toward enhancing digitization by developing cloud computing, therefore we established a new company in Riyadh with “Alibaba cloud,” eWTP Arabia for Technical Innovation Ltd, the Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI), and the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE). The new company in Riyadh came in response to the significant increase in demand for cloud computing services and solutions in the region to provide advanced cloud computing services to companies operating in the KSA, ensuring that they employ the highest standards of security and protection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-Ee_FJctk

Mastodon is free and open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services. It has microblogging features similar to Twitter, which are offered by a large number of independently run nodes, known as “instances”, also called a server, each with its own code of conduct, terms of service, privacy options, and moderation policies.

Users join a specific instance, rather than the overall platform. They can then connect across other instances, which link together as a federated social network, allowing users on different instance to interact with each other. This seeks to give users the flexibility to select a node whose policies they prefer, but keep access to a larger social network.

Mastodon is also part of the “Fediverse” ensemble of server platforms, which use shared protocols allowing users to also interact with users on other compatible platforms, such as PeerTube and Friendica.

Mastodon has been distinguished from Twitter for its decentralised, independent approach which uses community-based moderation, in which each server can limit, or filter out undesirable types of content. It believes this enables it to better address issues such as combating harassment.

Eugen Rochko, Mastodon’s founder, believes that small, closely related communities deal with unwanted behaviour more effectively than a large company’s small safety team.

Mastodon is crowdfunded and does not contain ads. The Mastodon mascot is an animal with a trunk, resembling a mastodon or mammoth. Mastodon is crowdfunded and does not contain ads.

When Elon Musk acquired Twitter, there was a huge migration of users to Mastodon, over 1 million in the first week.

The Moleskine notebook is the heir and successor to the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin.

“Every Moleskine notebook is a book yet to be written and a story waiting to be told” says Maria Sebregondi, Moleskine co-founder and president of Moleskine Foundation

Today Moleskine offers an eco-system of objects which inspires imaginations and fuels creative practice, versatile tools for both everyday and extraordinary journeys: notebooks, journals, bags, luggage, apps, writing instruments and reading accessories which complement each other in form and function, becoming an integral part of our personalities.

Moleskine describes itself as “a platform which celebrates talent, champions originality and cherishes long-term thinking”.

With headquarters in Milan and offices in Cologne, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, Moleskine company counts around 400 employees and a vast network of partners and consultants. A dedicated Global Custom Edition team works to help the world’s leading cultural institutions, companies and agencies tell their stories through customized Moleskine objects.

The company began life as Modo & Modo, a small Milanese publisher that, in 1997, brought the original notebook back to life and established the Moleskine® trademark. Moleskine Srl was listed on the Italian Stock Exchange in 2013. The brand was acquired and delisted by D’Ieteren at the end of 2016. Today, the Moleskine company has around 400 employees and a vast network of partners.

History

In his book The Songlines, Chatwin tells the story of the little black notebook: in 1986, the manufacturer, a small family-owned company in the French city of Tours, went out of business. “Le vrai moleskine n’est plus” are the lapidary words he puts into the mouth of the owner of the stationery shop in Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie where he usually purchased his notebooks. Chatwin set about buying up all the notebooks that he could find before his departure for Australia, but they were still not enough.

In 1997, the company known today as Moleskine brought the legendary notebook back to life.

Manifesto

“At Moleskine we believe in the timeless power of handwriting as an essential expression of human civilization, a powerful act to unleash human genius and foster the development and sharing of literacy and knowledge. In a fast-paced technological era, we proudly celebrate the artistry of the human touch; the enduring pleasure of putting pen to paper to unleash your unique voice. We celebrate the solemn, thoughtful and meditative gesture of the pen gliding across a blank page; the romance of crafting a personal story to record a lifelong memory and leave a distinguishing mark in all its unique beauty. Handwriting is both universal and deeply personal. It’s a thoughtful way to express your true self and connect to others in a very intimate yet universally accessible way.”

“Put pen to paper, and unleash your unique voice.”

Reinvented

Moleskine says “we believe in the infinite potential for continuity and connection between analog and digital tools. This bridging of page and screen is essential to fulfil our users’ needs.”

Moleskine Smart is an ecosystem of smart tools and services designed to simplify the creative and productive process, allowing an idea to evolve naturally on paper before being edited and shared digitally. The Moleskine Flow App won the 2019 Apple Design Award for Excellence in Design and Innovation.

