“All the world’s a stage…”
I’m hearing a lot about platform development this week. “What’s that?” you might ask. Let’s call it the built-out of a framework that will allow you to spread your message to a wide audience. Here are some examples:
- You’ve heard of the iPhone, of course. Well the genius there isn’t just the phone itself by any means. The brilliance on Apple’s part was opening up the developer toolkit so other vendors can write applications for their product. The iTunes store became an indispensable platform, and look at the results. The popularity of iPod and iPhone spread like wildfire.
- Or how about Notes from the Universe author Mike Dooley? He started offering daily spiritual greetings for free, built an audience of over a quarter million people and sold out all first release copies of his new book in one day.
My point is this: in order to grow your idea or sell your product you need to have an audience. That’s obvious maybe, but consider that traditional sales and marketing techniques have focused on creating demand for existing products. That’s nuts. It’s backwards. Instead, do what Apple and Mike Dooley have done: build a platform that will put you in direct relationship with targeted customers, then develop products and services that serve their interests.
AfriGadget
Kiva
That’s a great question Michael. I recently mentioned some tools that are particularly helpful when you are trying to determine the relative market for a specific product. By examining keyword, image, product and patent results you can get a sense about the size of the market you are looking at, and the volume of existing competition. But I admit, this approach is limited.
What if you are introducing a new category of product (or service, or even process) for which there is no direct competitor? Then you need to extrapolate, reason it out and most importantly, shop for red lights and green lights before you invest heavily. Test the concepts on people who are in the know. See if they are bullish or bearish on your ideas. Get their feedback. Then move forward one step at a time.
Here’s an example: one of my clients wants to bring a relatively standard kind of leasing program to an entrenched industry which surprisingly doesn’t offer payment plans to its consumers. In this market you pay the entire price of the product up front. There are some obvious legislative inhibitors that he needs to deal with, but those challenges can be overcome. The point is pretty straightforward: leasing works for cars, and many other industries. It will work here too. Why? Because people want the option of paying lower monthly payments, period.
But is he going to run right out and start a leasing company? No. Instead he is going to frame his ideas, use Confidentiality Agreements to protect him during his initial discussions, build a conceptual methodology, apply for any possible trademark and/or patent protections, and shop the idea further to distributors and dealers. He can do most of that through sweat capital and business savvy. It won’t cost much at all. And if he plays his cards right the initial consultations will lead to paying customers once he has built the kind of product/service that they are looking for.
Tim Ferris’ book The 4-Hour Workweek is mandatory reading for this sort of thing.
Good luck!
Do you have suggestions or ideas for a cost effective way to gauge the interest of an audience before you spread your message?