If you build it (and they don’t know it), they won’t come. A True Story.

A Great Product will sell itself… no not really?

I know what you are thinking; you think it’s a great product therefore everyone else must think it’s a great one as well.

That’s unfortunate not the case.

We all have our own perspectives on which influence our fears, desires, wants and goals.

And that highly influences our opinions on products we know, or we choose to know.

And that’s what makes a great product, one you built, that nobody knows about, because you did not let them know, to fail.

I’ve met a lot of business owners with false pride. Believing that a storefront, a sign on the outside of the business and ‘a great product’ would bring the customers in droves to their doorsteps.

That customers would come for the good word of mouth.

That their friends and family would tell people about the place and those referrals alone would be enough for the business to survive.

What always seems to happen is, it lasts for a while. But without a clear plan of getting a consistent flow of customers and positive awareness to your business, it all dies down.

The statistics are that eight out of 10 businesses will fail within the first five years.

And statistically, many of the businesses I speak to, will fail.

So why make that guaranteed even more by not learning what the two out of 10 are doing and gathering success?

I said this was a true story, yet so far I’ve brought up only general situations.

Let me make it more specific for you,

An entrepreneur I knew well was trying his hand at a local delicacy fast food shop and initially his business was doing well. He had a social media presence in place; he had a great location and an amazing (great tasting in my opinion) product.

However, after the few months of novelty, sales waned, and a relative of his spoke to us about it, stating that he needed help to help the business before it was too late.

We arranged an impromptu meeting letting him know that he needed to develop brand awareness for the business and to we could help him focus on gaining new customers.

The notion insulted him because he ended the meeting saying

‘A great product always sells itself.’  

Soon after, I saw his attempt to keep the business alive. He couldn’t afford to pay staff anymore, so he cooked, served, cashed and cleaned up himself. Any funds he had left, he invested in outdoor signage so large and flashy that even an astronaut in space could see what he was serving.

He tried, he tried so hard based on his beliefs.

Two months later, the store closed down and with it, some of the tastiest fast food I’ve had, was gone.

It’s a pity, but its a lesson that most businesses need to understand.

A great product does not sell itself. Marketing a product to the right audience and making it accessible for them to purchase makes a product sell. And a great product allows for great reviews that gives the product even further reach.

But without constant awareness, in the public’s busy lives, we will forget about a product. There is a reason Coke advertises.

Many business owners avoid marketing, primarily because they don’t understand it and they fear it.

It’s a dirty word met with horrible connotations.

They tried to market based on what they learnt in school and it doesn’t seem to work; they lose money; they lose time and they lose patience.

However, if it did not work, it would not be something that medium to large companies would do every day, it would not be something that takes a small business and makes it a million dollar company like it does daily for many of them and it would not be something that successful business consistently do.

You just have to market correctly, with a strategy and to the right people.

And that’s something we can help you with at DF Studios.

With many satisfied clients, we can definitely make a campaign for any business, any industry and any time.

Send us a message and we’ll get in contact with you about how your business can see success with marketing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *