Re: Map Generator....

From: htp@mac.com (Henry)

Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

In article <20000123174022.03575.00000624@ng-ck1.aol.com>,
phen376022@aol.com (PHen376022) wrote:

> A genuine question here, Henry.
>
> If you were to invent a product, in your basement, that is genuinely better
> than any other on the market, how would you let  the public know about it?
>
> Remember, you have people who are accustomed to buying their favorite product.
> How do you get them to switch to yours?

Ooohhh, lots of variables.

I'd certainly use the Net to promote it.  Website and mailing list at least.

If the product could be reproduced electronically (draws tenuous
connection back to thread), say a map generator, then I'd make it freely
available.  Give it away.

After creating the website, I'd submit the URL to a bunch of search
engines, and then contact appropriate forums and ask if they would care to
review it (I'm sure there's a map generator forum out there, somewhere
;).  The (impartial) third-party reviews should allow interested patries
to compare my product with similar products from other vendors with
confidence.

The mailing list would serve as a general discussion forum for folks who
have downloaded the product and are using it.  I'd monitor the list to
find out what problems people are having (and fix those) and what
questions keep cropping up (and address those) and what features get
requested (and implement those).

If my product is genuinely better than any other on the market, and I
actively support it, and I give it away free, then I don't see how it
*can't* capture a significant market share in a couple of years.  I'm in
it for the long haul, and I'm happy to wait until word-of-mouth runs it's
course.

Once I have a user-base of significance, I'd probably start charging for
the current major version of the software.  The previous major version
would continue to be free.  Thus you can pay for v3 or get v2 for free
(for example).  This continues to allow potential new customers to try out
the map generator at no financial risk to themselves, while giving
hardcore users (probably active members on the mailing list) access to
spiffy new features as soon as they are integrated.

In order to give my loyal customers a stake in the project, I would
incorporate a plug-in architecture which allows them to become
co-developers.  I recognise that no product can be everything to everyone,
so by allowing enthusiastic users to extend the functionality in novel
directions, it becomes possible to penetrate the market even further and
capture those potential customers who were holding out because the product
didn't have a *specific* feature.

A major revision or two later and I will have grown bored with the
product.  It will have matured in it's life-cycle.  Market penetration
will have been maxed out.  The only thing left to do then is guide it
towards open-source and hand control of the product to someone with more
enthusiasm and energy.

It started free.  It ends free.

I move onto something different.

Henry.

References

Re: Map Generator....
htp@mac.com (Henry)
Mon, 24 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
phen376022@aol.com (PHen376022)
Sun, 23 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000