Let’s dive into the $500 Billion creators economy. Read the excerpt below!

As per a Goldman Sachs Report, the Creator Economy could reach half a trillion dollars by 2027.

As of 2023, the Total Addressable Market (TAM) of the Creator Economy is worth $250 billion, with 303 million creators present in the Creator Economy already.

(Note: A report by Adobe states that there are 303 million creators in nine markets comprising the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, South Korea and Brazil. You can only imagine how this number extrapolates to the entire world!)

The Goldman Sachs Report goes on to say:

The analysts expect spending on influencer marketing and platform payouts fuelled by the monetisation of short-form video platforms via advertising to be the primary growth drivers of the Creator Economy.

Global marketer and bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk puts it this way:

If you are not crushing it and focusing on the content that you put out on the most important social platforms, you’re going to become mute and obsolete in the modern day of doing business.

That’s why organic reach (through a creator or an influencer) is so important because the impression you get when someone comes directly to your page is a much more qualified lead and potentially a more valuable customer than someone you got through an ad buy.

The how of creator and influencer marketing

I know what you are thinking. Facts are good. What would be helpful to you is to understand how it happens.

Let’s take a deep dive:

The fundamental rule of marketing states that every customer, before becoming a customer, needs to be aware of the product and made familiar with it at least seven times before they become a customer.

Combine both these models, and here is what it means for the Creator Economy.

Every collaborator (brand) needs to leverage the power of creators, to take care of infusing attention, interest and desire in their 95 per cent customers and new prospects, so that the influencers can provoke “action” from the 5 per cent.

It is also important that collaborators leverage both creators and influencers, and not only influencers. Like we spoke before, creators and influencers are merely the same person living in the same house, just walking across different rooms (from influencer to creator or creator to influencer), based on what the situation demands.

As per a study by Harvard Business Review:

“It may be tempting to turn to influencers when promoting a new product launch…(however the) ROI for influencer posts announcing new products was 30.5 per cent lower than for equivalent posts that were not about new product launches… While short-term ROI can guide short-term decisions, brands should also consider the potential long-term effects of associating with a particular influencer (read: creator). These effects (whether positive or negative) may take time to materialize but can have a substantial impact on a brand’s identity.”

The best part is that there’s no friction between any of these. A creator can effortlessly choose to become an influencer. An influencer can choose to be a creator. It is fluid. A brand can choose to work with the same person, in a different capacity, either as a creator or an influencer.

Everyone works together to serve the consumer, which is how the Creator Economy functions at its best – keeping all its moving parts together, where everyone wins.

Key takeaways:

• The Creator Economy is going to be worth half a trillion dollars by 2027.
• The Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) purchase funnel describes the customer’s journey from the time they are aware of the product till the time they eventually make a purchase. A customer needs to go from capturing attention, sparking interest, invoking desire to have the product in their journey, that will finally lead them to taking action.
• As per the 95:5 Rule, at any point in time, only 5 per cent of buyers in the market are ready to buy in the market, while 95 per cent will either buy it later, or still need to be convinced over a period of time.
• Combining both these models, every collaborator (brand) needs to leverage the power of creators to take care of infusing attention, interest and desire in their 95 per cent customers and new prospects, so that the influencers can provoke “action” from the 5 per cent.
• The best part is: A brand can choose to work with the same person in a different capacity, either as a creator or an influencer.

Read an exclusive excerpt from Brick by Brick and discover the journey from middle-class hustle to entrepreneurial success.

Aaj bhi truck jana hai, sir? (Will the truck go today as well, sir?)’  I was asked by the Public Call Office (PCO) booth operator, a young enthusiastic chap, who was about my age. That he was  

happy to encounter a high-value customer was evident in his smile. This wasn’t the first time that he had tried to strike up a conversation with me. On other occasions, I would end up spending a few extra minutes responding to his many questions. Today, however, I barely had time to nod and get to the business at hand before rushing in to attend a Business Management class where the professor was a stickler for punctuality.  

I had started flexing my entrepreneurial muscle from a rather unusual workspace. A PCO booth—those yellow kiosks that had at one time ushered in a communication revolution in the country—was the seat of my early entrepreneurial journey. Come to think of it, today’s generation may not have even heard of their existence, let alone seen them stand on street corners, not when everyone carries a phone in their pocket, anyway. I had only recently been packed off to the city of Indore from Delhi, which had been my family’s home for decades. I was to pursue a course in business management at a time when business education was just making an appearance on the scene. These were times when every student worth his salt aspired for a seat at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or a good medical college. An average student, I had also given  the entrance exam a shot (and failed at it) as a rite of passage.  

Fortunately for me, my parents were far-sighted enough to see that it was time for me to cut my losses and try my hand at something different. When it came to my father’s notice that his friend, Mr. Khandelia, who was working as the CEO of a large spinning mill, was sending his son, Ashish, a bright student, to Indore for a course in business management, he decided that I should follow suit. It was on the Malwa Express enroute to the International Institute of Professional Studies at the Devi Ahilya University in Indore that I first met Ashish who was to be my partner in crime for the next few years. We were to be picked up at Dewas station by Ashish’s uncle, Ashok Chacha. While I was a bit nervous, stepping out of home for the first time, I soon realized that my fears were unfounded. Ashok Chacha, a textile mill owner in Dewas, and his wife, Kanta Chachi, welcomed me with open arms and over a period of time, became my extended family. 

