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




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