Inventors Sell More from a Narrow Target Market

{Don Debelak’s new book, Turning Your Invention into Cash is now available on Amazon for $3.49. Go to Amazon.com and enter inventions Don Debelak to purchase. From the author of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Bringing Your Product to Market.}

So you’ve got a new product and know just who to market it to. Here’s what to do next.

What’s a pair of thrill-seeking snowboarders to do when there’s no snow on the ground and no clouds in sight? If you’re Jason Lee and Patrick McConnell, you invent the MountainBoard. With a deck similar to a snowboard, all-terrain wheels, and a suspension system that can be used to go down a single trail or track on a mountain, the MountainBoard hit the market in 1996 and the company, MBS of Colorado Springs, Colorado, is still going strong.

Not too shabby considering the founders were introducing a totally new market category on a limited budget. What made it possible is that the company targeted a very specific market: men 16 to 20 who like to snowboard. Having a clearly defined market in mind gave MBS advantages in launching its product, including rapid retail acceptance at trade shows, the ability to create a substantial market buzz, a clear content strategy for its website, the ability to stage events, and an easy-to-implement media strategy. Here’s a closer look at their company’s marketing tactics:

Trade Shows

MBS launched its major marketing campaign at the Action Sports Retailer Trade Show and at the Snowsports Industry Trade Show. These shows allowed MBS to build its distribution network of specialty snowboard, surfer and skateboard retail shops. What did the shops like about the product? It gave them what they wanted: products for their adrenaline-junkie customers.

Specialty shops offered another major advantage to MBS. Knowing their target customers like to try out products before buying them, the shops were willing to rent out the MountainBoards and that willingness was a huge contributor to MBS’ early sales success.

Hold Your Horses

Trade shows are an effective tool for introducing a product to retailers, but they’re also expensive. Even a plain exhibit costs $2,000 to $5,000, and that doesn’t include your travel expenses, shipping costs and promotional materials. Often, your expenses will run $5,000 to $15,000, which is not necessarily a bad investment, as 75 percent of attendees typically leave a show with at least one purchase, and 85 percent either decide what to buy or will be influenced in a purchase decision. Many inventors attend trade shows too early, before they’re ready to ship products. All that does is turn buyers off because they’re at the show intending to buy. Wait a few years till you are ready to ship before exhibiting at a trade show.

Market Buzz

The company founders created the All Terrain Boarding Association and starting hosting events when they were starting out. While their first competition was small, only six competitors, what was important was that the race attracted the attention of their target customers, who then started to look for the product and talk it up among their thrill-seeking friends. This word-of-mouth effect is typical of tight target markets. Prospects know each other, and they talk about what’s exciting in the market. The company sold almost $1 million in their first year because the product had people talking.

Website Content

As you know, people don’t go out of their way to visit a website unless it has information they need. The company founders too, with www.mountainboard.com. Information about the board, upcoming races and new ways to generate thrills are par for the course here; their target customers crave this information on a regular basis. Plus, when prospects visit the site, they’re exposed to more information about MBS products.

Events

Big events create market awareness, adding credibility to the company and helping to promote a new product. Most new inventor companies don’t have the resources to stage events and need a partner. That’s the same boat the founders of MountainBoard were in. But they found a willing partner at Snow Valley Ski Resort in Big Bear, California, a resort that catered to MBS’ target market. Snow Valley has a large terrain park for snowboarders and an expansive skate park. Snow Valley was willing to host events because it had the same target customers as MountainBoard.

Advertising And Publicity

MBS focused past publicity efforts on magazines for bikers, surfers, skateboarders and snowboarders. Most inventors have difficulty getting advertising to pay off because they have to advertise to a broad market to reach a group of prospects. For example, an inventor of a product for keeping gutters clear will advertise in home and garden magazines, where only 5 to 10 percent of the readers may be interested. That’s not a problem with MBS. At least 50 percent of the readers of these magazines were interested in a new extreme sport.

MountainBoard had a clearly defined target group, which allowed them to target retailers and other businesses that catered to the same group. That group also shared several other important characteristics that improved MBS’ chances of success. First of all, they were easy to identify-through the products they bought, the events they attended and the magazines they read. But perhaps more important was this group’s overwhelming desire to participate in extreme sports—every retailer in the market was ready to feed that need as the group had proved its purchasing power through the sales of snowboards, surfboards and skateboards. Retailers wanted MBS’ products because they knew the sales potential if the market adopted them. Put these factors together, and you have ideal conditions for an inventor’s success—conditions that MountainBoard took advantage of.

Steal The Shows

Mountainboard found specialty retailers willing to give their product a try—not all inventors are so lucky. One way to build retailer support is to attend consumer shows such as ski demonstrations, sportsmen shows, home and garden shows, bridal shows or any event that includes your target audience. Approach your potential retail customers before the show, and tell them you’ll pass out fliers and other information about their stores at the show as long as they stock your product. Retailers are usually willing to do this if they feel the inventor will create a demand for it. Inventors may lose a percentage of their profits if the sale goes through a retailer, but they’ll be better off in the long run establishing that their product is a winner on retailers’ shelves.

Do you need web content?  Don Debelak, who has written 15 books published by major publishers such as McGraw Hill and Entrepreneur Press is currently writing web content.  Check out more information at:

http://onestopinventionshop.net/web-content-writing-services

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