Product marketing – “And then a miracle happens”?

Consider the following cartoon:

http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com/gallery/math/math07.gif

Over time I have come to realize that creating a marketable product is relatively easy. I have also come to learn that being able to manufacture and deliver a product is really not all that difficult either. The part that completely eludes me is the part where one actually convinces people to open their wallets and hand over money for a product or service.

For example, the guy who sells “Billy Bob Teeth” (among other novelties) is a multi-millionaire. However, he would not be so unless he was able to effectively fill in that “and then a miracle happens” part of the equation where the sale is actually made.

Can anybody out there help me fill in that all important “step 2″ of successfully marketing and selling a mail order novelty product (or any other product, for that matter)?

Patent. Inventions. I have this super dumb/great idea that is 100% for sure to sell easy. It’s so great!?

I can mention so little about the product I have.(legalities) but this is a baby item and will 100% sell and it is not around. I have not searched it through any Search Engine on the internet because I know this is NOT around and SHOULD be. This comes from having my first baby. How do I patent the idea and how much so that no one can take it. Also if I patent the idea and it’s pretty simple what I want; how do I stop anyone that is established like these new big companies that are around from doing the same thing and marketing it so much faster then me off MY OWN idea and go above and around me? I feel so great about this that I have learned to go to the patent web sight for America in DC and search it their in their archives . Ok so lets be quick if this idea is not taken can I make it mine where no bigger company can take the same idea just do this little different thing that makes it different so they can use my idea to sell. I figured.. work out the patent and I hear it’s cheap just to hold the patent as mine until I pay the full scale 10k to really make it mine. Then I figured I can try my hardest to set up a meeting with walmart first and show them a demo and keep them as strictly the ones that carry it or open carry and let me be able to sell to other stores. (I can not express how GREAT this idea is. I know .. I know everyone has one. I have ton’s of others just this one I am willing to put in the money for. I’m curious how do I make it mine, I am curuious how to market it,(tv would be great) I am also curious on how to design it the way it will be at the store, Who do I speak to about making this idea, also if I just used things that were out their already is that legal or do I have to pay the person for their idea to make mine work.. This idea is 100% and you will see this around store and TV. I can promise.. I just need the help. I’m so stuck and need this help really bad.. Goranivic2@yahoo.com is my main email if someone is serious in helping out. I also am willing to take on a partner if they know about how to do everything, and we can work out the profit split at that time. I know I have 20+k to invest and I know it will sell 100%.. Most important this idea is SUPER CHEAP.. I cant see it costing more then 1 dollar tops if we had a company produce it.. I mean maybe 1 dollar most likely 20-50 cents.. and it can retail easily at 10 bucks for everyone expecting a baby to get in their baby shower , and 20 would not be a hard sell if we just upped the version just a tiny bit.. Serious people only please, because this is very serious for me.

I have an invention that’s a product how could I create and sell it?

I won’t say what is of course ha ha but I just thought of something that well there is something similar in the market but they haven’t try it with something else and I can’t beleive they haven’t its so duh and it goes together….it’s kinda like ok they have milk but not orange juice…or milk but not the calcium in milk…well enough of what it is. I have a product that I can sell that would make it easier for people to get healthy and it’s so convenient. So how do I get my idea out there and sell it and create it?
There is a market for it the basic product is out there i would just be packaging it differently to make it more convenient and maybe will get people to buy it more and take it for their health. How would I go about getting a patent though?

i have recently purchased a website but having a hard time finding a niche market/product. HELP?

im looking for something that‘s not crazy to do or sell and will not be hard to maintain if inventory is an option. there’s so many product on the web that‘s easy to buy and sell its hard to just pick one.

Can anyone give me some marketing pointers?

Here is the deal, I signed up with a site and now I have my own online store. That site is Okay the site is similar in some respects to Ebay and Amazon. You can buy and sell products from this site. The main difference is it tends to focus more on hard to find items that you might not have such an easy time finding on sites like Ebay or Amazon.
If you’d be interested in atleast taking a look at it here is the address;

http://www.tripleclicks.com/10734079

Okay signing up and all was easy, but I dont know anything about marketing. How can I attract more people to go my site?

Why do you buy foreign Products here in America and hire Foreigners while American Citizens are unemployed?

My family comes here from the middle east. I am amazed at how you as a culture treat your citizens over foreigners. In my country, you get a job working anywhere, while some of our people are unemployed, you won’t have your job or maybe your life very long. The workers, them self take exception to having fellow countrymen out of a job. Here, your fellow worker wouldn’t piss on the best side of you if it meant keeping his or her job. Why is that?