Here’s how The Independent reviewed the system:

“Nowadays, we all carry around a number of devices that allow us to store, access and edit documents remotely. Working on the go has never been easier. But what if we told you that a new revolution was on its way?

Digital note-taking allows any handwritten notes to be stored electronically. This then gives users the ability to recall, edit and organise notes directly on their device without the need to carry around a number of heavy pads, books or handfuls of paper.

The technology typically comes in two forms. Firstly, there are the direct-to-device notes, whereby apps such as Good Notes allow you to write directly onto the screen using an Apple Pencil or similar. Alternatively, there are products that come with a traditional notepad and pen that have Bluetooth connectivity to track your pen movements onto an app. This is where the Moleskine smart writing set comes in.

It has been designed for people who want to keep an element of the traditional, using real paper, but who also need the flexibility of accessing their notes on the go, or exporting them and emailing them as PDF documents. There’s also a sense that electronic notes can be better organised to fit your own individual needs and workflows.

But could digital note-taking really make our day simpler? Could transferring notes directly from page to screen really be a game changer? We found out.”

Straight out of the box, the Moleskine smart writing set feels well-designed. It’s well-packaged, and comes in a smart black box adorned with lovely minimalist cues, like the embossed Moleskine logo on the front.

Once inside, it’s all standard Moleskine premium feel, with the main attraction being the classic elastic-close, rounded black book upon which the brand has built its rather enviable reputation. But it’s the black ballpoint pen which we need to pay close attention to here.

Contained within a separate box, at first it feels somewhat chunky upon inspection, but a close look tell us it’s actually rather well-designed and is ergonomically well thought out. Holding it in a usual way feels a little alien at first, but it didn’t put us off and we got used to it very quickly.

For a system advertising itself as a fuss-free way to increase productivity and streamline your work processes, you’d expect an easy set-up, and luckily the Moleskine smart writing set didn’t disappoint on this front.

A word of caution – charge the pen before you use it, as we found a few connectivity issues at first when the battery was low. With the pen charged, though, and the Moleskine notes app downloaded from the app store or the Google play store, you’re pretty much ready to go and start writing.

In the apps main menu you’ll find your notebooks, a notebox (which contains your locked and important documents), and a trash bin where you can retrieve old pages if needed.

You don’t need to sign up to an account as the settings allow you to connect your Google OneDrive accounts, and with the auto-upload feature enabled, it’s even easier to access your written pages on the go. That being said, if you set up a Moleskine smart account, you have access to your notes in the cloud, easy backups and a new subscription service that isn’t released yet but promises to open up more possibilities and features.

The process of actually using the system doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining – you can just use it as a normal pen and notepad, and the pen will automatically track your movements and make a digital copy that will be stored on the app. There are, however, a few steps you have to go through before you start writing that can make the whole process a little confusing and counter-intuitive…

We found that the app had to be open and the pen manually connected before it tracked any writing. And we also came across a few connectivity issues when trying to write and had to turn everything on again after the app was closed down and the pen turned off.

These were minor niggles that we overcame very easily after a little investigation. But on the basis that you can still use the pen and notepad “traditionally”, without the Bluetooth on and the app connected, we wonder whether some people might end up not bothering connecting it at all.

This would, however, be a shame, because with everything working well the Moleskine writing set does a very good job of making on-screen copies. For example, if you’ve often found it hard to use the likes of the Apple Pencil on an iPad, then this might be the solution for you. Your own handwriting is rendered in a very crisp way and the words are even transcribed into digital text for copying and pasting should you wish. We also found that the app does a pretty good job of interpreting even the scruffiest of notes, so there’s no need to worry if your handwriting isn’t the neatest.

Pages are organised by last used, or by page number, and the app instinctively knows which page you’re writing on. So, everything inside the app is minimal, neat and easy to follow.

If there comes a time when you forget to turn the pen or Bluetooth on, you shouldn’t need to worry too much as it contains a small amount of memory to transfer your notes when you’ve switched it back on. It’s a really neat little feature which we found came in very handy while we were getting used to it.

And its verdict?

“We really enjoyed using the Moleskine smart writing set, and, in fact, think it’s probably the best traditional/digital combination system on the market at the moment. It’s a nice package and stays true to the brand’s values of premium quality, with a few digital-specific niceties like the email and cloud auto-upload features that make it stand out from the crowd.

