# Do You Pre-Market/Brand Before Launching?



## badhoha (Jun 13, 2007)

Hello All,

I wanted to know if you have or are pre-marketing/branding your site or company before your actual launch date? If so, how much pre-marketing/branding are you doing and how far before the actual launch date are you pushing the company?

Thanks for the info!

Thanks


----------



## kriscad (Dec 18, 2006)

I saw alot of lines at Pool this year that only had graphic images on 8x10 cut sheets - not even printed yet, taking orders.


----------



## maddog9022 (Sep 5, 2006)

i wouldn't

people who are looking to buy usually buy on impulse. i know when i go to a website i usually only vistit it once. even if there is something i want to buy on it. i usually forget about it after acouple of days. if you have people looking to buy a shirt or something and you dont have anything on your site or with you, most people will forget about you.

thants my 2 cents


----------



## badhoha (Jun 13, 2007)

Wouldn't that be the purpose of repetition though?


----------



## SirThomas88 (Feb 22, 2008)

It depends on how you are pre-marketing your site. If its business cards and t-shirts, well, those will stick around, so someone might look at that a few weeks later after they receive it and go check out your site.

But if its something like Google AdWords, well, then you're just waisting money. Like poster above said, people want to buy right now, they most likely will not come back to check to see if you've got your products up yet.

So basically, it is a waste of time, energy and probably money. I've got a site up now and I'm making a new one, I won't begin marketing until I've got at least three or four products up first.

You know how people talk about conversion rates? And what methods of getting people to your site have the most conversion and likely-hood to buy your products? Well that will be 0% until you get products up.

Waste of time and money.


----------



## badhoha (Jun 13, 2007)

Hmm... Good points. Good points.

Thanks fellas


----------



## Titchimp (Nov 30, 2006)

I will be pre-saling shirts for a discount to 
1) gauge demand 
2) Allow for better economies of scale (if ive got lots of preorders my overall price per item will drop when i make my order)


----------



## maddog9022 (Sep 5, 2006)

badhoha said:


> Wouldn't that be the purpose of repetition though?


 
even if tell my self i want to buy something off that site and think it one of the greatest things i usually never go back unless i have the money at that time and i usually forget about it after a week or so. that happens to me about 90% of the time.


----------



## maddog9022 (Sep 5, 2006)

Titchimp said:


> I will be pre-saling shirts for a discount to
> 1) gauge demand
> 2) Allow for better economies of scale (if ive got lots of preorders my overall price per item will drop when i make my order)


how are you going to do this. if you are going to wait till you get so many offers till you buy the shirts from the printer, that is a bad way to do it. people expect their product to be shipped in a timely matter. it doesn't matter how many times you tell them that they want it right away. then you have to deal with people stoping orders and all that nasty stuff.


----------



## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

You want to have at least a sample run so that your potential customers will have the ability to touch and see your product. Then from there they will be able to pre-order your products.

I would pre-marketing is a bit of a waste of time because unless you are already well known I doubt customers will wait around until its available, when they know they can purchase another product which is already available to them. I saw a comment that most customers buy on impluse, and I see that as being the case.

I would say...do a sample run, then start marketing.


----------



## Titchimp (Nov 30, 2006)

maddog9022 said:


> how are you going to do this. if you are going to wait till you get so many offers till you buy the shirts from the printer, that is a bad way to do it. people expect their product to be shipped in a timely matter. it doesn't matter how many times you tell them that they want it right away. then you have to deal with people stoping orders and all that nasty stuff.


I wasnt actually saying "im going to wait untill i have pre-sold 50 shirts before i order and send them"

What i was saying that on the build up to going live i will offer customers the opportunity to pre-order shirts at a discounted rate (not a huge discount), there would be a clearly defined ship date for all customers to see, not everyone wants a product instantly, some people are more than happy to wait.


----------



## badhoha (Jun 13, 2007)

paulo said:


> You want to have at least a sample run so that your potential customers will have the ability to touch and see your product. Then from there they will be able to pre-order your products.
> 
> I would pre-marketing is a bit of a waste of time because unless you are already well known I doubt customers will wait around until its available, when they know they can purchase another product which is already available to them. I saw a comment that most customers buy on impluse, and I see that as being the case.
> 
> I would say...do a sample run, then start marketing.


Now that I think abou it, I'm thinking about splitting it down the middle- While I get the sample process running, or just before, I'll make warm introduction to the market to at least get the name spreading through linkage, and the like. I figure, even if there's nothing ready to buy, why not at least get a jump on spreading the site.

Make sense?


----------



## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

badhoha said:


> Now that I think abou it, I'm thinking about splitting it down the middle- While I get the sample process running, or just before, I'll make warm introduction to the market to at least get the name spreading through linkage, and the like. I figure, even if there's nothing ready to buy, why not at least get a jump on spreading the site.
> 
> Make sense?


You can always put your designs on shirts on your site to at least give your potential customers a chance to see your style, and your designs.


----------



## T D Homa (Aug 19, 2006)

I think a very good way to go is to build up a base group. Whether its a few friends or local businesses, etc. Take it slow and work a few orders get all the kinks out before your really branding. You don't want to be know as the crappy, company that finally is doing it right as time goes on. That is what I fear and slowly am working on small "focused group orders" before rolling out my name. This may not work for everyone, its just the way I think is the better way to go though.

My $.02,

~ Tim


----------



## maddog9022 (Sep 5, 2006)

paulo said:


> You want to have at least a sample run so that your potential customers will have the ability to touch and see your product. Then from there they will be able to pre-order your products.
> 
> I would pre-marketing is a bit of a waste of time because unless you are already well known I doubt customers will wait around until its available, when they know they can purchase another product which is already available to them. I saw a comment that most customers buy on impluse, and I see that as being the case.
> 
> I would say...do a sample run, then start marketing.


i didn't say dont do a sample run. i am just saying dont do it the way i explaned above. i have seen mainly problems with people saying that they will wait till they have 5 or 10 orders and then go to the printer to have them printed. that right there is a bad move.


----------



## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

maddog9022 said:


> i didn't say dont do a sample run. i am just saying dont do it the way i explaned above. i have seen mainly problems with people saying that they will wait till they have 5 or 10 orders and then go to the printer to have them printed. that right there is a bad move.



Agreed. I was just making a suggestion, in addition to other suggestions and advice.


----------



## badhoha (Jun 13, 2007)

Yeah, I definately want to workout the kinks first... good point.
And I definatley don't want to wait til I get X number of orders first. Having to wait for other orders to come in would be a turn-off for me as a consumer.

I also figure I could gain a few more email address in the process too.


----------

