Page 119 - Customers Final

FROM IMAGINATION TO SUCCESSFUL PRODUCT LAUNCH

of lessons along the way. If you are starting out with
limited resources, as I explained, forget the mass market
and concentrate on a smaller concentrated market. It
has never been easier to talk to customers directly using
digital means.

I recall attending a trade show in Ethiopia some years
ago. The show was always over a three-day period and

included one day of the weekend for the general public
and students to enter. What we experienced every year
was that the first day was always allocated for
dignitaries and government officials and nothing was
ever sold on that day as the public’s entry was restricted.

The second day was for the trade and the third - the
weekend day - was by far the busiest as the last day the
vendors gave away any remaining goods from the
stands to the general public.

So we decided to have one person man the stand on the
first day and fully manned for the second. The second
day was when we launched and demonstrated our new

products to the trade. However, on the third day we gave
away a product every two hours after students or the
general public entered their email address into the

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