Bright Ideas # 69 - Are you selling the right thing?

Today I want to share a few more thoughts from my recent trip to the National Ski Industry Association trade show in Montreal. As I mentioned last week, I was there serving as the French-speaking representative for my husband’s company.

Of course, when I wasn’t busy in our booth, I made sure to walk around the show and check out what’s new.

For the first time in years I saw something truly innovative.

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But first, a quick reminder…
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Don’t miss seeing me speak tomorrow morning at North Seattle Community College. I’ll be sharing the secrets of How to Turn Your Website into Your #1 Salesperson.

You can find all the juicy details at the end of this article.
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A new outerwear company has come up with a unique way of combining multiple mountain must-haves into single garments.

They sell a hooded fleece ski jacket whose sleeves can be pulled down, unfolded, and turned into mittens. And hidden inside the hood is a neck gaiter you can whip out when the weather turns nasty.

They have snowboarding mittens that fold back to expose your fingers—making it easy to fiddle with bindings. They also make a jacket that converts into a handy backpack.

All very cool products to be sure. But it occurred to me they might actually be selling the wrong thing to the wrong market…

You see, I like the idea of attached mittens, hidden gaiters, and backpack options—but not enough to replace what I already have.

To me this concept seems better suited for kids since they are always leaving their hats, gaiters and gloves behind. And the littlest ones are really hard to keep properly gloved.
On top of all that, it doesn’t take much research to discover that the infant/toddler clothing market is one of the fastest growing segments in the apparel industry.

However, although they had some kids clothing down to size 5, their focus is mainly on adult ski-wear.

If it was me, I’d launch a separate toddler’s line as well.

Then they could easily market themselves as kids’ winter apparel specialists, instead of just a cool company that happens to make a few kids pieces.

They could also create an entire marketing campaign directed at parents in cold-weather climates—not just skiers—and greatly increase their potential market.

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Here’s another, different example of a company selling the wrong thing…
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Three years ago, our booth neighbors at the show were a newly-launched thermal underwear company. Whenever the show was slow we chatted. And as I learned a bit about their company, I couldn’t help but wonder what was so great about their products.

Most of their line was made of polypropylene fabric—one of the first synthetic fabrics ever used in long underwear. Sure, their long underwear does have a somewhat unique look to it with contrasting weaves. But it is a look you are either going to love or hate.

Nothing particularly new or interesting there.

Having been a buyer in an outdoor store, it didn’t seem like enough of a differentiating factor (remember that good ole’ USP?!) to make someone want to buy—especially someone who already carries a line of similar products.

Then, they pointed out a few of their products made using soy-based fabrics. That caught my attention! I had never heard of anyone using soy in their fabrics.

Turns out they are an offshoot of a manufacturer who has a new, proprietary technology for creating technical fabrics out of soy. Amazing!!

I couldn’t believe their marketing materials didn’t even mention it. When I asked why they weren’t shouting this from the rooftops, they told me they had thought about it. But, they’d decided to promote the unique look of their garments instead.

Hello!!! What were they thinking???

They had a brand new technology that could potentially get tons of publicity and they weren’t even talking about it.

They could have easily become known as the soy-based clothing experts and taken the outdoor apparel market by storm.

Plus, if this soy stuff really worked, I’d bet the farm a lot of buyers would be interested. Because this was something different—and maybe better—than what their store already carried.

Yet they decided to focus on looks and sell their polypro line. And I can tell you for a fact their growth has been very slow (no surprise there).

Because again, I think this company is selling the wrong thing.

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Are you selling the right thing to the right market?
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If you aren’t you could be leaving money on the table. But how do you know?

1) If you haven’t done one already, you need to do a competitive analysis to make sure what you are offering is unique.

2) Do some research online or at the library to find the largest potential market.

3) Ask your current customers why they buy what you sell, and why they buy it from you. The benefits they mention may be even more appealing to someone else.

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