The Ultimate Target Audience!
 

We’re all looking for it…the ultimate target group of consumers that will or can:

1. Want our products or services.
2. Afford our products or services.
3. Not easily wooed by competitors.
4. Can be easily identified and accessed.
5. The cost of acquiring those customers is much less than the total lifetime profit they’ll yield.

The problem is, as we know, finding this group.

We think about markets…we think about products—and try to merge the two together in perfect union.

I think this is virtually impossible using thought alone. It’s sort of like ‘flight’. We can fly, but only with mechanical assistance. Same thing with developing a successful business through the activity of selling a product or service to a target group of consumers…we can’t do it through thought alone.

Think of companies that control their markets as perfectly as anyone could—companies like Microsoft.

I posted here once before the story of how Microsoft often went to trade shows with multitudes of different products to the point their booth looked more like something that belonged in a flea market. While their competition would show one or two products, Microsoft would pump out many…always hoping to strike gold with one or two. We all see Microsoft’s successes but what about the failures? They are out there. Remember “Bob”? There are plenty more that aren’t or weren’t quite as visible as ‘Bob’, but they are there.

Not too far from where I live is a ‘Consumer product’ museum where on display are hundreds of failed consumer products (there is also a book out there on this museum). Huge companies like Proctor and Gamble will launch many products. These products have passed through many channels and even been tested on focus groups to the point that P&G has faith in the ultimate success in the product. Yet the market rebels.

The question becomes if these large companies can’t guarantee the success of their products and end up having to launch many in order to have one or two winners what makes us think we can be instantly successful with one or two products…and even worse we can promote or kill these products without adequately testing them?

The truth is we can’t…never could, never will.

Lets look at smaller examples than Microsoft or P&G.

We often talk about Ben Suarez and his story, chronicled in his book, “7 Steps To Freedom”. And in the book, Mr. Suarez talks at length about what he went through to get his company launched. And it’s not some ‘feel-good’ story. It took a lot of money and a lot of testing. And quite truthfully, all of the product ideas Ben Suarez had at the beginning, crashed & burned. It took an idea from Gary Halbert, and much prodding to get Ben Suarez to test the idea. The rest as they say is history but that is not to say, Ben Suarez has not had many product failures since then because he has but he kept testing new ideas hoping to find that one or two that took off. But the fact remains, Ben Suarez never envisioned selling ‘Astrology’ related products at the very beginning. He went with what he thought were good products but the market said NO.

Was Gary Halbert’s astrology idea a stroke of genius? From reading “7 Steps” it appears that Gary looked at the market and thought Astrology products would work. Let’s look at Gary Halbert’s story. He admits himself that he tried marketing a variety of products, which failed miserably, before he hit a home run with his famous ‘Nancy’ letter. But even this was not a clear thought in the middle of the night but Gary found a story of some older woman that was doing something similar and Gary took the idea and rolled it out to the masses. And even since the ‘Nancy’ letter, Gary has tried marketing various other ideas that never took off.

My former mentor, Mr. Johnny Berguson, of the large mail order/catalog company Kingdom Inc. started his company with the idea of selling audio programs on horse training. But due to an incredible error by card-deck printing company, Johnny ended up selling tons of blank audiocassettes…completely by accident. Today, Kingdom Inc. is the largest seller of blank audiocassettes and high-speed duplicators in the world to the religious market.

Land’s End, which recently was sold to Sears for more than a billion dollars was started by someone that was marketing boating supplies by catalog. Guess what? Land’s End started putting some apparel also and it took off--big time! But that wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t in business to begin with and it happened almost by accident.

Ted Nicholas certainly didn’t know for sure if his book, “How to Form a Corporation for $50” was going to be a winner or not until he spent a little money and ran a small ad in the “Wall Street Journal”.

J. Peterman didn’t know marketing his famous ‘Duster’ would be financially lucrative until he placed some small ads. And get this, the first ads he placed in newspapers failed completely. It was only after he placed a small ad in the “New Yorker” that he really started seeing some return.

My point is that finding your ‘ultimate market’ is quite often different than getting an instant brilliant moment. Quite often it is done accidentally or through ‘dumb luck’. And it seems you have to have a multitude of product ideas in order for one or two to have any chance at life. As much as we like to think differently, the ultimate success of our products really isn’t up to us. All we can do is allocate some needed resources and let the market decide. The problems I see with many people are:

1. They don’t allocate the needed resources to the project. Instead they try to do everything without spending a single dime.
2. They don’t have a variety of products or services to test. If the one they have doesn’t pan out, they’re dead in the water.
3. Of course you can overspend testing a product or service. You ignore what the market tells you and continue pressing on. But I see number 1 and number 2 happen much more frequently than this one.

