Sell to a Starving Crowd

[JoshK]

You hear this over and over again when looking to create info products. Or any product I guess.

Many people get a great idea for a product. They think wow nobody has ever thought of this before. This is going to be amazing. There's no competition.

But Then...

Nobody else seems to have the same enthusiasm for your product. You just can't understand why people don't see the potential.

The main problem falls in one place.

Find a market first, figure out what their problem is, then solve it.

For example take a couple of record companies. Company 1, and company 2.

They're both struggling because of the internet not many people are buying cd's etc...

Company #1 decides to look at all small outlets they can find. They're going to find the next big star. They find joe blue best jazz singer ever. He's going to be a big star. They sign him to a huge contract, put out a cd and it flops. Company #1 is bankrupt.

Company #2 is also trying to figure out a way to solve their problems. But they also understand how creating a product works. So they organize a country wide competition. They audition thousands of individuals, pick a talented group of 35 and then put them on tv. Let the market decide what they want to hear. Declare them a winner, then immediatly come out with their CD which sells.

I'm sure we all know what i'm talking about but it's just an example.

I read a report by somebody. I don't recall who it was. It goes something like this:

He asks a group of university students, if we both had hamburger stands, right next to eachother, same exact looking stand etc. What would you want your advantages to be. Many people came up with prime burgers, maybe a secret recipe etc. (it's a lot more long winded than this) He told them you guys can all have whatever advantages you want as long as I get this one bonus.

What was his bonus?

A starving Crowd.

[jetfish]

Good post, definitely something to keep in mind. It's funny how we can get blinded/distracted, and forget about the simple things that will give us a solid advantage.

[Shoe]

Exactly. A present-time example I think would be this:

Nintendo Wii = Selling to a starving crowd.

PS3 = Sony tried to take over the world and people just don't care about what they are offering. Focus on games, that is what your console is supposed to be about, isn't it?

[Alex/Mugaaz]

[ QUOTE ]
Exactly. A present-time example I think would be this:

Nintendo Wii = Selling to a starving crowd.

PS3 = Sony tried to take over the world and people just don't care about what they are offering. Focus on games, that is what your console is supposed to be about, isn't it?

[/ QUOTE ]

As good as the Wii is it's mostly due to these circustamnces:

Gamecube never went anywhere
360/PS3 were stole the next-gen hype
They couldn't compete in tech specs
They focused on what they could do well with what left over
SONY played their hand horrrrrrrribly
Wii was good as was the price
Yay Wii!


Starving crowd was created by Sony (and MS) messing up. If Sony had MGS4 on release and 360 released Halo 3 would the Wii of done well? Hell no. Moral of the story that realizing you need to change and then determining what you can still do well are important.

[nanoshark]

I agree Alex. Unfortunately, EA decided to buyout the NCAA and NFL football licenses, which gives them more time to remain stagnant. 2K Sports is a prime example of feeding the starving sports video game genre.