At the very heart of any successful marketing strategy is the determination of what your present and prospective customers need, want, and desire. You have to find out what they want before you try to sell it to them. Never make the mistake of investing a lot of money into a product or service you want to sell before you understand how much demand really exists on the part of the customer.

If you want to be successful in business you have to provide a product or service people want. You cannot create demand. All the best marketing will not be able to sell a product or service that no one wants. The advertising graveyard is filled with award-winning campaigns that did not make a dime, because there was no desire, need, or want for the product being sold.

You certainly must have a quality product or service, but you first have to put your effort and money into validating that there is sufficient market interest to actually warrant rolling out your product or service. You need to test first. Conduct surveys and focus groups about your product or service. This will validate or invalidate the viability of what you are trying to sell.

In order to be successful, you need to have a product or service that the marketplace is willing to buy, and a market approach that can sell the product or service at a profit. Unless you have both, don't even think about investing your time and precious capital developing a product or service.

I am constantly amazed at how many people come to me who have lost thousands of dollars trying to market a product or service that they didn't test to see if anyone wanted to buy it. Always remember this rule: You don't have the right to tell the market what it will buy and at what price. The market will always tell you what it will buy and at what price. Always test first. The market will never lie to you.

If you have an idea for a product or service you must know everything you possibly can before developing it. Here are a few research ideas to help you get started.

* Go to the library and check the periodicals. Pull up every related article and story from the past week, month, year, and even five years that is related to your idea.

* Research the internet about your idea and your competition as well.

* Go to a shopping mall and ask the management if they have a facility you can rent for conducting a focus group. Most malls have them for a small fee. Ask passing shoppers whether they'd like to participate. If you tell them they will be compensated for their time, you'll get people to participate.

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