Are you waiting for that ‘Brilliant’ moment or are you grabbing the bull by the horns and trying different things, different concepts? Truthfully we really don’t know what will work or what won’t.

Take care,

Mike Winicki

Re: The Ultimate Target Audience!
 

Mike,
Thank you for this post. it confirms what I have long felt and believed for myself. I am developing four information products, 2 websites and a couple of other things that I pre-tested, somewhat.

I have long believed that you should develop several products simultaneously for different markets. You need a schedule, of course, to make sure you don't allocate unevenly the time spent on developing one product to the detriment of another product.

So, thank you for confirming what I felt. As Emerson says, (paraphased) "We always see our genius in some one else's efforts."

Taylor

> We’re all looking for it…the ultimate target
> group of consumers that will or can:

> 1. Want our products or services.
> 2. Afford our products or services.
> 3. Not easily wooed by competitors.
> 4. Can be easily identified and accessed.
> 5. The cost of acquiring those customers is
> much less than the total lifetime profit
> they’ll yield.

> The problem is, as we know, finding this
> group.

> We think about markets…we think about
> products—and try to merge the two together
> in perfect union.

> I think this is virtually impossible using
> thought alone. It’s sort of like ‘flight’.
> We can fly, but only with mechanical
> assistance. Same thing with developing a
> successful business through the activity of
> selling a product or service to a target
> group of consumers…we can’t do it through
> thought alone.

> Think of companies that control their
> markets as perfectly as anyone
> could—companies like Microsoft.

> I posted here once before the story of how
> Microsoft often went to trade shows with
> multitudes of different products to the
> point their booth looked more like something
> that belonged in a flea market. While their
> competition would show one or two products,
> Microsoft would pump out many…always hoping
> to strike gold with one or two. We all see
> Microsoft’s successes but what about the
> failures? They are out there. Remember
> “Bob”? There are plenty more that aren’t or
> weren’t quite as visible as ‘Bob’, but they
> are there.

> Not too far from where I live is a ‘Consumer
> product’ museum where on display are
> hundreds of failed consumer products (there
> is also a book out there on this museum).
> Huge companies like Proctor and Gamble will
> launch many products. These products have
> passed through many channels and even been
> tested on focus groups to the point that P&G
> has faith in the ultimate success in the
> product. Yet the market rebels.

> The question becomes if these large
> companies can’t guarantee the success of
> their products and end up having to launch
> many in order to have one or two winners
> what makes us think we can be instantly
> successful with one or two products…and even
> worse we can promote or kill these products
> without adequately testing them?

> The truth is we can’t…never could, never
> will.

> Lets look at smaller examples than Microsoft
> or P&G.

> We often talk about Ben Suarez and his
> story, chronicled in his book, “7 Steps To
> Freedom”. And in the book, Mr. Suarez talks
> at length about what he went through to get
> his company launched. And it’s not some
> ‘feel-good’ story. It took a lot of money
> and a lot of testing. And quite truthfully,
> all of the product ideas Ben Suarez had at
> the beginning, crashed & burned. It took
> an idea from Gary Halbert, and much prodding
> to get Ben Suarez to test the idea. The rest
> as they say is history but that is not to
> say, Ben Suarez has not had many product
> failures since then because he has but he
> kept testing new ideas hoping to find that
> one or two that took off. But the fact
> remains, Ben Suarez never envisioned selling
> ‘Astrology’ related products at the very
> beginning. He went with what he thought were
> good products but the market said NO.

> Was Gary Halbert’s astrology idea a stroke
> of genius? From reading “7 Steps” it appears
> that Gary looked at the market and thought
> Astrology products would work. Let’s look at
> Gary Halbert’s story. He admits himself that
> he tried marketing a variety of products,
> which failed miserably, before he hit a home
> run with his famous ‘Nancy’ letter. But even
> this was not a clear thought in the middle
> of the night but Gary found a story of some
> older woman that was doing something similar
> and Gary took the idea and rolled it out to
> the masses. And even since the ‘Nancy’
> letter, Gary has tried marketing various
> other ideas that never took off.

