5. Estudio de la problemática de los menores extranjeros en situación de desamparo en Melilla
5.2. De la situación de riesgo a la declaración de desamparo
INVENTOR’S STORY
TV Blast Off
T
im Wilson and his company Jet Blast, Inc., based in Baltimore, Maryland, have introduced several inventions through TV shopping networks. They include the Drain Blaster, a high-speed rotating nozzle that turns tap water into a drain-clearing high-velocity stream; the Pro-Jet 2000, which converts ordinary water pressureBefore You Start
Identify the target: Catalogs and TV shopping net-works all do a careful job identifying their target cus-tomer. Then they look for products that also target those customers. Inventors need to understand who the target customer is for each catalog or TV network they approach, and then they need to demonstrate why the product is perfect for those customers.
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from a garden hose into a high-pressure stream; and the Aqua Helix Shower Nozzle, which accelerates water flow from a shower head.
When Wilson started out, retailers wouldn’t handle his product;
in general, retailers feel it is too expensive to carry a product from a one-line company. Unique products from small compa-nies, on the other hand, are just what catalogs and TV shopping networks are looking for, and by using the TV networks, Wilson has built his company’s sales to over $4 million. One secret Wilson learned early on was the importance of demonstrations.
Even if he has only a prototype when presenting a new product, he takes the time to create a video, sometimes spending as much as $5,000 to show how well the product will demonstrate on TV. Wilson feels that without a video buyers won’t understand a product’s appeal.
Wilson has also tried to sell his products on his own through direct-response ads. But he has learned that TV networks have two huge advantages. One is that they have a proven sales process. They know what types of products will sell and what types of demon-strations produce the best results. The second advantage is that they have a huge built-in audience that likes to buy from the TV shopping network. Those advantages overcome the 50 to 60 per-cent discounts off suggested retail that the networks ask for.
The right copy: You want to match the style of copy on your sales materials to the style of each catalog.
Many marketers who sell to various cata-logs custom-write the materials each time.
Having the right style helps convince the buyer that your prod-uct is perfect for the catalog.
Exclusivity: The Home Shopping Network and QVC do not like to carry the same products, and many catalogs also prefer a more exclusive line of merchandise. A good strategy when starting out is to tell mail-order catalogs that you will only have the product in two catalogs in the first year. This gives them a little more incentive to buy, and it allows you to ask the buyer for a response by a certain date, so that you can contact other buyers if the first catalog doesn’t want the product. You should only approach one TV shopping network at a time, and you should make it clear to them that you are only approaching one network to start.
Publicity: If you have any past publicity, include it in your presentation to show buyers the potential of your product. If don’t have any, manufacture some.
Host an event—it doesn’t have to be big—that allows people to use your product, and then ask them to offer testimonials. For example, you could organize a five-kilometer bike ride for 10 people to showcase a new, more comfortable seat. Or you could offer a
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SUCCESS TIP
Copy—the words on a brochure or ad—can vary in style. Some catalogs use image-enhancing copy: “the perfect suit for the woman executive.”
Others use a practical style: “Two tops and two bottoms offer four different outfits.” Copy may be personalized, frequently using the pronoun you, or it may be more impersonal, using third-person descriptions like executives, young women, or teenage girls.
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cooking demonstration at your local church. What’s important is that you bring people together to try your product, take pictures, and write a story that could be used for publication by your local media.
Inventory needs: You don’t need to produce any product until you have an actual order. All you need is a few prototypes or units to offer as samples if they are requested.
Pricing: Products from $12.95 to $29.95 seem to do best in general-merchandise catalogs and the shop-ping networks. Specialty and premium catalogs pre-fer products that are priced anywhere from $40 to
$500. If prices are too low, you need to sell too many units before the catalogs or shopping networks make money. If your prices are too high, the products move out of the impulse category and become a more diffi-cult sale. Check your pric-ing against other compara-ble products in the catalog or on the shopping net-work to be sure it is simi-lar. For example, electrical devices for the kitchen might sell for $29.95 to
$49.95. Make sure your three-in-one can opener falls in that same range and maintains the same price/value relationship.
First Steps
Target lists: See Chapter 6, page 80–81, for a list of several directories of catalogs. Find catalogs that look appropriate, and call the company to request
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SUCCESS TIP
Lillian Vernon has had a successful catalog since she started out at the age of 21. Currently, her catalog sales exceed $200 million per year. Lillian Vernon still selects many of the products for the catalog herself. What are Vernon’s criteria for including products? They must be distinctive, not generally available anywhere else, and aimed at her target audience—women looking to add style to their lives.
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one. Double-check that each catalog’s target market and pricing fits your product, then make a list of the top ten catalogs to which you will send a presenta-tion package. Since there are really just two big TV shopping networks, QVC and the Home Shopping Network, you don’t need to do much research, but this also limits your choices.
