It’s your wife’s birthday. You need to buy something really nice. So you head to Google, type in ‘Present for my wife‘, and get inundated with ideas. The world is full of Products.
This is fantastic – for the consumer.
What about us Entrepreneurs, though? What do we do to stand out from the crowd. All you have to do is add some Strategic Thinking to your mindset and create Packages…not Products.
Right about now I’m guessing you have your first question. What is the difference between a Product & Package? Sit back and relax as I let you in on some secrets.
A Package Is Strategic Thinking
I recently read the $100 Startup. It was a great read with plenty of top ideas. One of the things that stood out for me was this:
You Need The Idea>>>You Need The Audience>>>You Need Payment
If one of these things is missing, you don’t have a business. This is so simple it hurt my head. Maybe it hurts your head too. And this creates the point of The Package. In my eyes a package is this:
It takes your creative ideas, refines them, and tailors them around what an existing audience wants and is willing to pay for.
How is this different to a Product? Because, in my experience, a great idea is created. You do your research, figure out who’s willing to buy it, and go to market. It’s a rather static process. It’s so old school.
A Package, on the other hand, looks like this:
- You get super creative and think of a bunch of ideas
- You think about your ideal customer
- You bring the separate thoughts together and add Strategic Thinking
- You refine your ideas so the Product/Service takes on a larger than life entity
- You involve your audience and ask them what they want
- You make them part of the story
You now have a Package. You threw some Strategic Thinking on the table and came up with something people are excited to be part of.
Packages Are 21st Century
I was part of a webinar with Clay Collins recently. He had some great ideas, and his point was this:
Create a Product that is sold before you start
Danny Iny has recently done this with his Naked Marketing Project. The whole premise of Kickstarter is to create Packages instead of Products.
A Product is static…A Package is alive
We started this post knowing the world is crowded. Shock horror, right? Creating Packages gets you away from this. It creates a Story. It creates a Journey for people to be part of.
It creates something people WANT and are WILLING to pay for.
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Strategic Thinking At Its Best
Creative Thinking + Strategic Thinking = Awsomeness
This is something I discuss often. For me, this is the definition of Strategic Thinking. If you have a great idea for a Product/Service, don’t simply do some boring research and do what people have always done. Turn it into a Package. Make a story out of it.
These are some things a Package has:
- They have depth
- They have reason and purpose
- They have a story behind it
- They have emotional attachments
- They provide something people Want/Need
- They are awesome
What do you think? Do you have your Strategic Thinking caps on?
I’d love to hear your thoughts so please leave a comment below. Do you create Packages or Products?
Turndog Millionaire – @turndog_million