You buy foreign products over ones made here by your own people and send the money back to foreign countries that hate you and only want your money. Why? You can’t sell American products in my country because the people won’t buy them. So, there is no market. Here, you could sell Dog Shit to Eskimos if the price was right. I don’t understand your culture at all.

You let 100′s of thousands of people of Mexican decent into your country to work illegally. They end up schooling their children here for free, getting Social Security for fee, and even free Medical care. Would you like to know where the Boarder Guards Uniforms are made that work along the Mexican Boarder? That‘s right, Mexico. They walk back and forth like a revolving door. They trash the land with human waste and garbage on their journey and your media is so worried about making one of them mad, they won’t even show it on the news.

I can get a job here and not even speak your language. You make it easy for me because everything is published in two or even three different languages. Why do you do this to yourselves? You Truly are an amazing culture of people but how long are you going to survive as a country if you continue down this path?

Your two favorite places in all the world, McDonald’s poisons you with lead paint from China. Glasses were not made here, but the media wouldn’t say where they were made. Afarid of a backlash against the Chinese. When they continually poision your children, isn’t it time for a back lash? What abbout good old Wallmart? Where do they get all their cheap stuff from? Why won’t they release their vendor list to the public like other stores do? Could it be that there stuff is made in sweatshops overseas and they don’t want anyone to know. But, you idiots shop there by the thousands and make them your number one employer in your nation. Can someone explain to me why your people act in this manner? OI have lived here now for 10 years and will be a full blown citizen in a few weeks and this is part of the culture that I never understood?

Thank you for the free health care, thank you for buying my country’s autos while yours go bankrupt. Thank you for the free education while your children can’t get student loans becasue they all go twords the low income and minority’s. Thank You!

what are the channels of distribution of perdue farms inc.?

