Developing Profitable Product Concepts

National Mail Order Association

Developing Profitable Product Concepts

It's very hard to describe how to develop the merchandising ability of looking at things and automatically seeing how it could be sold. It's part experience, part learned knowledge, part natural instinct. I can only write examples when they come to me. Hopefully through example you will learn to relate and assimilate. You must practice your product development skills every day. You have to develop the habit of looking at things in special ways. Like; "how would I sell that?"..."how could it be improved"..."could I use it to enhance what I'm currently selling"..."could it be repackaged and sold to a different group of people than it's being sold to now"..."what could be sold to the people that bought it?" Our goal is to make this process a part of your being...an instinct... something that happens automatically, without conscious effort.

Let's start with this one statement; In mail order, it's always best to have as many products as possible in your line that lend themselves to repeat sales, or multiple purchases. For small companies it's absolutely essential. And you can't make money for long selling junk.

Here's some examples: My daughter has a charm bracelet, of coarse she buys charms for it. You see how the charm bracelet lends itself to future sales. You could probably give the bracelet away free, or at very low cost and make your money selling the charms. You could offer the bracelet free of charge when you agree to buy three more charms in the next year. Or how about, "Charm of the Month". See what I did? I automatically... without conscious thought...incorporated the negative option sales technique to the product. By the way, that's why you should continue to read and learn, if you didn't know about the negative option technique*, you wouldn't know how to apply it to your product would you. Back to the example. This is also an example of niche marketing. Charms and charm bracelets are a specialty, a niche in the jewelry industry. Can you give me an example of a niche in a niche?

What would be a niche in the charm niche? Don't read further now...think for a few minutes. What did you come up with? I came up with animal specialty charms. e.g. "Just Cat Charms," every breed for the cat enthusiast. It could be dogs, horses, any animal that certain people just love. It could be Saints, Presidents, Famous Musicians. Want some others? How about...Just; boats, cars, states, countries, dolls, or flowers. And there's more! See how a simple item that we've all seen a thousand times, just expanded into an entire division or business. Residual income, that's what we want. When you look at things in this way you will learn to develop products that create big profits for your company.

Don't worry if your ideas sound bizarre. It's practice that we're after. And remember, when you brainstorm it is actually a large quantity of ideas you want at first, not quality. Sometimes the goofiest ideas bring forth big results. I was at a party the other day, and in one of the rooms were three giant wrought iron candle holders, floor models, one was about three feet high, the next a foot taller, and the next another foot taller. They were topped off with big beautiful candles. The thing is, these candle holders and candles were some of the neatest candle holders I've ever seen. I then thought, I bet there's lots of neat candle holders being made, or ones that could be made. I then noticed that this person had many different candles and holders around the house, some in each room. So I figured that people that like candles...really like candles...and buy more that just a couple, sometimes a whole house full. I then figured that there may be many people into candles.

My next thought automatically said catalog, a catalog with nothing but beautiful and wonderful candle holders. Oh, and of course the candles....candles that burn away.

Some final idea qualifiers: Does the product fill a need, a desire, or enhance a persons life in some way. Can you readily identify and reach the people that might buy what you have. Is the total number of these prospects large enough to support the investment or business. Can it be easily delivered and serviced.

* Negative Option Technique, is where you send monthly product choices and the customer has to send in the card if they don't want to buy it. They have to make a negative choice. They have to say no. If they want it, they do nothing and it will be automatically sent.
Remember to track your customers with a computer database, or paper chart. At the minimum; for each customer you must have a field that tracks, how they heard of you and the date...what they bought...how much they paid...and when they bought.

John Schulte is a Marketing Consultant and Strategist. He is also president and chairman of the National Mail Order Association. http://www.nmoa.org/sponsors/jsconsl.htm

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