Are you having problems selling your product ?
Or, perhaps
worse are you having problems finding a saleable product ?
Let me take you back to the "dawn of time". It's
the early
60's and the world was discovering the mini-skirt and The
Beatles, and the internet wasn't even thought about.
One of my mentors sat me down and explained two
concepts
to me, that you have probably heard of, but all too few
people use today.
Concept #1
I'm sure it has a new-fangled name, but it used
to be
called "Market Gap Analysis". Here is how it works.
You have a product which is generating some sales, but
want to give it "a shot in the arm", so you analyze all
the possible reasons why your target market aren't buying.
For example, lets say you have a course teaching
people how
to speak Spanish that consists of a manual and (in the old
days) several records.
You make a list of probable causes of slow sales,
like
this:
1...Product too expensive for the market
2...Course too difficult for beginners to learn
3...Target market finds too little time to take
the course.
You get the idea. You then try and solve these problems:
1...Find ways to reduce the cost per unit, so that you can
reduce your price.
Or - Examine your marketing to find a target market with
greater discretionary purchasing power.
Or - market two apparently different products,
the first
version a reduced price version to your original target
market, and second a deluxe version to your newly identified
"richer" target market.
2...Simplify your course and/or course materials
Or - Market to a different audience. Instead of
beginners
try marketing this as an intermediate course, or even an
ESL course (English As A Second Language).
In other words reverse the emphasis to Spanish
speakers
who want to learn English.
3...This was the answer chosen. Prepare the
course as a
series of audio tapes, and market them to people who
drive for a living, or who drive to and from work every
day. Anyone who drives for an hour or so each day has
time to learn a second language this way, all that the
marketer had to do was write some new copy and change
the thrust of his marketing efforts.
That's "Market Gap Analysis" - in its simplest
form.
Concept #2
Thinking Outside The Box.
Try to imagine alternate uses for your product or
combine
your product with another existing product to come up
with something new and different.
A man in Southern California went to see Star
Wars when
it first appeared in the theatres and was "blown away"
by the whole experience, in particular the special effects.
Later he happened to be at an auction where a
large Sporting
Goods warehouse was being liquidated, and one of the lots
was thousands of those plastic tubes that are inside golf
bags, so that the golfer can keep his clubs organized.
Who, in his right mind, is going to bid on that,
unless
he happened to be a manufacturer of golf bags. Or a smart
marketer thinking outside the box.
Our guy bought them for peanuts, then bought a
small
quantity of those small aluminum flashlights and some
"crazy glue".
Half an hour later he had about 20 samples of a
revolutionary
new product - Jedi Knight Light Sabres - and started marketing
like mad.
His cost per product was next to nothing and he
had a market
that was just waiting for someone to come along with the
right product. Under those conditions do you think you could
find a way to sell Jedi Knight Light Sabres.