It isn’t totally without its flaws, and because the app is relatively new we expect there to be patches, updates and bug fixes in the pipeline making the device easier to use, quicker to connect and less prone to glitches. The only other criticism we had was the price – it is a lot of money, with additional smart writing notepads being around £20 each once you’ve filled up the original.”

Twelve makes “CO2Made” chemicals, materials and fuels with their carbon transformation technology that replicates photosynthesis at industrial scale.

Just like a plant in nature, it transforms CO2 into useful products with just water and renewable energy as inputs, and producing only water and oxygen as outputs. No fossil fuels, no new emissions, no trade-offs.

They can make thousands of chemicals and fuel products from air that today are made from oil.

Carbon-based compounds are the foundation of our modern world. They fuel our lifestyles, from cars to aircraft, heating and lighting. Carbon-based materials give us our shoes and fashions, machines and devices.

And our carbon footprint.

The problem is, we get this carbon today from fossil fuels in the form of petrochemicals. Twelve has created an alternative to fossil fuels to make all these products, from CO2.

Twelve  is now working with many of the world’s largest brands to replace the petrochemicals in their products and supply chains with “CO2Made” chemicals, materials and fuels, eliminating emissions from thousands of everyday products and accelerating the path to carbon zero.

Partners include Alaska Airlines, Microsoft, Pangaia, Tide, NASA and Daimler among others.

Twelve was originally launched under the name Obtainium in 2014, and later known as Opus 12. Twelve was officially founded in 2015 by Dr. Kendra Kuhl, Dr. Etosha Cave, and Nicholas Flanders.

Flanders describes the company’s technology as “industrial photosynthesis” to create jet fuel and diesel from carbon dioxide. Their technology has been shown to convert CO₂ from raw biogas into carbon neutral methane.

“Life is food, music, exploration.
Life is being together, living well, learning.
Life is where you go, how you dress, the joy you feel.
To shape a joyful lifestyle.”

Nio designs and manufactures high-performance premium electric vehicles. But, unlike its competitors, Nio really is a lifestyle brand, rather than a typical speed-loving, rubber-burning auto brand.

This is an auto brand that partners with over 500 of the world’s top fashion and industrial designers, that shows at Beijing Fashion Week, that indulges in a food lab, that celebrates its own vintages with an online bar. This is a brand that is truly people rather than product-centric, that is about the future more than today.

It is also one of the most interesting, fastest growing, and valuable companies in the world.

Dairy farming, bike sharing, NYSE listing

Nio was co-founded in 2014 by William Li (also known as Bin Li) and has received investment from Tencent and Baidu, driving it to the top of China’s fast-growing domestic EV market.

William Li has been called the “Elon Musk of China”.

Born in August 1974 on a dairy farm in Anhui province, Li grew up in modest circumstances. His parents began saving for his college education when he was seven years old, and he later worked part-time to support his family. Li attended Peking University where he received his bachelor’s degree in sociology as well as a minor in law.

Similar to Musk, he has either founded or invested in more than 40 companies in the tech and automotive industries, including the bike-sharing platform Mobike.

He launched his first internet-based start-up at the age of 21 in 1996. In 2000, he founded his first major company, Bitauto, which provided web content and marketing services for China’s automotive industry. He gained a broad understanding of the auto market as a Bitauto reporter, interviewing high-profile movers and shakers in the industry.

The company went public on the American Stock Exchange in 2010 and was valued at over US$1 billion. Bitauto’s success propelled Li to stardom and he became one of the most influential entrepreneurs in China. He served as the CEO and chairman of the company for 13 years and sold Bitauto in 2013.

With a passion for cars, and inspired by the success of Chinese tech brand Xiaomi, Li began laying the groundwork to launch a new automobile manufacturer.

After receiving $2.1 billion investments from major tech companies such as Tencent, Baidu and Lenovo, Li founded Nio in 2014, his fourth start-up.

By 2016, it had debuted its two-door sports car, Nio EP9, at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Six EP9s were sold to investors for £2.5 million (US$3.2 million) each and the EP9 went on to set fastest lap records for an electric vehicle at various race circuits around the world.

The compamy went public in September 2018 on the New York Stock Exchange. Li owns just under 14% of stock.

Blue Sky Coming

Like many start-ups, making huge tech investments in advance of launch, the business was on the verge of bankruptcy at the end of 2019 but has staged a remarkable turnaround since then, majorly attributed to the investment by the Hefei government.

