C.J. wrote:
Hi John:
I've been out at retailers showing them my puzzle designs and had a nice experience that seemed like something right out of your seminar. I was in a small mom & pop store on Capitol Hill and had been chatting with one of the owners for a while when a customer came-in. I stepped aside to keep out of the way of her doing business but the owner asked me to come back and show my designs to the customer. She loved them and told the owner "....I'd definitely buy this - and this is why I come into your store, because you sell things like this that I can't find anywhere else."***Competing on design.... up to now we get a feel for the store, then find stores with similar feel, and build a business and stores that feel right. it's not a bad way to go, people make whole careers out of it. But statistics might allow people to get to more such stores faster, since retailers tend to respond to their demographics, and conform themselves to please the customer. thus we should find stores ina give zip with X demographics should be reversible so X demographics provides us with given zips... My hypothesis, anyway...***
I immediately thought of what you said about niche retailers' needing to constantly have new & interesting product on the shelf....and then also that I'd likely be able to come-back and ask this owner for help again.***right, but critical to show progression with each meeting...***
I'm starting my post-retailer design modifications and factory-hunt now. Thanks again for all the advice. Things are working-out very much as you said.***It does for me too... I just teach what I was taught that works..
Also, as to data analysis... It is already june... arrrggghh... mid-June... In sept I am sending out a mailiing in seattle area, maybe 20,000 addresses... of course my mailing house can arrange by zip, etc... my idea is perhaps we can set something up that coordinates a proper test with zips sampled, unsampled, etc so we can learn where in Seattle customers exist for a given product, in this case online courses. wuld it work to direct the zip analysis project to this effort, and then use it as a basis to build on for ever better knowledge of where the customers are, and where they might be...***
John
2 comments:
At last you discuss direct marketing! The one thing you've left out of your book which has become absolutely vital to me is direct marketing in the form of postal mail. In Canada there are not enough trade shows in my niche to build a business on so I have built a database and market directly to retailers in order to collect the orders. If you ever publish a revised version of your book it might be good to have a chapter on direct marketing.
But Callum, I do cover direct marketing: "When you experience a problem, find a solution, and then try to buy it." Step back and see what you have done: There was a need, you designed a product, and have sold it to yourself: a database of retailers to whom you rep directly. Now, the problem you solved for yourself, would solve problems for others. Find and intern to recruit other vendors as yourself to rep products to those very retailers.
The write a book on it.
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