Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship pdfdrive com

Channel Expansion
For product-based businesses, channel expansion involves adding locations
where your product is sold. If you’re selling a home-improvement product, like
Sal of The Paint Brush Cover, channel expansion is getting your product into
Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and every hardware store on the planet. Every
channel added accentuates your potential for SCALE and TIME, assuming the
channel represents your target audience and maintains brand integrity.
For instance, if you’ve created a designer brand of purses where the average
price of your satchels is $2,000, you might not want to celebrate a Target
invitation. Stick to channels that enhance your brand and hit your audience.
A great example where channel expansion can backfire is the Michael Kors
company. Originally considered a high-end brand, overexposure and brand
dilution has hurt the company.
111
Sold in over 3,700 department and specialty
stores worldwide, many consumers now perceive the brand as too ubiquitous. If
you see a Michael Kors bag every time you walk down the street, how special will
you feel paying a premium price to own one? What happened to Kors is the
consequence of overcapitalism—instead of protecting the brand and the original
mission, Wall Street pushes the impossible: infinite growth to appease
shareholders.
In my world, channel expansion has done wonders for my bottom line,
although I admit I’ve made costly mistakes. The 
Fastlane
audiobook wasn’t
added to the Audible channel until 2015. That mistake cost me roughly over six-
figures in lost sales. Likewise, Lightning Source is another channel I added,
which serves markets outside the United States. Again, I didn’t add this channel
until three years after release. After adding it, sales poured in. Yeah, another six-
figure mistake by acting three years too late. As long as channel expansion hits
your audience, maintains your brand, and fits into your cost structure, add, add,
and add.

---