How to get my products to consumers

[mayana]

I want to get your insight on what avenue I should be focusing most of my energy on. I make natural cosmetics products; it is a small operation that I run out of my home right now. I make some sales online, but most of them come from local word-of-mouth marketing.

I'm not in a hurry, I want to do things right. As I see it now, I have a few options:

1. Try to get my product in small shops (This doesn't seem fast lane to me - it is very time consuming and will take a long time to build substantial sales).

2. Try to get my product in retail chain establishments (This is a lot more difficult, and I know from prior work experience what a pain it can be working with big-box store buyers. But, is it lucrative?)

3. I am currently running Facebook ads for my website, I could continue that and promote my site in other ways and wait for sales to pick up.

4. I could promote my products by starting a network marketing company.

5. I could get another network marketing company to sell my products.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[CKoski90]

Getting your products into small local stores would be an excellent way to start. Remember you can't start on top, you have to progress. Picture this, you have your products in a few local shops, your local customers move out of town and ask chain store X if they have your product. If they keep hearing your product name, that might be a wake up call for them to get it in stock. Could be wrong but thats just my opinion on it.

 

[mayana]

Thank you, that is what I think the benefit of that approach would be. It seems very time consuming (but not any more time consuming than some of the other business activities that I am doing). The long-term benefits could be very substantial.

 

[Entrepking]

I agree start small but start right, this could be a very great foundation for your products. Sending out sample kits can also jumpstart your business. Turning into network marketing may also be very good in terms of sales but then again the sales might just be from the networking itself and not because of the product per se. Managing netowrk marketing can be also quite hard to begin with because you basically have to map out the whole system so people who would market your product would actually earn. IMHO I say go and focus with 1,2 and 3 first and once you are set for the big league there's no harm in trying out 4 and 5. Though in case you settle for those you might lose the initial natural cosmetics product and end up as one the MLM products today. There is nothing wrong about MLM products but then , these products are known not because of the beauty of the product itself but from earning by recruiting.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mayana]

Thank you for that perspective on the network marketing avenue. It's definitely a huge decision to go that route and could have an effect on the brand image forever.

 

[esprintguy]

Don't try everything with the goal of getting fast results. I think you should have strategies that are designed to work in the long haul alongside strategies designed to be more quick with results.

 

[damien275x]

I think facebook advertisements are overrated. Personally, out of all the websites I visit every day, I could not tell you one single ad that appeared. I think it's because I've trained myself to blurr out advertsiements and any banners on the side of the pages. I think you may have more luck by generating real discussion on facebook. If I see Person A > Person B: "OMG, SOOO GOOD" or something, I'm much more receptive to this and will probably check the website or product out. Just my opinion though.

I also think you are wrong to assume that getting your product into small stores is a waste of time. If you think about all the red tape and garbage you have to go through to get your product put into a chain store, getting them into smaller ones doesn't look so bad, especailly if you walk in and the owners there, you walk in, propose it, negotiate the terms, and bam, they're available.

Just say you worked on the venture full time, and aimed at winning over 4 small stores a day, in a year that's almost 1,500 stores. Just say you made an average of $30.00 net profit at each one, it still adds up to big numbers, (49k/month) .. if you're willing to hit the road, travel, and sell your products, I am sure you can make a killing!! Good luck!!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MNentre]

I think facebook advertisements are overrated. Personally, out of all the websites I visit every day, I could not tell you one single ad that appeared. I think it's because I've trained myself to blurr out advertsiements and any banners on the side of the pages. I think you may have more luck by generating real discussion on facebook. If I see Person A > Person B: "OMG, SOOO GOOD" or something, I'm much more receptive to this and will probably check the website or product out. Just my opinion though.

I also think you are wrong to assume that getting your product into small stores is a waste of time. If you think about all the red tape and garbage you have to go through to get your product put into a chain store, getting them into smaller ones doesn't look so bad, especailly if you walk in and the owners there, you walk in, propose it, negotiate the terms, and bam, they're available.

Just say you worked on the venture full time, and aimed at winning over 4 small stores a day, in a year that's almost 1,500 stores. Just say you made an average of $30.00 net profit at each one, it still adds up to big numbers, (49k/month) .. if you're willing to hit the road, travel, and sell your products, I am sure you can make a killing!! Good luck!!

Have you been on facebook in the last few days??

 

[damien275x]

Yes. I use it quite a lot. My point was that the advertisements as tailored as they may be do not get seen by me. They are ignored. Unless they go deep into my subconcious or something. The ads that do popup/get in my face, I make a commitment to avoid that product when I see it.Especially irritating ads with flashy images and music.

 

[Likwid24]

1. Try to get my product in small shops (This doesn't seem fast lane to me - it is very time consuming and will take a long time to build substantial sales).

This is Exactly what Fastlane is. Working your a$$ off in the early stages of your business, slowly building it up to where you want to go. Think about how many Mom and Pop stores sell cosmetics in the U.S. There are probably tens of thousands, if not, hundreds of thousands. Your goal should be to have your product in a chunk of those stores. If you worked real hard and got your product into a thousand stores withing a year or two, you'll probably be doing pretty well.

Don't worry about the chain stores for now. They will come down the road. They won't even look at you until you have some sort of track record. You NEED to get into the smaller stores before they will even consider looking at your product. Once you get into those stores, be ready for a rude awakening. They are going dictate the price of your product and slash your margins in half. You might be selling a lot more product, but you will be making less per piece and probably working harder to get them produced and keep up with orders.

Also, if you do get into chains, make sure your ready for it. It's going to go from, I'm assuming, a one or two person operation, to a "real" business with managers, sales reps, customer service reps, shippers, warehouses, etc...... Most people aren't ready for that big jump and they company fails because of it.

Build it up at a pace you comfortable with so if you get it into a chain, your prepared.

If you want, you can follow my progress thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/fastlane-millionaire-stories/30969-my-path-fastlane.html. I just created a product. My first shipment arrives this week. We are starting off exactly like I just mentioned. Going to smaller stores plus we have a website we will be selling from. I started Facebook, Twitter and Google+ pages for now, to help spread the word. We will be doing trade shows soon and some small time advertising to start. I will be updating often.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.