Nio’s Chinese name Weilai which means “Blue Sky Coming” which seeks to capture its mission to create a sense of freedom and joy through its autonomous driving solutions, and potentially much more.

China is rapidly becoming the world’s largest EV market – benefiting from government subsidies, consumers leapfrogging to EVs as their first cars, and obviously the huge potential audience size. EV sales are forecasted to breach the value of 6 million by 2025, and Nio, alongside the likes of BYD, are frontrunners to meet this demand.

Despite its youth, Nio has grown rapidly by focusing on innovation of the consumer experience, and developing an ecosystem of partners to deliver this, faster and more holistically than most competitors.

Innovation and design

Nio focuses on innovation to stay ahead of the curve and has filed for over 300 patent applications in the last five years. These are related to various aspects like communication systems, safety features, lighting, HVAC system, distribution, and electric power conversion. This creates a patent licensing opportunity for the brand. With three research centers in China and one each in the US, Germany, and the UK, it is constantly seekingtechnologically-based advances.

Nio Autonomous Driving (NAD) technology is key to its progress. Nio ET7, a sedan, is the first autonomous driving model launched by the brand in January 2021. NAD consists of NioAquila Super Sensing and Nio Adam Super Computing to make autonomous driving a safe experience.

Nio Aquila comprises 33 high-performance sensing units, including components like 8-MP high-resolution cameras, 1 ultralong-range high-resolution LiDAR, 5 mm-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and 2 high-precision positioning units, all in sync generating 8-GB data per second. Nio Adam is a supercomputer that deals with all this data to create high-clarity images and enhanced details to make autonomous driving convenient.

Energy and batteries

Battery technology – or more specifically Battery as a Service (BaaS), is at the heart of an electric vehicle and generally amounts to at least a third of the EV’s cost. In April 2020, China issued a new regulation, which clearly exempts “battery swap model” vehicles from the “300,000 RMB price threshold for getting subsidies” set by the policy.

BaaS is a subscription model or leasing service that aims to reduce costs for consumers. The consumers who opt for this service can save up to 100,000 Yuan by choosing not to own the battery.

Alternatively, they can pay a battery leasing fee of around 1,280 Yuan per month for six consecutive years and then own it. It allows the consumers to tackle the three-pronged challenge of battery degradation, upgradability, and lower resale values.

Nio Power helps in reducing range anxiety by providing customers a range of mobile internet-based power solutions. “One Click for Power,” i.e., a 24/7 on-call valet charging system, is one such option on the Nio app. It provides a pick-up and drop service for recharging an Nio vehicle within the shortest time based on the best option (Power Swap, Mobile, or Charger).

Nio Power provides services for both home and on-road situations. For home, there are Power Home Plus chargers that enable fast-charging of vehicles. For on-road, Power Swap involves battery swapping, Power Charger, and Power Mobile, which is akin to a portable power bank for a vehicle. The Power Mobile facility provides a charging van at the requested place, offering a range of 100kms after charging for 10 minutes.

Nio had 792 Power Chargers across 53 cities in China and 318 Power Mobile vans as of 31st December 2020.

Battery swapping technology can be tricky to master, and being first in the market does not guarantee success. Battery swapping was first introduced in 2011 by an Israeli start-up Better Place, which filed for bankruptcy in May 2013.

Tesla launched its Model S in 2013 with battery swapping enabled, but even they ended the initiative by 2015. The technology was a game-changer, but the implementation was anything but easy. NIO has managed to crack the puzzle by creating a Power Grid.

Nio had 172 Power Swap stations across 74 cities in China, having completed 1.4 million battery swaps as of 31st December 2020. Their Power Swap station 2.0, expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2021, will reduce the battery swapping time to under three minutes, accommodating up to 13 battery packs way above the current number of 5 battery packs.

Lifestyle brand

NIO House is an offline channel that fosters a community of Nio users. It functions as a showroom plus clubhouse for users, their family, and friends. The NIO House is divided into 7 areas: a café, library, and living room that cater to the varying consumer preferences. Thus, Nio’s business model focuses on creating a brand community that takes care of the customer experience, word-of-mouth marketing, and brand loyalty.

Nio’s business model is not only about selling electric cars and associated services. As we have mentioned before, Nio is building a community.

