premfan

Which of those companies except groupon doesnt have a massive emotional attachment, raving fan base, and isnt the best in customer service and overall customer experience in there field?

For a moat to not be a moat something of greater emotional attachment will have to appear. Greatest moat has greatest emotional attachment. Best current moats starbucks apple whole foods amazon Ko Jnj chiptole Up and coming moats lululemon groupon ( debatable) My top two moats would currently be starbucks and whole foods.

The moats of the future is a great question. I use groupon for my business and personally and its a great service. Its the only advertising that actually delivers a great ROI each time. Sure you loss money in the front end but, its all about making money in the back end and creating residual business. Thats what creates REAL equity in business. I have no idea about the moat all i know is its a blessing for small business owners. Its just an amazing tool for bringing customers in the door. Turning the customers into clients is the job of business owner not groupon.

Cognitive dissonance= actions dont match up with goals and beliefs. Knowing something intellectually doesnt mean anything unless there is an emotional attachment to result in a change of behavior. Most moats that have an emotional attachment with the public will endure for forever. The logic is human nature never changes. Unless something takes the place of the emotional attachment creating a greater attachment. Everyone should know the playbook to achieve financial freedom. Read richest man in bablyon thats it. Thats the ultimate playbook and the reason most people arent finanically free is due to cognitive dissonance. Most people in the world have cognitive dissonance and arent logical. Being logical is a huge competitive advantage in any aspect of life. The long term trend towards wellness is real ( i'm in the wellness field). The problem is most people arent logical and have cognitive dissonance. If doing "x" will result in "y". Where "y" is achieving long term health and wellness and practicing preventation in disease. Even though its logical to practice preventative care instead of reactive care some people wont do it. Its an combination of fear and not having the discipline to create change. Bottom line is there is a HUGE difference between intellectually knowing something and actually practicing it by taking action. Knowing that coginitive dissonance is real and will never change in a global way i see brands like ko and jnj will continue to dominate until something of greater emotional attachment takes over (probadly never).

Bezos is the best. " customer obessed. start with the customer then work backwards". Amazing company amazing ceo

ha @ at the earwax video. No idea about the ROI but the singapore store looks awesome.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/groupon-opens-first-concept-store-in-hong-kong-2012-11-19-64853445 Anyone else find this interesting. Creating an connection between the offline and online world.

well said. def good luck

Lets all invest in paragon he references warren buffet!

[amazonsearch]No B.S.Trust-Based Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Trust in an Understandably UN-Trusting World[/amazonsearch] This is not an investing book. It does reference walt disney and warren buffet though. This is a book for business owners to grow there business via trust based marketing. Indirectly knowing how a business creates goodwill and trust will help the investor locate companies who focus on turning customers into clients via trust/goodwill.

Copycat investing makes the investor feel good cause a "guru" is with him or her. This is okay and i believe that is of the golden principles in the richest man in babylon. Follow people who are good at gathering gold. I feel more empowered if i gather up my own ideas. Usually after i research a idea then i check if any gurus or future gurus have the same idea. I'm not a money manager so i have no pressure for relative performance. I manage the excess cash from my biz. Copycat investing i think is essential if your a money manger. I think its important to research a idea and come to a conclusion before you read the gurus thought process. You want your thought process to be similar to the gurus and not be persuaded by the gurus thinking. This is what they mean having an independent thought process.

Great thread. Keep it going!

WOW totally speechless!!

good work! Whats your take on groupon?

I'm not smart enough to understand all the moving parts of the banking system. You guys are super jedi master investors. I wish you longs great success.

http://www.webpronews.com/redbox-instant-streaming-service-coming-your-way-eventually-2012-07

-"Rubi" automation of coffee partnership with starbucks - Ecoatm - streaming content partnership with verzion

Hi twa, I wrote about coinstar awhile ago. Heres my take on coinstar. I'm big into philosophy and my favorite philosopher is lao tzu who wrote "tao te ching". I make investments and live my life based on the principles in the book. Currently there are two worlds the world wide web "online" world and the " off line " world. The two worlds will eventually balance itself out. Anything in excess will become equal. Coinstar is the bridge between the offline world of retail and the online world of retail. Coinstar is an automated retail solutions company not a dvd company. They are leveraging there redbox success but have other seeds in place that will hopefully bloom to lever in the future. Coinstar is changing the way content is distributed to the offline world. Its creating a balance between both worlds. Simply put coinstar is an disruptive technology with almost an limitless market.

Hi friends i want the boards take on how you guys think of the qualitative aspect of your investments. Numbers are number they are what they are. This is my qualitative process: 1.) I will only invest in something with a large market. I see many companies doing well but they have already saturated there market. Wheres the growth going to come from? They need to expand but doing so they might lose focus on what got them there. 2.) I look for market leaders or soon to be market leaders. In a large market there are many slices of the pie to take. The more competitors the more liquidity the bigger the market gets. Paradoxically the lower barrier to entries the larger the future potential market. 3.) I look for companies inventing new markets or new solutions. They are the innovators and first movers in the field. The market is new and its impossible to model the future size of the market. Wall street guys cant model these companies and will go to default mode and say there model is unsustainable. How you guys think of the qualitative aspect of your investments?

ostk

This guy is great! Thanks for bringing him to my attention.

great*

Hi Liberty, No knock on you i have no vested interest in that company so i wish you get success and riches.

My consultant told me to try and view the world in shades of grey instead of black and white. So lets a crack at this. Judging moral code is a subjective matter it depends on the environment the person is in. Given enough adverse situations people rationalize any behavior. Survival trumps moral code. We dont know what situation this guy was in. At least he was honest in that he received compensation. No different than people in forums preaching there ideas. The more people replying to there post the more people feel good about there idea. Comfort in the herd. They rationalize there idea is better than it is by the number of people agreeing with them. There are exceptions but the more replies and post on a idea the more it loses interest to me. Hearing things like " I have confidence in management" something so intangible that it blinds the person from the current reality. People rationalize anything they want. I accept this

Usually people that say IQ doesnt matter are the people with average IQ