Products or Information?

What are you currently marketing?

I've got a variety of items some info related some consumer products.

It seems I'm going more and more against the grain by pushing consumer products (cosmetics, collectibles). Why?

I think the information market has changed completely since the net became popular. And right now the competition is fierce for any Internet related product. Remember--competition is one of the key components of driving down your profits. Heck, I drive down my own profits just fine without the help of many others offering something similar! But what are you selling? Are you selling an Internet related products and are you making any money? And it's not about sales either but about what you have left after you've paid out those expenses.

And while the information business has heated up dramatically over the last few years...the product market seems much better. Stores have closed...chains have consolidated...downtowns are emptier...malls don't have as much volume as they use to. Internet shopping is available but as we know many of those companies are gone. I see some real niches of opportunity in selling products at this point.

I think there are windows of opportunity in selling select information products also...like Gordon's Chattel information. Selling a product on Internet marketing or search engine positioning? Or building a profitable website? Or debt reduction? I think you're wasting a huge amount of time and effort. Too much competition results in too little profit. If you want to work for free help a non-profit. But if you want to really make some money then find a niche.

Mike Winicki

Hi Mike,

> Too much competition results in
> too little profit. If you want to work for
> free help a non-profit. But if you want to
> really make some money then find a niche.

This is the way I see things as well...

It's always best to sell something UNIQUE (if you can). And even if you can't sell something unique, ADD something unique to the offer so that it becomes unique. (This could, for example, be your own special report - DIFFERENT from what's already available - to make your own offer unique.)

As I mentioned earlier, I've been reading the book "Marketing High Technology" by William Davidow. (He was one of the chief marketers at Intel, responsible for Intel's continuing success....)

Here's something William Davidow writes:

As stated before, I am always tempted to tell marketing people that "I would rather be different than better," knowing full well if a product is truly different in some ways important to some customers, they will automatically perceive the product as better. Being different and offering customers features and services they cannot get anywhere else is one of the most important things a company can do.

Products succeed and become profitable when they are dramatically different in significant ways. Marketing departments should create differences and be capable of articulating their importance.

- "Marketing High Technology" by William Davidow, pp. 163-164.

Earlier in the Sowpub forum, Gordon wrote:

"YOU HAVE NO COMPETITION".

The guts of this was that you are UNIQUE, you are personally DIFFERENT from anyone else on the planet! Use your own UNIQUENESS to distinguish yourself from the competition.

These are all great lessons! :)

- Dien

P.S. I've tried to make sure everything we sell here at Sowpub is DIFFERENT from what's available elsewhere.... And all our products are. Michael Ross has a new product too, coming soon, which will knock your socks off. I've never seen anything like it.... I can't say much more than that right now.... But watch out for it. :)

Great posts Gentlemen,
Incredible observations too.

I am in the throws, right now, of developing several products.

One is a copyrighting info-product, another is a info-product development manual and the other is simply a self-help info-product.

It took me several years, literally, before I decided to actually take some action but one thing that helped me realize that action was to be taken was the understandiing of "growth curves", and maturity curves and how business lives and dies by them.

The Internet is in it's best stage or curve right now and that is the "growth curve". It has reached critical mass, as I see it, and the time is ripe regardless of the competition.

Marketing is the key to too much competition. With the Net it is easy to outsmart, outposition and outmarket one's seeming competition.

Another point is that I love this arena, the challenges it presents as well as the solutions it holds out for the persistent.

So, I beleive whether it is info or a consumer product, there is still ample room for profit depending upon your marketing which includes market research.

Taylor

> Hi Mike,

> This is the way I see things as well...

> It's always best to sell something UNIQUE
> (if you can). And even if you can't sell
> something unique, ADD something unique to
> the offer so that it becomes unique. (This
> could, for example, be your own special
> report - DIFFERENT from what's already
> available - to make your own offer unique.)

> As I mentioned earlier, I've been reading
> the book "Marketing High
> Technology" by William Davidow. (He was
> one of the chief marketers at Intel,
> responsible for Intel's continuing
> success....)

> Here's something William Davidow writes:

> As stated before, I am always tempted to
> tell marketing people that "I would
> rather be different than better,"
> knowing full well if a product is truly
> different in some ways important to some
> customers, they will automatically perceive
> the product as better. Being different and
> offering customers features and services
> they cannot get anywhere else is one of the
> most important things a company can do.

> Products succeed and become profitable when
> they are dramatically different in
> significant ways. Marketing departments
> should create differences and be capable of
> articulating their importance. -
> "Marketing High Technology" by
> William Davidow, pp. 163-164. Earlier in
> the Sowpub forum, Gordon wrote:

> "YOU HAVE NO COMPETITION" . The
> guts of this was that you are UNIQUE, you
> are personally DIFFERENT from anyone else on
> the planet! Use your own UNIQUENESS to
> distinguish yourself from the competition.

> These are all great lessons! :)

> - Dien

> P.S. I've tried to make sure everything we
> sell here at Sowpub is DIFFERENT from what's
> available elsewhere.... And all our products
> are. Michael Ross has a new product too,
> coming soon, which will knock your socks
> off. I've never seen anything like it.... I
> can't say much more than that right now....
> But watch out for it. :)

Right now, in my own offline business which is broadcasting, it is hard going, but as a colleague said to me, it has certainly shaken some of the amateurs out of the tree.

The internet is no different, it's the survival of the fittest, the ones who know and have found their markets, and the ones who persevere.

Keep at it with YOUR product and YOUR market.

Peter

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