NIO Life is a lifestyle brand catering to various segments like apparel, home and living, travel, and bags. So, what makes it different, you ask? NIO has collaborated with over 100 designers worldwide to reuse and restyle vehicle scrap to create lifestyle and fashion products under the Nio Life label. Over 2.6 million Nio Life items have been sold through online and offline channels since 2016.

Global Ecosytem

For Nio, the business model is not just about premium EVs. Instead, it is a blend of EVs with charging solutions (Nio Power), subscription services (BaaS), Nio Life, Nio Spaces, and Nio House.

By offering premium and personalized services, Nio focuses on a long-term strategy to drive sales by creating an ecosystem. It considers the lifetime value that a customer provides rather than a one-time purchase. Most tech companies – from Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, to Amazon – are proponents of ecosystem strategies.

Norway is one of the most advanced EV markets in the world, thanks to government subsidies and a society that has embraced sustainable change. Nio House Oslo is located at Karl Johans Gate 33, Oslo’s center of commerce and culture, and has a total area of 2,100 square meters, and is the largest user center in Norway. The two-story structure has an upper floor for the display of products and services, and a lower floor for the Nio Cafe, Library, Forum, Lab, Living Room and Joy Camp areas exclusive to NIO users.

The Norway Collection jointly designed by Nio Life and two Norwegian artists, Anette Moi and Sandra Blikås, is now available in Norway and China.

“Today marks a significant moment in the history of NIO. Today the very first European users have the opportunity to experience what it means to be part of the Nio community,” says Nio Europe’s CEO Alexander Schwarz

“Norway is our starting point of our journey in Europe and beyond. Our vision is clear: to provide our users with seamless and worry-free services as well as supreme and joyful user experiences. We offer to be their friend and partner on their personal journey to a brighter and more sustainable future. From our NIO Houses, such as the first one in Oslo, through to our battery swap stations, our worry-free Battery-as-a-Service subscription models and our convenient online services, Being part of the NIO community will bring joy, friendship and meaningful interaction.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phk3KmoewQU

Inspired to share the Japanese strawberry experience with the world, Hiroki Koga brought Omakase Berry seeds to New York to establish the world’s first indoor vertical strawberry farm.

Oishii seeks to grow the best fruit in the world by deploying ground-breaking vertical farming technology that pushes the boundaries of agriculture. The business claims to be the first in the world to grow fruit in an indoor vertical farm at commercial scale. It started with strawberries, which debuted at Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, the three star Michelin restaurant considered by critics to be among the best in the world. Since then, it has supplied strawberries to food-loving consumers, world-class restaurants, and specialty retailers across NYC.

The proprietary technology, developed through years of intensive research in Japan and the US, enables Oishii to grow the very best produce year-round, at the same high level of quality, all without using any pesticides. It has rapidly expanded its farm facilities and assembled a world-class team with backgrounds spanning vertical farming, industrial automation, farm operations, and data analysis.

Here’s an extract from a recent interview with Artful Living magazine:

What does food mean to you?

Food means everything to me. Some people think I am a little obsessed, maybe too obsessed with food. I optimize my entire day around what I am going to eat and where. The best example of this is when I travel. The first thing I do is sort out where I want to eat. What are the must-try restaurants? What’s new? What have I read about? What am I craving? I do my research then plan all other activities around my pending dining reservations and locations. Food is the North Star of any good vacation. Any budget I set aside for a trip, food is always prioritized and if I must make sacrifices in other areas to accommodate, I will!

Why did you decide to launch Oishii?

I wanted to bring the incredible experiences and knowledge of Japanese produce, fruit culture and farming techniques to the United States. I knew people would love it, and I was excited at the opportunity to truly surprise and delight with the incredible Omakase Berry taste and aroma. It’s since become our mission to bring delicious-tasting produce to people and do so in a sustainable way. Ultimately, I want people to experience the joy that a delicious berry can truly bring. I love food and sharing it, and Oishii lets me do that on a larger scale.

What makes the Omakase Berry different from other berries?

The Omakase Berry is such a different experience from the conventional berries you find in a local grocery store. From the incredible aroma to the creamy texture to the sweet taste, it’s unlike any berry you’ve ever had. It’s a varietal that typically grows in the Japan Alps during the winter months. After years of research, development and testing, we were able to recreate that optimal environment for the Omakase Berry to thrive year-round in a vertical farm environment, allowing us to deliver consistently delicious, fresh and pesticide-free berries.

