Piggyback

THE PRINCIPLE

Sometimes riding piggyback is easier than going it alone

The odds are that whatever your idea, it’s an improved version of something that already exists. If that ‘something’ is successful, it may be a good idea to find a way to piggyback onto it rather than trying to come up with something totally new. This kind of piggybacking is an advantage both in the creation and the marketing processes. In the former, it can save you work. In the latter, you will find that people generally are quicker to accept (and buy) something that relates to what they already know.

An example from my own experience: I am developing innovative ways to manage your time better, but I appreciate the work that has been done by David Allen, author of Get It Done and several other books that have had huge, worldwide success. In my materials, I acknowledge his work and make it clear that the methods I offer are designed to make his approach even more effective (without implying, of course, that he endorses or has any official connection with my work).

Here’s the four-step process for this kind of piggybacking:

  1. List the best features of your most successful competition.
  2. Brainstorm what value you can add to what they already offer.
  3. Design your product or service to deliver that value.
  4. Market your offering. You can decide whether to openly acknowledge the competition (for instance, with an ad that promotes your coffee shop as ‘Beyond Starbucks’) or to make no reference to it.

There is also another form of piggybacking, where you collaborate with a person or company that is already successful. In publishing, one example of this is the Guerrilla Marketing books. Jay Conrad Levinson wrote the original and now works with experts in different fields to co-author books on guerrilla marketing in their area (for instance, Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants and Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters).

If someone already has an established name in your field, he or she may be willing to collaborate and share the proceeds. If they bring credibility or access to the customers you are targeting, a share of the proceeds of that collaboration may yield more than 100 per cent of what you’d earn by going it alone.

Website bonus

At www.CreativityNowOnline.com, click on the ‘Creativity Now!’ button. Bonus 15 is a look at how you and I might piggyback on projects relating to creativity and productivity.

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