Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Greg,

Is he furloughed and looking for a product to sell (like this one) or is he furloughed and has developed this product that needs to be sold?

Either way, we can help.

Michael

hi greg

just visited you site. like Zahid said, theres nothing there except some sales talks. i have the same question all the experts have asked regarding this TooBee.

anyway, some ways to help your son will be to answer the following questions...

1. identify the target market in terms of age group, socio-economic class, purchasing power etc.
2. What is the product special? like Zahid said, how will you counter Piracy of TB?
3. Whats the difference from FreesBee, which your site mentions that its the next big thing after that?? how, no information whatsoever on that in your site.
4. how is the price differing from Freesbees, is it higher of lower and why would a consumer buy it rather any other toy or freesbee in particular.
5. how will you distribute the products. Jeffe has proposed to carry your brand. apart from those type of stores where will the product be available?
6. how are you going to communicate to the consumers? what will be the communication vehicle, how will you promote it?

some ideas on promoting the brand are...
1. sponsor and organize a neighborhood based kids sport event, and promote TooBees (assuming kids are target consumers).
2. give some giveaways as sampling in kindergarten school sports events.

hope this helps.

cheers!!

I too visited the site and can't figure out what the big idea is. You really need to come up with a unique selling proposition, positioning statement, or value proposition so that people understand the BENEFIT, not just the description (flying can).

Without that benefit-oriented positioning statement, I'm afraid this is just another idea -- maybe even a good one -- that will go down as a footnote in history because the company was underfunded and not well marketed.

If you (and/or your son) wants to take a shot at the premium/give-away market, the item might be attractive to a fast food chain to give away as a premium item (free with a meal purchase). You'd have to sell it to them for less than $0.50 to get their attention, but that could put the concept on the map.

Of course, even to present the idea to a major fast food chain you'd have to do some preparation and look like you're "real." They don't like doing business with garage-based shoestring operations, no matter how good the idea is.

Don't mean to throw cold water on the idea, but the website doesn't make me salivate -- and there isn't anywhere else to get the information. Looks like this one needs some more work -- mostly in marketing strategy and planning -- maybe product too.

Honestly, if it were my son, I'd look at some other options to make money. One approach is to find something he does well, which others don't like to do. For example, I do high end business to business telemarketing - most professional folks don't have the time or desire to do this, and so I always have plenty of work.