What is the best way to eat the Omakase Berry?

I love to share this tip! You can eat the Omakase Berry any way you like, but I recommend you eat them from the side to get the full flavor profile and the most delicious experience. The sweetness of the berry is concentrated in the tip, so if you eat that first, which most people naturally do, you get a big flavor burst. If you enjoy it from the side, you get that sweetness burst in every bite.

Are there any exciting new products or collaborations on the horizon?

We are very excited about our next product. We’re currently in the research and development phases for the Oishii tomato. I just tried some tomatoes yesterday and was blown away by their appearance and taste. Our team of plant scientists, farmers and tomato experts is working hard to perfect the environmental recipe, farming techniques and TLC that strike the right balance to create a tomato that is worthy of the Oishii name.

Pinduoduo, less than five years old, is the latest extraordinary e-commerce business from China, an online shopping site that specialises in extraordinary discounts on everything from tissues to Teslas.

Pinduoduo’s success has turned its founder, Colin Huang Zheng, a 40-year-old former Googler, into China’s third-richest person. Explaining his vision for the company before its flotation on the US Nasdaq two years ago, Huang said Pinduoduo was a mixture of “Costco and Disneyland” that combined bargain products with entertainment.

What distinguishes Pinduoduo from China’s other e-commerce giants, such as Alibaba and JD.com, is that it uses social media. Buyers put details of products on sites like WeChat – China’s answer to WhatsApp with 1.2 billion users – to get friends and family to buy as a group. The bigger the group, the bigger the discounts available.

The result has supercharged Pinduoduo’s growth. It now has 683 million active users and 50m orders a day. In August 2020 its market value had more than doubled in recent months to $114bn (£87bn).  In just its fifth year Pinduoduo reported almost $4.5bn in revenues in the year to the end of March – almost half that of eBay, which reported $10.8bn in revenues last year.

Huang, who earned a masters degree at the University of Wisconsin USA, joined Google as an intern in 2004, aged 24, and then worked there for 3 years as an engineer, and then also worked with Microsoft. He founded Pinduoduo in 2015. He stepped down as CEO in 2020 after 5 years of rapid growth, handing over to new CEO Lei Chen, but remains chairman. He is Pinduoduo’s largest shareholder, with a 29.4% stake worth around $34bn.

But not everyone is impressed with the company’s business model. When Pinduoduo shoppers managed to pick up bargain-priced Tesla cars through a group-buying event on the site, the US electric carmaker at first refused to supply the vehicles. Tesla only sells direct to buyers through its website, cutting out dealers and middlemen.

The buyers did eventually get their cars, but the clash put a spotlight on the way Pinduoduo regularly offers customers cash subsidies in order to offer the discounts, which it then records as sales and marketing fees. As a result the company has never even come close to making a profit. In fact, these fees often outstrip quarterly revenues.

One analyst said “Pinduoduo’s discount model has powered its impressive growth story. The company has achieved massive user growth in the last two years, which it has prioritised over profits.”

Many tech companies, from Amazon to Netflix, have put growth before profits and investors continue to be happy with what they are seeing. Pinduoduo has pulled in $5bn from investors in four separate rounds of fundraising, including its flotation.

The company’s second-biggest shareholder is the Chinese web giant Tencent, which has a 16.5% stake and also has investments in companies including Universal Music, Spotify and Snapchat. Tencent also owns WeChat, which Pinduoduo exploits heavily to bring in sales.

Pinduoduo says “We are an innovative and fast growing “new e-commerce” platform that provides buyers with value-for-money merchandise and fun and interactive shopping experiences.”

“We pioneered and popularized a dynamic shopping experience through “Pin”, a team purchase format that seamlessly integrates social experiences with online shopping experiences. We have consciously built our platform to resemble a “virtual bazaar” where buyers browse and explore a full spectrum of products on our platform while interacting with one another. Using Pinduoduo, buyers could share product information on popular social networks and invite their friends, family and social contacts to purchase together, through which they not only enjoy the fun and excitement of discovery and shopping, but also a comprehensive selection of value-for-money products.”

The business makes most of its money from advertising and promotions by its more than 5 million sellers. They account for almost 90% of revenues, with sales fees low, given the wafer thin margins most sellers operate on.

Unlike Amazon, Pinduoduo holds no stock, products are shipped directly from the seller, who also has to cover shipping costs.

