Building Products That Last MRR Ebook

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Chapter 7: What’s More Important than Building the Product?

Summary

Merely building the product isn't enough.

What's More Important than Building the Product?

We have been speaking about how a great product is integral to your business and in many ways it is. In fact, if a list of the top things to do to ensure business success were created, having a good product would be right there on the top. However, there is something that is also quite important. You could say it goes hand in hand with product enhancement.

And what is that? This important thing is promotion.

Without promoting your product, your business is dead in the water. It won't get a good start, which will make you lose money and you will be out of your business soon. This is a vicious circle; you have to try to be out of this as soon as you can.

So, what does promotion mean? Basically it means advertising your product, but in simple layperson terms, you could also say it is highlighting your product where it can meet with good exposure. Today, the Internet has opened up various vistas for advertisement. You can actually reach out to your target niche and promote your product directly to them.

There are so many products in the market currently which aren't better than their competitors but are still surviving and some are even dominating. Now, why is this happening? Advertisement is the answer. They spend millions on ad campaigns, both online and offline and increase the curiosity levels. If the packaging is slick, if the promotion has been great, then people don't mind checking out the product.

But the most important thing that advertisements do is to create an awareness of the product. People know that the product exists; there builds up a curiosity level for the product. It is because of this that people don't mind adding the product to their shopping carts to try them out if nothing else.

Slick advertisement and brand awareness are extremely important when you are trying to build a product that can reach out to people. Don't undermine the importance of these two aspects, which can very easily make or break a product, however good or bad it is.

Chapter 8: Selling a Refrigerator to an Eskimo

Summary

Traditionally, this line has been used to indicate a wily salesperson that uses every trick in the book to sell things to people that they don't want. But isn't this talent going to be great for you if you are entering business?

Selling a Refrigerator to an Eskimo

"There is only one way... to get anybody to buy anything. And that is by making the other person want to buy it."

Dale Carnegie, adapted for advertising

How do you sell a fridge to an Eskimo! That challenge has always been the symbol of the ultimate in marketing a product to someone who simply does not need it. There are funny answers that come up, which also stand for dubious practices in advertising.

'Tell him there is alcohol in it' is a kind of surrogate advertising. Your intent may actually be to sell him alcohol, so you sell him a fridge bundled with bottles of whisky. 'Tell him it will make him feel warmer/ is a partial truth, because technically speaking, the temperature inside the fridge can be adjusted to be higher than the subzero cold outside!

But let us revise that original statement - That challenge has always been the symbol of the ultimate in marketing a product to someone who apparently does not need it. That will lead us to ask - is there possibly a reason why an Eskimo would need a fridge? The answer is another simple question - Why do you sit at your dining table eating a salmon dish with a fork and knife? Why aren't you out there in the jungle spearing the fish and roasting it on a crude fire? Product development, advertising and marketing are the driving forces of civilization and convenience.

The Eskimo needs a fridge because he no longer wants his wife to go and bury the reindeer roast under a pile of snow. And, here we come to another factor in advertising, he also wants it because his neighbor has bought one!

So that's it! We have sold a fridge to an Eskimo without any trickery, without gimmicks or lies. We have simply fulfilled the three needs of a good product for the Eskimo - a product that satisfies a need, with great looks and high quality, marketed well.

That wasn't very difficult was it? Now shall we attempt to sell bottled water to millions of people who have easy access to safe drinking water through taps in their kitchen? That is probably tougher than selling a refrigerator to an Eskimo!

Chapter 9: Keep Your Ears Open

Summary

The ears are the most important organs of a successful businessperson.

Keep Your Ears Open

'We listen. We do stuff, we follow through, and then we listen more."

Coca Cola and Pepsi are two of the biggest giants in advertising and marketing in the world today. They spend millions of dollars in market research and product development. Could they go wrong? In the early 1980s, Coke tried to retain its position as number one by introducing New Coke to replace the old flavor. There was a hue and cry from the public and Coke was forced to bring back its original classic cola. A few years later Pepsi launched Pepsi AM, a drink targeted for breakfast time. And yet later came Pepsi Clear, a colorless cola drink! Both were rejected by the market.

Coke and Pepsi reacted to negative public feedback by quickly withdrawing those flop products from the market. There are several cases of dud products eroding the market share of a company because no one listened to the consumer. Ford Motor Co. sold its first bestselling car for a long time under the line - "People can have the Model-T in any color - so long as it's black." After a while buyers began to ask for style and color options. Ford's competitors listened to the feedback and obliged. Ford was compelled to follow suit to service.

Today, the vast reach of the Internet makes listening much easier. The Consumer Relations departments of many companies set up and monitor Face book, Twitter and blogs where they can listen to instant feedback and act swiftly to correct a problem or to improve a product.

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