A number of years ago, Jell-O marketers wanted to expand volume for the brands gelatin. The product was one of the most profitable food products ever, but volume growth was weak.
The marketers decided to visit gelatin purchasers in their kitchens to see what they used the product for. Undoubtedly, they expected to see moms and kids making bowls of gelatin like their own moms once made for them.
Not so in some kitchens. Here, inventive moms put highly concentrated gelatin into cookie cutter molds, and children played with this new form of the well-known food before eating it.
This investigation was the beginning of how the Jell-O Jigglers promotion was ultimately developed. These delightful edible toys made gelatin making and eating more attractive for moms and kids, and helped the company by encouraging a much higher use of their gelatin.
ITworld.com - 16 Ways to Keep Your Best Employees -- Without ::
Oct 8, 2007 New Webcast: How to Profit with Remote Support. Discover how remote support can fuel your IT business in ways you've never thought of before
http://www.itworld.com/Career/nlscareers071008/HOME |
Marketing Article: How to Avoid New-Product Pricing Traps by ::
One of the most powerful ways to augment the value proposition of your product and New products are critical to future revenue and profit growth for all
http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/lucke1.aspHOME |
Companies that have active help lines and online bulletin boards often get similar ideas from those sources. Many businesses also hold customer councils of their largest and most advanced users to find ideas to improve what they offer. Seek out nontraditional users to find the most innovative opportunities.
Like the Jell-O example, some of the best ideas come from trailing beneficiaries and customers around to see what they do with the product and what other problems they have.
A patient was recently sent to the hospital for new types of diagnostic tests. Settling down into a multimillion dollar piece of equipment, the patient trustingly followed the technicians orders to lie face down with a pillow for comfort. Within 20 minutes, the pain in the patients neck became very unpleasant. Within 30 minutes, the patient was losing feeling in the feet and legs. Within 40 minutes, the patient asked to stop the test. Painfully holding on with gritted teeth for another 2 minutes, the test was completed.
The patient said that enough was enough. The technician reported that another 30 minutes was going to be needed starting in an hour. The patient obligingly agreed to come back as long as the test could be taken lying face up.
Following that agreement, the patient came back and was told to hold a certain pose while lying face up. Within 10 minutes, new forms of pain came in waves. And so on. Face up was even worse!
If a design engineer had ever watched a patient suffer with this expensive form of a medieval torture device, the engineer would soon have figured out that no patient in his or her right mind would ever agree to take that test again . . . and would tell everyone to avoid that test like a hungry lion.
Did any engineer ever try out this awful device? I doubt it.
Anyone who had ever seen a massage table would know that great comfort can be provided for the face-down prone position by putting in a cushioned holder that lets ones face descend below table level while ones arms are either prone next to the body or hang downward.
10 ways to generate more profit from meetings::
The answer: Find new ways to generate revenue, which NSA did by adopting an . I don't think you plan to make a net profit in your first two or three
http://meetingsnet.com/associationmeetings/trends/ways_generate_profit_0201/HOME |
Such a solution would have provided blessed relief for patients and probably boosted sales for the manufacturer by hundreds of millions of dollars. Nonprofit organizations can be equally insensitive.
In a church in downtown Boston theres a homeless shelter that is open during the days for women only. That rule is in place because many of these women have been abused by men and dont feel safe where men can come and go.
While visiting this shelter, it soon became obvious that many women were reluctant to come in the shelter because there were men lurking on the street near the entrance.
If the shelters organizers had simply provided an imposing female escort to help women enter and leave the shelter, many more women would have spent the day inside on that blustery December day.
Here are questions designed to help you uncover adjustment opportunities for your offering.
What makes your offering
-boring?
-frightening to some people?
-painful or uncomfortable?
-embarrassing?
-sadden people?
-a needless expense for the user?
Act on what you find, and you can quickly expand the sales or use of your offerings.
Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
 Suggestion for cool sorting options
 Unwanted bonus
|
Add New Ways to Use your Offerings and Profit From the Growth This Brings