Copying a business

[fishburn7]

What's up guys,

I'm currently working on my fastlane success story, but I've hit some small stumbling blocks, and to be completely honest they may just be in my head.

I'm basically copying someone else's business, but my product will be more luxurious and therefore more expensive but in the same niche. I plan on marketing my product so that the business I copy will appear to be an overpriced knockoff.

My product will be an alibaba purchase, with my branding, sold through the brand's website

There are a few worries I have.
1.) I don't know how much my competitor sells. The main competitor mainly sells through their website, but also sells some on Amazon, in which the most popular model has 35 reviews.

This creates my second worry

2.) Lack of need. If my competitor, (who is also an alibaba branded resale) only has 35 reviews on amazon, how can i possibly turn this into a fast lane adventure.

How can I test the market's need for this product without spending $400 on a sample, $100 on a landing page, and $1000 on advertising?



My idea:
My idea to test my need is this, find a nice picture of the product I'm buying on alibaba, edit the product picture to include my logo on adobe illustrator, create a landing page selling the "why" you need my product (don't know how to create a landing page yet), Post on a ton of information on the blogs and websites where my customers congregate linking them to my page, collect email addresses from interested parties (reserve now). Assume 35% of the interested parties will buy to crunch them numbers and see if this is a money making opportunity.



Am I anywhere close to on the right track?

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Are you copying the product, or the business model, because there's a difference. You'll probably need to know more about the product if you want to offer higher-perceived value. Are you buying the product from the same place as your competitor? If so, then why not just order one of his products on Amazon to see if it's worth your time. What other products are you planning to sell with it? Reviews on Amazon don't really tell you much about sales. They just tell you that the company has some reviews. Sometimes a product sells thousands with few reviews. Read the reviews. Do they look fake? If they look real, then they might be, and if they're good reviews, then maybe it tells you people are willing to buy this.

At this point you're not on any track. You're watching the other guy from the sideline.

Pick a starting point if you want to test this product, for example:

- Build a landing page on a free website. Then build another one, and another one until you start getting good.

- Order a sample of your competitor's product since it's cheaper than ordering samples from overseas.

- Try promoting your landing page with a picture of your sample product to your target market and see what happens.

- Learn about hustling on this forum, and how to earn extra spending money so you can even have a go at this.

 

[fishburn7]

Are you copying the product, or the business model, because there's a difference.
At this point you're not on any track. You're watching the other guy from the sideline.

I am copying the business model with a higher end product, my product will have a few very distinct changes. I am lucky enough to have a brother who was gifted one of my competitor's products so I know what i am up against and exactly how to create a better product.

You're right, i'm on the sideline, mostly because i'm terrified to spend a couple grand on a product that won't sell.

Pick a starting point if you want to test this product, for example:

- Build a landing page on a free website. Then build another one, and another one until you start getting good.

- Order a sample of your competitor's product since it's cheaper than ordering samples from overseas.

- Try promoting your landing page with a picture of your sample product to your target market and see what happens.

- Learn about hustling on this forum, and how to earn extra spending money so you can even have a go at this.

- will wordpress.com work for creating free sample landing pages?
- will ordering a sample from the competitor accomplish more than just saving money on a sample since my product will be different in some ways?
- would i use the sample for more than inspecting quality and making sure my supplier has the design right, and photographing for the website?

 

[Lex DeVille]

- will wordpress.com work for creating free sample landing pages?

Yes

- will ordering a sample from the competitor accomplish more than just saving money on a sample since my product will be different in some ways?

Not sure why you're asking me this, but if I were in your shoes, then yes, it would definitely accomplish more than just saving money.

- would i use the sample for more than inspecting quality and making sure my supplier has the design right, and photographing for the website?

I don't know. Will you?

I'm not in the same market as you. Like, not even close, so I can't really tell you what to do with the sample.

There's a reason they call it testing.

I will say this though...if your brother was gifted the product, then somebody was willing to buy it.

 

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[ZCP]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_favours_the_bold

 

[hestati]

You know how much the product will cost you? Create a sales page as if you product already exist. Adwords for 100-200$ to your sales page. When someone wants to purchase, just create a "broken link". Worst case, you will lose 200$.

Now, I know dry testing is illegal. Technically this is not dry testing, it is a "glitch in your website" which makes it borderline legal

 

[BlakeIC]

regarding the review thing, this really depends on the market
you know what kind of people who purchase your product, are they smart enough to know how to leave a review? when they get your product will they care?

for ex i noticed on amazon for automobile tools, parts etc there was not many reviews on any items it would make sense for car niches to not have as many of reviews because of the characters


not sure how to really put it to where it makes sense

 

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[JasonR]

There's a serious lack of testicular fortitude and work ethic in this thread.

 

[tafy]

Just get the samples and list them on amazon under your own brand. The learning you will get will be amazing and it will sell eventually. Worst case scenario you get half your money back

 

[randomnumber314]

Step 1: buy thing.
Step 2: sell thing.

You're stuck on step one. Once you buy the thing you'll have risked some cash, which will motivate you to figure out step 2.

 

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