Mailing dates: Catalogs typically only decide to buy products once or twice a year when they are laying out their new catalog. In many cases, this date could be four to five months (and sometimes longer) before the catalog is actually printed. You want to know when a catalog finalizes its product decisions, then mail to the catalog twice: once two months before the final date and then two weeks before the date. Mailing two months before will help get your product considered in the regular decision process. Mailing two weeks before the deadline puts you in front of catalog buyers right when they are trying to fill last-minute holes in the catalog.
Presentation package: Typically, when they are con-sidering new products, catalogs ask for only a sales flyer and a price schedule, while shopping networks also want to see a sample. But inventors find that they can improve their odds of success by including additional items in the initial mailing. Some inventors will actually lay out a sample catalog page with their product featured among complementary products already in the targeted catalog. You can also include videos—which are popular with shopping networks because they indicate how well a product can be demonstrated on TV—as well as testimonials, news articles, pictures of the product at trade shows, mar-ket research studies, and any other information that
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might be useful to the buyer. Here are the points to drive home: (1) The product appeals to the show’s/catalog’s target market; (2) the product has already been tested or sold; and (3) the product will fit in with other products in their catalog or shopping network.
Personal contact: To give yourself the best chance of success, before sending your presentation package to a catalog, make sure you find out the name of the person who buys for your type of product. If you call and ask, most catalogs will tell you. If you don’t know who the buyer is, you won’t know if your infor-mation actually reaches the right person, and you won’t know who to call when following up to get feedback on your prod-uct’s potential in the cata-log. However, the Home Shopping Network and QVC don’t normally give out the buyer’s name.
One way around this is to buy products similar to theirs and then call the manufacturer (who’s name will be on the package) and ask who the buyer was.
Samples: You need to send a sample of the product to shopping networks when submitting your product.
Catalogs typically prefer to see a brochure first, and they will then request a sample if they are interested in the product. Catalogs want to check your product for durability, safety, and quality.
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MARKET REALITY
First impressions are just as important selling to catalog and TV shopping network buyers as they are in other sales situations. As mentioned before, Tim Wilson of Jet Blast spends up to
$5,000 on videos before approaching shopping network buyers. For catalogs, you want a great-looking picture of your product in use. If you can’t do this yourself, hire a graphic artist to get a pro-fessional look.
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Off and Running
Wrap up catalogs: As a rule, catalogs change a sub-stantial number of product offerings every printing.
So unless your product is a top seller, you can expect to be dropped from a catalog every now and then.
You can minimize the roller coaster effect of catalog sales by creating a strong relationship with the buy-ers. The best way to do that is by trying to help the buyers create the catalog they want. Ask buyers what they are trying to do for the next issue and what you could do with your product to help them meet their objectives. Also ask the buyers how you could change your product so it will sell better in the catalog.
Wrap up shopping networks: Networks will keep carrying your product as long as it sells. You can extend your run if you keep coming up with new demonstrations that present your product in new ways.
Create variety: Catalogs don’t like to have the very same products as other catalogs, so you should offer your product with several variations for catalogs to choose from. You can
offer different colors or a few new features, or you can pair the product with differ-ent complemdiffer-entary items. A painting tool, for example, might come with a paint-can opener one season and a masking aid the next year.
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SUCCESS TIP
Chris McKay, the inventor of the Magnawatch, sends catalog buyers a chart showing the potential features of his invention, and then lets them decide what they want. Even if he hasn’t ever made a par-ticular Magnawatch configuration before, McKay presents the buyer with all the options that are pos-sible. He’s learned that buyers prefer to pick and choose what they feel will sell best.
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Add catalog customers. You may have offered an exclusive contract to a catalog for the first year of catalog sales, but you can only grow your business by adding catalogs on a regular basis. Use the catalog directory resources in Chapter 6 (page 80–81) to find
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INSIGHT
Comparison Shoppers
TV shopping networks and catalog buyers are an image-conscious bunch: They can be more competitive and catty than a host of Houston debutantes at high-society soiree. As I mentioned earlier, TV shopping networks don’t like to carry the same prod-ucts as other networks, and you are better off approaching only one network at a time.
Catalog buyers are even more difficult to deal with because they also follow a pecking order. Catalogs with premium items do not want to carry product lines that also carry lower-priced products. They often will not buy from you if you haven’t been selling to catalogs that are as prestigious—or if you’ve been selling to those that are more pres-tigious.
When you talk to buyers, ask them which other catalogs they feel they are competitive with, and which ones they feel appeal to a more cost-conscious market. Tell the buy-ers you are asking this question because you want to sell your product as a premium performing line, and you want to be sure that the consumer doesn’t get mixed mes-sages about just who the product is targeted at. You’ll do far better with catalogs if the buyers know you are not offering your product to every catalog in the market. Also be careful when you tell buyers what catalogs you have been sold through. Only list cat-alogs that sell at the same price point or higher than the catalog you are talking to.
