Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Brian talks about an offer for a T-Shirt he got from Sequence for Kids Board Game.

Transcription

What’s up with these things in physical products?

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Oh, this is gonna be a fun one for those of you listening to the podcast.

So we have a number of people who are watching and a number of people who are listening. And what I’m holding up here for the people who are watching is a card that says, “Sequence for Kids T-Shirt.”

Now what sequence for kids is a board game. So this says the Sequence brand.

So brands of board games that have a million different versions, basically the same game over and over again, just with different versions. And this one’s for kids.

It’s extremely simple.

It’s a board game where you have a bunch of different animals on the board, and you’re trying to match up the cards that you draw. So that you can get a sequence of four in a row either diagonally one way or the other, kind of like connecting four separate pictures.

This was a game that we found in a thrift store, while we were traveling with my family. It had all of its original didn’t look like it had been played with very often. And it had all its original papers and directions and everything.

One of the things you see this in physical products every once a while they will toss in a little slip of paper.

Oftentimes, you see it being a warranty of some sort, limited warranty, or especially in electronics, and so forth or send away for a specific thing, a specific item that may have something to do with the item you purchase.

So this is a board game and they have an item which is a T-shirt, with the board game printed on the back of it and the name of the company printed on the front.

The smaller little logo section says this durable white t-shirt is made of 100% cotton. The back of the shirt features all your favorite sequins for kids’ friends and full color as if this is like a thing that everyone goes searching for is more items that include animals on them and so forth.

This is not that popular thing but there’s a reason behind this. And this is very telling, and something that you can understand in use within your business.

You can order direct from them and they’ve got the address, please send me a blank number of sequence for kids t-shirts at 1995 each case, you’re going to pay 20 bucks for these things, including shipping charge, check or money order only in the amount of blank is enclosed. Now this is a slightly or older game, it’s about 10 years old or something, indicate quantity next to the size desired and then ship to and you print your name and address and so forth on this. So why are they really trying to get people to walk around with t-shirts with their logo on it now?

I mean, partially there may be something there but how many of these do you think they actually get and what is the real value of it?

Well, I’m not saying that everybody at the company understands this. And I think some companies copy what other companies do without really understanding why they originally did it.

One of the main reasons why warranties and all these other items. Ask for additional information.

It is not so that you can get what they’re promising you. They’re offering what you can get because they want your information.

Why would they want your information?

What’s the same reason why you get so many free items online?

Specifically, electronic items are the easiest, you know, a free eBook, a free this or that. Just give me your email address and we’ll send it to you. Well, they’re not getting your email address so that they can send it via email.

I mean, they can just send you to a page give it to you. They’re getting, they’re giving you the item so they can get your email address. These people are giving you a t-shirt, not so that they can make millions off the t-shirt or use the t-shirts as a branding device out there driving the millions of children out to buy this board game.

They’re doing it so they can get your mailing address.

Why would they want your mailing address because if they are selling these things in stores, they don’t have any control over the end-user?

In the long run, what works really, really well is owning your customer base. If you own the communication with your customer base, communicating via address, email address, phone number, social media, if you have any type of direct connection that you could communicate with your end customer or client, this is what they’re after.

That’s the whole idea.

If you have that, then you’re not dependent on advertising direct.

Well, I mean, you’re dependent on direct advertising, you still have to send them a piece of mail a piece of advertising in the mail, you still have to communicate with them that way, but you’re not dependent on as much on a source.

So you’re not dependent on Facebook, you’re not dependent. You know, if you are dependent on Facebook, you’re not dependent on the post office. But if you have both of them now, now you’ve got more leeway.

Okay, if you’ve got their phone number, well, yeah, you’ve got to go through the phone company to call them, but you have a way of communicating with them. And because they gave you the number they’ve they’ve given you permission to call them or text them nowadays. This is the whole deal.

The whole deal is owning the communication, the direct one and one on one communication with the end-user.

He who has the information has the ability to do that and so that is why they do these things.

That is why you should do these things, especially if you are selling through any form of retail outlet. Because the retail outlet if there is anyone collecting information about the end-user, they are the ones doing it.

Even if they aren’t, they’re the only ones who have the ability to do it. So if you are selling retail, including the ability to have a direct relationship with the end-user makes a big difference. A lot of smart people who sell through Amazon do this because it’s so simple to sell through Amazon nowadays. It’s a smart way of doing it. And it’s something to really look hard at all the different ways that you can communicate with your end-user.

And do you own those lists?

Do you have them?

Are you watching them?

Are you keeping them updated?

Makes a big deal in the long run. It’s all part of a long-term strategy. I talk about all the other ways that you can use long-term strategy to be able to help with your business nine specific ones and specifically, in my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. You can get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com. That’s all I got for tonight.

We’ll see you tomorrow night and in the meantime, get out there and just let the magic happen.