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I asked Nev if he’s had issues with customers abusing this policy. His
response: Nope, no problems at all. Nev credits Tim Ferriss, author of The
Four-Hour Workweek, with giving him this idea.
A TRIP TO HOLLYWOOD FROM
YOUR LIVING ROOM
OR THE CORNER COFFEE SHOP.
“Before beginning, prepare carefully.”
—MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
L
et’s take a trip to Hollywood, by way of our local cinema or movie
theater. Every year, a number of blockbuster films come out that cost a huge
amount of money to produce, often $100 million or more. Studio executives
know they have only a limited window to ensure a big hit. If the opening
weekend isn’t huge, they may still have a good movie, but not the
blockbuster they need to recoup their high costs.
The executives also know that although some people don’t decide which
movie they want to see until they get to the theater, lots of other people go
to see a particular movie. If they’ve been hearing about it in advance,
building up their anticipation and getting excited, they’re all the more eager
to see the movie—and tell their friends about it too.
This is why Hollywood begins the “pre-launch” for a big film many
months in advance, often a whole season or even an entire year in advance
for the right film. During this time they are showing previews at the
beginning of other movies, building buzz through an Internet campaign, and
working the PR angles far in advance of the movie actually coming out.
The pre-launch campaign is a success when people eagerly await the
film, complaining about how long it takes to arrive, until the day
—“finally”—it’s ready to be screened for the public. Then, the studio
hopes, hundreds of thousands of filmgoers will pay their money and stream
into the theater. Without an active pre-launch campaign, the movie may be
great but the odds of commercial success are far lower.
The same principle holds true for microbusinesses. Whether a Hollywood
movie or the debut of your new sock-knitting class, launches are built
primarily through a series of regular communications with prospects and
existing customers. Just like the movie executives who release trailers over
time (first a short one, then a longer one) and the press events that Apple
built up over time with Steve Jobs at the helm (building anticipation for
future products to a fever pitch), small businesses can reproduce this cycle
in their own way.
*
Karol Gajda and Adam Baker, two friends with separate businesses in
different parts of the country, decided to team up for a big project. Karol
had completed an engineering degree from the University of Michigan, but
never actually worked as an engineer. He first had the idea from reading a
classic ninety-year-old marketing book called Scientific Advertising by
Claude Hopkins. In the book, Hopkins discussed “fire sales”—the old-
school, “everything must go” tactic used by furniture stores for decades.
Karol didn’t have a furniture store, but he wondered … What if we put
together a modern-day fire sale, with an emphasis on giving away a ton of
value for a low price, but only for a limited time?
Karol and Adam were both in the information publishing business, and
they quickly went to work, approaching other colleagues to participate. The
pitch was intriguing: Contribute your products to the overall mix to be sold
as a group for a low price and during a limited time. Oh, and if you help
promote the offer to your own audience of customers and followers, you’ll
earn an 80 percent commission on everything you sell. It was a good pitch,
and Karol and Adam had spent plenty of time building relationships and
developing a strong reputation for their work. Out of twenty-five requests,
twenty-three people said yes.
Packaging everything together, they ended up with a monster package
valued at a retail price of $1,054. They would sell the package for $97, less
than 10 percent of the overall value and a price to which they expected
customers would respond well. The “hook” came from the fire-sale idea:
The offer would be available for only seventy-two hours—no packages
would ever be sold again after the limited time period.
The big day came, and they put the offer online. For ten minutes nothing
happened. Karol sat looking in anticipation at the stats in Austin while
Adam was biting his nails in Indianapolis. Was something wrong?
Fortunately not … It turned out they were just ten minutes early. All of a
sudden, a trickle of visitors became a stream, then a flood, as more and
more people heard about the offer and came by to purchase. Wham! The
server was hit hard, and Karol’s Gmail account reported “Notification of
payment received” over and over.
The flood continued for the rest of the day, slowed down a bit on the
second day, and then picked back up at the end of the third and final day.
When the smoke cleared, Karol and Adam added up the results. Total sales:
$185,755 in three sleep-deprived days. Such was the power of a well-
crafted product launch.
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