> My former mentor, Mr. Johnny Berguson, of
> the large mail order/catalog company Kingdom
> Inc. started his company with the idea of
> selling audio programs on horse training.
> But due to an incredible error by card-deck
> printing company, Johnny ended up selling
> tons of blank audiocassettes…completely by
> accident. Today, Kingdom Inc. is the largest
> seller of blank audiocassettes and
> high-speed duplicators in the world to the
> religious market.

> Land’s End, which recently was sold to Sears
> for more than a billion dollars was started
> by someone that was marketing boating
> supplies by catalog. Guess what? Land’s End
> started putting some apparel also and it
> took off--big time! But that wouldn’t have
> happened if they weren’t in business to
> begin with and it happened almost by
> accident.

> Ted Nicholas certainly didn’t know for sure
> if his book, “How to Form a Corporation for
> $50” was going to be a winner or not until
> he spent a little money and ran a small ad
> in the “Wall Street Journal”.

> J. Peterman didn’t know marketing his famous
> ‘Duster’ would be financially lucrative
> until he placed some small ads. And get
> this, the first ads he placed in newspapers
> failed completely. It was only after he
> placed a small ad in the “New Yorker” that
> he really started seeing some return.

> My point is that finding your ‘ultimate
> market’ is quite often different than
> getting an instant brilliant moment. Quite
> often it is done accidentally or through
> ‘dumb luck’. And it seems you have to have a
> multitude of product ideas in order for one
> or two to have any chance at life. As much
> as we like to think differently, the
> ultimate success of our products really
> isn’t up to us. All we can do is allocate
> some needed resources and let the market
> decide. The problems I see with many people
> are:

> 1. They don’t allocate the needed resources
> to the project. Instead they try to do
> everything without spending a single dime.
> 2. They don’t have a variety of products or
> services to test. If the one they have
> doesn’t pan out, they’re dead in the water.
> 3. Of course you can overspend testing a
> product or service. You ignore what the
> market tells you and continue pressing on.
> But I see number 1 and number 2 happen much
> more frequently than this one.

> Are you waiting for that ‘Brilliant’ moment
> or are you grabbing the bull by the horns
> and trying different things, different
> concepts? Truthfully we really don’t know
> what will work or what won’t.

> Take care,

> Mike Winicki




How Much Money Could YOU Have Made With This Information?

Re: The Ultimate Target Audience!
 

The trick is to make sure that you're not spreading yourself too thin, marketing-wise.

If you're launching multiple products to multiple markets, you may not have enough money to adequately test.

The way I see it, we've got two alternatives:

- Test multiple products to the same market. One example of this is to run one ad that offers multiple free reports.

- Market only one product at a time, but keep the development time for the product to less than 1 week.

- Adam.
Browning Direct


Browning Direct

Great post, Mike! Here are a few more examples....
 

Hi Mike!

Thanks... Another very true post!

This is a common theme.... People often have their big successes NOT with what they start with, but with what that leads to....

For example, take the British entrepreneur, Richard Branson. Many think his first business was "Virgin Records" - but they'd be wrong.

His first business was in fact, "Student" magazine. It didn't survive, but while he was running that, he decided to place some ads in his own magazine to sell cheap music records to students by mail order. THAT succeeded, and Virgin Records was born!

If Richard Branson hadn't started "Student" magazine, would he have ended up starting Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, and all his other businesses? It's hard to say, but it shows that to succeed, you have to start SOMETHING, but also keep your eyes and ears open for new opportunities. Starting SOMETHING will help to open new doors to you, because everyone will start to take you more seriously.... You've become more than just another "wannabe".

Some more examples....

Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who started "Microsoft", started by creating computer language software (such as BASIC). Although they still ended up succeeding in software, they found their BIG success with computer operating systems, like DOS and Windows.

Michael Dell started in direct response with a small mail order stamp business (for stamp collectors). He applied his direct response experience to creating "Dell" computers.

Joe Sugarman had numerous failures at the beginning - the "Teeny Boppers," the "Batman credit cards", to name a couple. Finally, he had his big success with a calculator sold by direct mail. (Read his book, "Success Forces" - it's a real eye-opener!)

The evidence supports what you say, Mike... You've got to start SOMETHING in order to succeed - since just by starting, you put yourself "in the game" and open yourself up to new opportunities. Thanks for sharing this. :)

- Dien Rice