It has successfully tapped the super-budget end of the consumer market but its reputation has suffered from large numbers of counterfeit products being posted on the site, as well as customers complaining about issues such as delivery.

As a result the company is now also trying to cultivate an image as a destination for more premium products, gaining high-profile coverage for events such as the Tesla sale and offering big discounts on products from brands like Apple.

Pinduoduo describes its strategy in this strategic report, and in its fact sheet:

The founder of White Claw, Anthony von Mandl is a British Canadian who started out in the wine industry in the 1970s. He marketed his wine out of his car and eventually a small office in Canada’s Vancouver region.

He purchased his first vineyard, Mission Hill, at 31 in 1981. He currently owns three other vineyards: Checkmate Artisan Winery, Martin’s Lane Winery, and Cedar Creek Estate Winery, all located in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.

In 1996, as part if his company Mark Anthony Brands, von Mandl launched Mike’s Hard Lemonade, a brand of flavoured alcoholic lemonades. 

In 2016 he launched White Claw Hard Seltzer, an alcoholic seltzer water, with nine different flavours (Black Cherry, Ruby Grapefruit, Natural Lime etc), and 5% alcohol at 100-calorie. By the summer of 2019, it was reported that White Claw accounted for over half of all total hard seltzer sales, with sales of White Claw growing 275% in the last 12 months.

Since 2016, hard seltzer sales have been steadily increasing at a triple-digit annual rate. As of 2019, White Claw was noted the top-selling hard seltzer in the USA. It’s popularity was met with a nationwide shortage,  resulting in the company working towards significantly increasing supply in order to meet consumer demand. Throughout 2019, White Claw’s popularity grew as a result of the hard seltzers being circulated through viral social media videos, which included the slogan “Ain’t no laws when you’re drinking Claws,” coined in a video by YouTube comedian Trevor Wallace which gained 4.2 million views.

Wallace then attempted to popularize his video further by releasing a t-shirt with the phrase from his video. White Claw took legal action. Many White Claw memes have also circulated and Halloween costumes of the beverage have also shown to be a growing trend. As the popularity of the drink brand rose throughout the summer, many media personalities coined the term “White Claw summer”. The light beer brand Natural Light, better known as ‘Natty Light’ struck back in the fight to be the better beverage brand by using Wallace in a stunt directed at White Claw. 

“White Claw is starting to become the Kleenex of spiked seltzer,” wrote Jenna Fanduzzi, 27, who writes blogs about seltzer as a hobby. “If you were to go to the fridge and there were a bunch of different brands, you would call all of them White Claw.”

Nielsen, the consumer research firm said “For many consumers, White Claw grew to become synonymous with the entire hard seltzer category and (at least partially) grew to represent the summer of 2019. It captured the zeitgeist of American drinkers, as it sits at the nexus of health, wellness and convenience. Yes, consumers posted about what they drank — but, it seemed as though they were posting more about what the brand has grown to symbolize.”

Genevieve Aronson, a Nielsen spokeswoman, said “For many consumers, White Claw grew to become synonymous with the entire hard seltzer category and (at least partially) grew to represent the summer of 2019. It captured the zeitgeist of American drinkers, as it sits at the nexus of health, wellness and convenience. Yes, consumers posted about what they drank — but, it seemed as though they were posting more about what the brand has grown to symbolize.”

White Claw does not aggressively market itself. And when it does, the aesthetic is aggressively bland and minimalist. Also, says Nielsen, “the drink is unextraordinary”.

In March 2020, Fast Company named White Claw it’s most innovative brand, saying “The overall hard-seltzer market exploded last year, with a 202% sales boost over 2018 and hitting $1.3 billion. And it was Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw that led the way. It rode the wave of this rise with both a design and marketing approach that was appealing to men, women, and memes, making the most of events like the Kentucky Derby and Coachella, while embracing influencers and even unauthorized parodies.”

“While competitors focused on wooing female consumers with ultrafeminine touches (cans emblazoned with pink fruits and flirty mermaids), White Claw adopted a more neutral approach, including an elegant black-and-white logo, and marketing that showcases men and women hanging out together and proudly touting White Claw’s low-cal, low-carb, gluten-free credentials. That led to a near 50-50 gender split among customers. “The new generation doesn’t want to be told who to hang out with or how to act based on gender,” says Mark Anthony Brands president Phil Rosse.