All Or Nothing Marketing

I recently wrote about "Selling Your Perfume Texas Style." This is a continuation on the same "take it or leave it" theme.

Let's assume you are making perfume, as a hobbiest, and your perfume is good -- very good -- but you don't need the money. On the other hand, you certainly would like to make some money from it.

Let's assume also that you know of a retailer or some sort of marketing company that has a "spirit" that is very compatible with your ideas about perfume -- but this store or company has never sold perfume, although you believe that they could be selling perfume quite successfully.

Now if you were a perfume making company selling to a perfume marketing company, you would have your sales person approach the marketing company and try to get your company on the list of companies that would be "briefed" when the marketing company was looking for a new perfume. That means that, if they "accepted" you as a qualified vendor, you would be asked for submissions -- samples of a perfume that fit their requirement -- in competition with whatever other companies were being asked for submissions. Unless you "won" the contract to supply the perfume to the marketing company, none of this would earn you a penny.

Now since you are creating perfume at your own pace, without commercial pressures, you don't want to be involved in competing with the other perfumers and then being forced to supply the required amount of your perfume on the marketer's schedule. This calls for lots of administrative effort. But, going back to the "Texas Style" approach, here's a plan that might work well for you.

You have a TARGET -- the store or company that is not currently selling perfume but, you believe, could be very successful at it.

Why not develop a fragrance FOR THAT COMPANY ALONE. Forget even the possibility of selling it to anyone else! Just work, work, work on what YOU KNOW would be right for the target company. Work until you are satisfied that your fragrance is perfect.

Now go sell it to the store for which you created it.

Impossible? Too difficult? Consider your situation. You have created a BEAUTIFUL and APPROPRIATE fragrance for this company that has never sold perfume. At the least, they should be FLATTERED that you have done this, with them in mind exclusively. (Be sure to tell them this!)

But how do you make your sale? You do it by teaching them what needs to be done to sell your -- "their" -- perfume. And, since marketing is still quite new to you, you offer them your -- "their" -- perfume on consignment, that is, they pay nothing up front and you only get paid for any bottles they actually sell. They can't lose!

Since they can't lose, there is a good chance that they will take you up on your proposition and put your -- "their" -- perfume on sale in their store or catalog or whatever. Now, if you were right about the fragrance AND about this store being the right place for it to be sold, your perfume will sell. And you will make some money.

As a "footnote" to this plan, think a little about how the store should present your perfume to its customers. No doubt you already have ideas about how you would like your perfume to be displayed and sold. Be sure to communicate these ideas to the store. It is to their advantage to see that your perfume sells successfully. You BOTH stand a good chance to make money. Perhaps even serious money ... if you both do it right!