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Any small business owner, or medium business owner, knows the importance of publicity. Publicity is what lets customers know what you have for them, it lets them know what products you’re bringing to market, and it lets them know how those products improve their lives.
There is a difference between publicity, however, and the news. While new product launches are considered news in many circles (just look at the coverage the national media gives to clothing launches, or the Apple iPhone), this need not be something restricted to large businesses.
First, use the news to find the needs of your customer bases. Every news item that discusses a current event can be interpreted to show that there’s a demographic slice out there with an unmet need. For example, if the local news story is talking about a group of people supporting a political candidate, you’ve just identified a demographic group – people who will vote for a person based on his stated positions. Would selling merchandise that supports that candidate (such as buttons or bumper stickers?) or supports the issue the candidate stands for sell? For that matter, would material that takes a controversial position regarding the candidate, or his stated positions sell? Recall, in particular, when selling political materials, that satire and humor sells. For example, selling a shirt about the Iraq war with a caricature of Bush and a sign saying "Would you buy a used war from this man?" will sell better than one accusing Bush of being a war criminal.
Any kind of controversy in the news can be turned into products or marketing opportunities. One of the key points is gauging how long the controversy will last, and how marketable the products will be after it’s faded. You don’t want to be in the position of selling tee shirts making fun of an event that nobody remembers.
This principle extends to more than just controversial news. If your local high school football team is going up against a long term rival in the coming weeks, it will likely get news coverage, and that can be turned into products supporting them in their next game (or, for the truly brave, supporting their opponents.) This is harder to do on the collegiate and national levels because most university and professional sporting team mascots are copyrighted and trademarked, requiring extensive licensing fees to use.
If you have products with a strong seasonal sales pattern, you can watch for events tied to holidays to help you decide on stocking levels and inventory recirculation patterns – it’s never a pleasant experience to mark down inventory after a holiday, but it’s better to mark down a few items after Easter than to sell out a week before the demand has been sated. The same applies to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas promotions, as well as End of School and Back to School items for the academic markets – and all of these can be tracked by following the local news, and using it as a source of data for your project management and project management training skills.
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