Business Longevity -- Practicality!

A genuine long term business requires all angles of its operations to break barriers:
- cultural (race, language, religion, etc)
- physical (environment, country borders, etc)
- virtual (mental perceptions, the world wide web (internet), etc)
Businesses which run with the least obstacles & limitations will be more likely to accomplish success.

As we've discussed in earlier posts, a business compensation plan which is beneficial & easily applicable & understood (by all participants) breaks across the above barriers easily.

After a company has its infrastructure (admin, logistics, management, etc) set in place, and the marketing group / team has been selected to provide better than average mentorship, guidance, training & support... the most important factor left to select would be the product / service.

Because of the nature of direct marketing / network distribution, a product / service that can cut out as much Time needed to understand the product / service itself will prove more successful than others.
(e.g. attending seminars / meetings are great, but is an extremely time consuming process.)
Word-of-mouth recommendations are powerful, but the circumstances during most brief interpersonal encounters do not allow much time flexibility.

Note:
- a business where trainings / meetings / seminars are emphasised with little reference to products at the presentations / meetings (or treating products as secondary to other aspects of business) would bring about government / authority intervention due to pyramid-like operations;
- likewise, a business where a product / service can be put aside (or even bypassed!) would border on questionable (legal) business practises;
- When the above happens, business longevity & popularity is compromised.
In fact, both the above situations had presented itself very recently (Nov '07) in 2 different developed countries & publicly-received companies.

A) "Education" products

One which requires online/offline reading, watching videos, listening to audios, attending classes, etc.
Think about this:
- is the whole population equally literate, i.e. able to read/watch & fully understand the material presented to maximise its worth?
- the (relatively long) time required to "consume" the product/service?
- the environment & technical equipment required for the activity to be carried out.

B) "Create-a-demand" products

One which the common population have not heard about & requires a product story be told about its origins, traditions, etc.
Think about this:
- is the story easily believable & understood, & then repeated by newcomers?
(a small element of doubt presents itself as an obstacle.)
- (even if multimedia is available) do you / prospective customers need to spend time to learn about the story?
- can the story be told anyplace anytime (in person / video) or must the prospective customer be (mentally) prepared for the situation?

C) "Scientifically heavy" products

One which contains new technology, or more than standard research & development (e.g. "world's first patented xyz element extraction process", "ingredient is found only in xyz region of earth & evaluated by xyz laboratory", etc.)
Think about this:
- are technical equipment required to introduce / evaluate product's effectiveness?
- are special research medical / experts required to substantiate / explain the claims?
- is time needed for any of the above?
- do you need to carry around documents / literature to back up product's claims?

D) "Tablets / capsules" products

No doubt, your brand might be of a higher quality or manufactured with higher standards, but...
Think about this:
- can the ingredients / benefits be found in many other brands?
(2 or 3 competitors are fine, but 10 or more doesn't make business sense in terms of efforts needed to justify how yours is better than theirs.)
- does the product only apply to a niche group of consumers (see below)?
- is it competitively priced?
- can the consumer make a split second decision on selecting your product / brand or second-guess his/her own decision?
(if he hesitates, you might lose the sale.)
- will you be potentially asked "why this brand & not the other one"?
- is time needed for any of the above?
- do you need to carry around documents / literature to back up product's claims?

E) "Widely available" products

Again, no doubt your brand might be of non-toxicity, or a higher quality / standard (e.g. appliances, aromatherapy, toiletries, home consumables, etc.), but...
Think about this:
- is it available in every single convenience / department store?
- is it available in every single distribution channel available (Retail / MLM / Mail Order / TV / etc.)?
- is it competitively priced?
- will you be potentially asked "why this brand & not the other one"?
- is time needed to reason that?

F) "Liquid / Juice" products

The acais, mangosteens, gojis, gaks, nonis, durians, any other herbs, "super" fruits, & all their derivatives.
Think about this:
- do you wanna start comparing ORAC values, placebo tests, & whatnots like what everybody has been doing since the beginning of time?
- will you be potentially asked "why this fruit/herb drink & not the other brand"?
- liquids are dense (heavy); bottles are bulky; for the same weight you may carry many more servings of non-liquid products/services to promote.
- because of the weight, liquids are more expensive to ship (especially international shipments) and the additional cost to the company is transferred down to the end-consumers / distributors.
- liquids are not legal inflight on airplanes; how are you going to conduct a dynamic international business if you're travelling to a meeting in a market which cannot / has not received your product in conventional ways?
- shipping liquids oneself to prospective customers / distributors is simply NOT possible due to postal laws / regulations!
- aside from heavy liquid shipping costs, these products are usually not affordably priced due to the marketed uniqueness -- in this way limiting your potential customer base.
- when you share a portion of the product (usually $20 to $40 per bottle) with a prospective customer, e.g. quarter bottle is $5 or more, that means every 50 unsuccessful sharing sessions equates to $250 or more invested in business expenses without any returns.
What happens when you cannot give away quarter bottles because of professional / hygiene reasons?! The costs!
- aside from good taste (preferably it is good to begin with!), these products usually do not produce immediate impact / gratification / results of its core benefit; it usually takes 3 days / 3 weeks / 3 months!
- what is the overall time to decision?

G) "Niche market" products

The fuel / gas saving devices, travel / holiday packages, spa services, health analysis systems, weight management / health programs, biomagnetic items, bio-inducing items, gold, jewelry, currency, precious collectibles, women-only products, men-only products, etc.
Think about this:
- do you own / operate the device that requires the product?
- did you already plan to travel? are you the decision maker?
- are you already inflicted with the particular condition that the product / service provider treats? (even if the customer isn't inflicted, time is needed to convince him/her if he wants to prevent the condition "in future".)
- did you already want to accessorise your wardrobe & wear bling-blings?
- did you already want to start a new hobby collecting precious metals?
- do you belong to the sex (gender) / age group that the product / service targets?
- if not, do you need to spend time creating a need for any of the above?
- or is time needed to convince yourself / others for any of the above?


A consistent factor in all the above is: do you want to spend the (tremendous amount of) time sifting & sorting person after person to see if he/she qualifies to be a customer (be it cost, practical application to his/her life, etc), as compared to a unique Mass Market product / service easily understood by people from everywhere & all age groups.

Conclusion

Which leads you to a potential solution to select this "perfect product" for a truly successful direct marketing / direct selling business.
It is not hard at all to find it in this modern day with technology, etc. Open your mind & just start looking.
Find one which has the following characteristics & your business will be set for a long time until a copycat comes along and tries hard enough to knock it off:

• Portability
  (lightweight & easy to carry around world-wide)
  
• Ease of introduction
  (preferably little to no time needed by customer to understand the product; no story needed; no demand to be "created", especially if it already exists)
  
• Affordability
  (people from all financial backgrounds / status can use the product or business)
  
• Mass Market
  (people of all ages & backgrounds can consume it)
  

It is as simple as that!

See here to select one by potential income.

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Do WITHOUT the juice/vitamin/cosmetic/household "stuff".
Find a niche & the market will come to you!

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