On Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:52:26 -0800, wrote:

On Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:21:15 -0800, mike wrote:

[...]

At the risk of stating the obvious...what are you marketing?

A timepiece?
A gift item that ends up in a drawer?
A mantle piece that gets viewed from afar?
A delivery vehicle for some time-related corporate catch phrase
or call to action?
A "quality item" that sits on your desk in the corner office
to be admired and handled as a status symbol, much like your Rolex?

You might be able to get away with a sawed-off section of plastic pipe
instead
of the steel disk. Maybe you can't see the pipe section at all.

While cost reduction is an admirable goal, it's sometimes helpful
to start with a clean slate and try to meet the need with a slightly
different, lower-cost design.

Don't overlook the opportunity to hook on price and upsell to the
quality item.

All valid points...

You might be surprised that you can sell exactly the same thing at
triple or quadruple the price to different types of people. (Like rich
doctors or something.

For some really good marketing tips, read Robert Cialdini's book
_Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion_. It's EXCELLENT!

One item he mentioned was a retail store where the owner was going
away for the weekend and asked the clerk to halve the price of an item
which wasn't selling. The clerk misread it and doubled the price.
When the owner came in on Monday, -all- the items had sold. At
different price points, people expect quality...or don't. Stand behind
your quality with a healthy price.

He has tips in there which could literally save your life. If you're
in an accident and need help, while people are standing around staring
at you, look someone straight in the eye and ask for help. If you
look around and ask everyone, they all look at the others and nobody
helps. Make it personal and people will jump to help. Strange, isn't
it? I think that was called 'social proof'. (Time for me to reread
my own book.)

Anyway, I highly recommend it. It is a real eye-opener as far as
sociology goes.

--
I started out with nothing and
I still have most of it left!
--anon