In dealing with
all short of
product (including service) in hundreds of different markets I’ve
learned that the
key to success is this:
Test market your
product or
service before you invest a cent in manufacturing facilities or
inventory.
Why spends large
sums money for machinery or inventory before you have to? Conserve your capital
make every dollar you invest in a business do the maximum work possible. By
market testing your product you get the extra zing that mean the difference
between success and failure. Here’s how you can market test any product, and
how I had Cecil market test his lures.
(1) Prepare
a new product release for the
magazine serving the field in which the product
will be sold (in Cecil’s case, the fishing, sporting, and outdoor magazines).
(2) Be
certain to include, as part of the release, at least one glossy photograph of
the product you are selling, and the price of the product. If you are selling a
service instead of a product, use a photo of the service man performing a
typical task. State the price for a typical service period-say one month.
(3) Send
your new-product or new-service release to every magazine directly in the field
of your major interest (fishing in Cecil’s case) and to every other magazine
that might be interested. (For most product and service, you should be able to
send your release to at least 100 magazines.) If each magazine has an average
reader-ship (circulation) of 50,000 persons, your product or service will be
promoted to 100 magazine X 50,000 persons per magazine = 5,000,000 people. They
only cost to you will be about $3,00 for printing the 100 new-product releases,
plus about $22 for postage, photos, and envelopes. Thus. The total cost to you
of the release, and the publicity it generates, should not exceed about 25
dollars. Certainly, you can afford this amount of investment in your future
fortune!
(4) Keep
a record of the orders and inquiries you receive about your new product or
service. If you receive a one-tenth of percent response; that is, 5,000 total
orders and inquiries when the reader-ship of the magazine is 5,000,000
persons-you have a real mail-order moneymaker on your hands. With the size, or
a larger, response, you can feel safe in going ahead with a full-scale
manufacturing and marketing program. This is exactly what Cecil did, except
that his response (some 3,000 orders and 12,000 inquiries) was so large that he
hired a manufacturer to make his product while he concentrated on marketing the
lures through the mail and in stores. Incidentally, Cecil received $21,000 in
orders for his $25 investment. This means that he multiplied his capital
$21,000/$25=840 times in three months- the interval that usually elapses
between the time you mail your release and the time it appears in print.