1.Perdue Farms, Inc., has been a privately held family owned company since 1920. Over the years Perdue has become vertically integrated in order to be more competitive and maintain financial stability. Perdue’s objective is to be the leader in broiler and related poultry products in the industry. They strive to maintain quality and constantly improve efficiency and service, both today and in the future.
Perdue Farms Inc. has a mission to provide the highest quality poultry and poultry related products to retail and food service customers. They want to be the recognized industry leader in quality and service, providing more than expected from their customers, associates, and owners. They will accomplish this by maintaining a tradition of pride in their products, growth through innovation, integrity in the management of their business, and commitment to Team Management and the Quality improvement process.
Perdue’s overall mission is strong but a strategy for long term growth and market development needs to be reviewed and evaluated.
2.Perdue Farms Inc. has numerous external opportunities and threats. The external opportunities that effect Perdue are as follows;
•To broadly diversify and have greater market share, domestically and internationally
•To increase marketing of healthy image products that envelops a strong niche market.
•To ship via plane, to maintain fresh not frozen broilers and increase market share and penetration.
•Develop new markets in the Upper Mid-west to increase market share.
•Increase sales of food service chicken and turkey from 20% of overall sales to 30% due to a strong 12% growth rate.
•To expand the international grain and oilseed market
•With an increase push on health in 1994, chicken sales are up over red meat sales.
•Average annual consumption of chicken is up to 80lbs/person/year, an all time high.
The external threats are as follows:
•Most of the competition sells frozen products for less money.
•Perdue’s cost to raise chickens is above the national average.
•Growth rate in chicken sales is only 5% due to lack of frozen line.
•Over capacity of chickens has reduced wholesale prices, which reduces profit margins.
•Competition is strong in broiler industry with 53 competitors.
•Untapped markets in the Upper Mid- west need to be explored.
1.The Perdue Farms, Co. has internal strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed and evaluated; The strengths are as follows;
•Perdue is vertically integrated which means that they produce the chickens, they breed, hatch the eggs, they select the growers, build Perdue chicken houses, formulate and manufacture their feed, oversee care and feeding, operate their own processing plants, distribute via truck and marketing. They now also sell what used to be waste, such as the chicken feet that is sold to the Orient as a delicacy.
•Privately held firm
•Technologically advanced, ex.,20% more breast meat than the competition
•Birds are fed organically and not feed additives.
•Sell both raw and pre-cooked chickens and turkeys.
•Good compensation package to the workers.
•Non-union company.
•MIS efficient and essential to operating the business.
•Good variety from fresh oven stuffer roasters, cooked prepared foods, cutlets, tenders, Fit n easy and much more.
•Good TQM with mission and vision
•Excellent R&D for better meat to bone ratios.
•Keep overhead low, quality up
•Great diverse product line that has changed with consumer changes.
•Horizontal diversification when they bought Showell Farms, which made them the third largest producer in the broiler industry.
•Great social responsibility, code of ethics
•Environmentally concerned about waste and prevention
•Strong effective marketing
The weaknesses in the Perdue Farm, Inc. case are as follows;
•They only sell fresh not frozen chickens
•Deliveries are only made by truck so the radius to overnight chickens is limited.
•Lack of long-term planning for future changes
4) I would suggest a strategy that Perdue would focus on maintaining their quality and efficiency along with plans for extensive market development. I would like to see them expand into the Upper mid-west before other markets gain strong holds and market share. If Perdue plans on maintaining their place in the market they need to expand and continue to diversify their products to attract niche markets and stay ahead of the competition.
According to Porter’s generic strategies, he points out that in order to gain the competitive advantage companies need to draw from three bases: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.
In my study of Perdue, I feel that they are a differentiation and focus orientated company. First, I see Perdue as a leader in quality and efficiency but not a cost leader. Cost leadership implies that you strive to be the low-cost producer in your particular industry. This is to the contrary for Perdue; they have marketed in a way to make the consumer pay a little more for a better product. In fact, this did not happen by accident. Perdue did not want to be known as the cheapest but to be the best quality for the consumer, at a fair price. What Perdue does take from cost leadership is that they are highly efficient, low overhead, their intolerance to waste, broad span of control, rewards linked to efficiency and cost cutting measures and open lines of communication between workers and upper management. Perdue’s successful strategy of horizontal integration to gain competitive advantage was to purchase Showell Farms which made Perdue the third largest broiler company in the United States.
I see Perdue as being highly successful with differentiation, which implies that they produce products, and services that are considered unique, industry wide and directed at consumers who are relatively price-in-sensitive. Perdue has ongoing product development, which states that they seek to increase sales by improving, or modifying present products or services. Perdue has been an industry leader with constant attention paid to consumer wants and needs. They watch trends such as fitness and weight consciousness, by introducing the Fit n Easy line that markets skinless and boneless chicken parts with nutritional information and recipes. Perdue also followed the trend of the working family and began to market prepared foods, which has done extremely well. Prepared foods such as pre-cooked chickens, turkeys, parts, nuggets, and the like sell easily to working families.
Finally, I see Perdue’s strongest strategy according to Porter is focus. Perdue has wonderful R&D that constantly follows market trends and changes that will be beneficial to their growth. Perdue has never forgotten where they came from and this is what makes them strong. Focus allows them to change with the times and not become over diversified where they overlook their cash cows and forget to nurture their stars. Perdue knows that quality and efficiency are at the heart of their operation and do not stray from that. Their innovation and integrity to be the leader has brought them customer loyalty and appreciation for quality where price is not the number one factor.
Perdue’s ability to focus on strong team management has allowed them to penetrate and develop new markets with ease. Perdue has a high penetration of advertising on TV and print along with opening up new territories to further expand their market share. Their vision has been a good guide and has led them to a very successful value chain. Perdue’s attention to detail in every aspect of the business has been proven successful and the financial status of the company reflects it.
Today, Perdue, is further expanding with new acquisitions and product lines. Their innovative thinking and drive to be the leader shows in all they do. In 1997 they started marketing their Café Perdue line and have seen slow, with steady success. Perdue’s prepared foods are selling incredibly well with the American family on the run. As of September 1998, Perdue made a new acquisition, toward horizontal integration, with GOL-PAK, a competitor in the foodservice and prepared foods business. The new relationship will further enhance Perdue’s prepared food and foodservice business. GOL-PAK specialized in the development and production of products primarily for the foodservice industry with a list including the top 100 chain restaurants. Perdue sees this as a significant purchase to enhance their reputation and make them strong contenders in the prepared food and foodservice industry.
CEO, Jim Perdue, feels that they are well positioned in the market place and continued growth along with R&D will help them to maintain quality and efficiency, along with strong market penetration and market share.

How do I protect my invention as I try to sell it to the company I made it for?

I have made something that makes something already on the market, much easier to use and makes it possible to have many of their product in a easy to access and see area. It could even be used as a display for something that is slippery and tends to get all over the place.
I sent a letter to the company letting them know I have something to show them. But I do not know how to protect my invention. What is to keep the company from taking it from me? It will make a lot of money and be easy to make.
Please help. I have no idea what the right steps are. I am excited about this thing. I just finished making the prototype a day or so ago and it has cleared up a big mess while making something fun even more fun because everything is now organized and easy to use.

Do I take photos of it and share it via email?
Is there need to put a patent on it first? Would the company I hope to sell this to prefer to have it patented?
Am I looking to them to invest in this product so that I can make them? Please I am sorry this is so long. It is obvious I am clueless.
What do I do next?
Pixell
How risky would it be to trust the company without getting a patent first? I do not have money for the process. What about finding an investor and a manufacturer so I can make it and be the company they buy it from?