Yarn Trading 

‘Ek business opportunity hai; tere paas time hai karne ke liye (There is a business opportunity; do you have time to pursue it)?’ This question from my father, on our weekly long-distance call from Indore, had sparked an old hustling muscle in me. A textile engineer by profession, my father had spent his entire working life in the textile industry. He had harboured entrepreneurial ambitions at a time when entrepreneurship wasn’t as cool and shiny as it is today. His early attempts to put up a yarn spinning plant had caused him to lose a lot of money but hadn’t prevented him from continuing to hone an entrepreneurial mindset. Driven by his fervour, I had also spent a large part of my school vacations accompanying him as he visited various textile plants. My early interest in the industry had even led me to undertake summer training in a textile factory in Sangrur, Punjab, at a time when summer internships weren’t as regimented as they are now.  

My old interest in entrepreneurship was reignited. Within minutes of my father posing the question, I found myself ready to turn into an entrepreneur from the very PCO booth from which I had made a call to him. It turned out that my father was friends with someone who ran a spinning mill in Nepal, a man who was keen to export yarn to India. He also happened to know a few potential buyers in Ludhiana who were keen to buy their goods. All that was needed was someone who could reliably liaison between the two parties. A few statistics from my father and I had already made a quick calculation that I could stand to make as much as Rs 8000 for every truckload that made its way from Nepal to Ludhiana. 

  ***

Get your copy of Brick By Brick on Amazon or wherever books are sold.

Read an exclusive excerpt on how startups are breaking rules and rewriting success!

As per popular legend, in 1997, Reed Hastings, a software entrepreneur, was fined $40 at his local video store for returning the DVD of the movie Apollo 13 late. This unpleasant experience got him thinking: there has to be a better business model for video rentals. He started Netflix, a DVD-by-mail service with no late fees, which was later transformed into a subscription-based online streaming service. Today, Netflix is a global behemoth in the entertainment industry, all thanks to a business model that was born out of a sense of personal frustration. In India, a man named Arunachalam Muruganantham embarked on a mission to produce affordable sanitary pads for the women in his village. His business model was built around empowering rural women, not just by providing access to affordable sanitary products but also by offering them an opportunity to earn a living. His company, Jayaashree Industries, supplied semi-automatic machines to women-led self-help groups who produced and sold the pads, turning a societal challenge into an entrepreneurial opportunity. This model has been hailed as a breakthrough in socially conscious business innovation.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Ford Motor Company revolutionized the automobile industry not just through the invention of the assembly line but also through an innovative business model. Henry Ford’s vision of making a car for the great multitude required a drastic reduction in prices, which led to the development of a business model based on cost efficiencies and economies of scale. This story serves as a classic example of how business model innovation can drive growth and disrupt industries. All these examples show that business models are not static; they are dynamic and change with time. They are not set in stone; they need to evolve with changing market conditions and customer needs. Did you know that each year, more than half of the Fortune 500 companies have to innovate their business models to stay on the list? A business model that worked in the past might not be successful in the future, and companies that fail to innovate their business models risk being left behind.

Business Model

So, what is a business model? In simple terms, it is a conceptual structure that supports the viability of a business and explains how it operates and makes money, and how it intends to achieve its goals. More importantly, a business model encapsulates the value proposition for customers—that unique cocktail of products, services and experiences that make a business stand out from the crowd. Imagine walking into a bustling marketplace filled with vendors, each trying to outshine the others, vying for your attention and your hard-earned money. Their strategies for enticing you differ significantly—one offers a subscription for a basket of fresh produce every week, another entices you with a bundle of complementary products at a discounted rate, a third proposes a franchise model to help you set up your own thriving business, and yet another offers the convenience of on-demand service, where you get what you want, when you want it. All of these are business models in action, strategically designed to create, deliver and capture value.

An Examination of Traditional

Business Models

We begin our exploration of business models by examining the conventional, time-honoured structures that have enabled businesses to create and capture value throughout history. Each model has its own distinctive strengths, weaknesses and unique elements, which need to be grasped for achieving business success. It’s worth noting that these models are not mutually exclusive and can often be interwoven and amalgamated.

Manufacturer Business Model:

This model involves the creation of products from raw materials or component parts by a company. The products can be sold directly to consumers, or through an intermediary. Example: Tata Motors exemplifies this model, designing and manufacturing an array of vehicles sold via their dealer network. Ford Motor Company represents this model on a global scale, selling its extensive range of vehicles through worldwide distribution channels.

Strengths and weaknesses: The manufacturing model offers control over production, quality and pricing. Higher volumes can lead to economies of scale, reducing costs and increasing profitability. However, high initial costs, continuous maintenance expenses and potential supply chain complexities can be challenges. The ability to change the established infrastructure to match evolving market dynamics and consumer preferences can also be a hurdle.