You also need to be careful in mentioning your TV shopping network sales to catalogs.
Some catalogs, like Taylor Gifts, like to carry products that have been on TV, and they will even post an “As Seen On TV” label on your product in the catalog. Other catalogs feel that TV shopping networks don’t appeal to their premium customers, and they may not buy if you’ve been “seen on TV.”
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new target catalogs, and then keep going after them.
While you want to show catalogs that you’ve been in other catalogs, be careful not to give the impression that the new catalogs should buy your product just because others have done so. Catalog buyers get upset if you act as if another catalog is more impor-tant than theirs.
Approach new markets: Normally, when you start out selling a product, you’ll approach a single specific market that’s right for your product. However, cata-logs are the one area where marketers can do better trying to sell to everyone. A kitchen-organizing prod-uct might, with just a few small variations, sell well to hobby shops. A product for runners might be eas-ily adapted to the hiking market, or even the bike market. Look at as many catalogs as you can to see if your product will fit in with a few changes. You might be able to find additional markets that will keep your sales moving up.
Building a Business
Hire helpers: Marketing to catalogs and TV shopping networks entails three time-consuming tasks. One is to keep in touch with a core of current customers.
The second is to continually add product updates or new variations to keep sales strong in both catalogs and TV shows. The last task is to search out new cat-alog customers, either in your current market or new markets. I’ve found that inventors enjoy coming up with new variations of their product, but that they don’t do a good job searching out new catalog opportunities. Inventors can usually grow their cata-log business best by hiring someone to take on the third task of finding new customers.
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Secure key supporters: You need several supportive catalog buyers to succeed. But you also need a man-ufacturer who is willing to turn out variations of your product for different buyers, and you need a model builder, or a prototype builder, who can help you prepare the different samples catalogs want to see before they order.
Write a marketing plan: TV shopping network mar-keting is different than traditional marmar-keting because you are trying to appeal to a broad range of cus-tomers rather than a nar-row range. For TV, your product’s branding is most important, as it makes your product memorable to consumers, a sales bene-fit prized by the shopping networks. Your marketing plan should concentrate on creating a strong brand through publicity, personal appearances, and the use of a distinctive name or logo.
Catalogs require the more traditional niche market-ing. List all the catalogs that are appropriate for your product, and note when they publish their catalogs, when they make their buying decisions, and what their desired price points are. Then select your top-priority catalogs and approach them first.
Support the product: Your value to catalogs and TV shopping networks declines rapidly if you have quali-ty or return problems. Most companies try to over-come this by directing product returns directly to themselves. Make sure you give consumers an 800
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MARKET REALITY
Over the last 20 years, one comment I have heard often from inventors is that they love to invent but that they aren’t very good at sales and marketing. They are always hoping they can hire someone else to do that. This attitude is a sure sign that an inventor will fail to commercialize his or her idea. Inventors have to do everything, and if you convince yourself you can’t or don’t want to do sales and marketing, the end result will be that you accomplish neither one well.
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number to call for questions and prob-lems, and provide instructions on return-ing a product to you.
You want to clear up every problem on your own to avoid conflicts with the catalog or network.
Are You Making Money?
Profit check: One of
the biggest advantages of catalog and TV shopping marketing is that you have few expenses other than manufacturing costs. There are also minimal sales and marketing expenses, which in most other mar-keting channels consume 20 to 40 percent of your sales dollars. You will probably be able to make money as long as you can sell your product for 50 percent more than your manufacturing cost. If you are using catalog sales as a springboard to other mar-kets, you need to price your product at double your manufacturing cost, as that is the price you will need to charge in other markets.
The only major expense in catalog sales is that catalogs will frequently ask you to pay part of the printing cost.
Those costs should be no more than 15 percent of your projected sales volume.
Corrective measures: If profits aren’t up to snuff, cat-alog marketers can either cut manufacturing costs (if they are too high) or negotiate a different arrange-ment for paying the printing cost of catalogs. Since
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BUZZ WORD
Branding is a marketing term that simply means establishing your name with customers, though this also extends to establishing attributes to that name. Sears, for instance, is a strong brand name: First, it is recognized by almost everyone, and second, people associate it with a depend-able midpriced store. Orville Redenbacher used his name to create a distinctive, memorable brand for his popcorn, while Jolly Time microwave popcorn has a much weaker brand because its generic name just isn’t as memorable.
Branding is a marketing term that simply means establishing your name with customers, though this also extends to establishing attributes to that name. Sears, for instance, is a strong brand name: First, it is recognized by almost everyone, and second, people associate it with a depend-able midpriced store. Orville Redenbacher used his name to create a distinctive, memorable brand for his popcorn, while Jolly Time microwave popcorn has a much weaker brand because its generic name just isn’t as memorable.