Marketing TipsIn marketing lesson #8  I commented that line extension—expanding from your core business into other lines—often fails, but sometimes seems to work.

Xerox selling computers? Failure. Amazon expanding from books into everything? Success.

But was Amazon really a book seller in the early days, or were they a pioneer of on-line retail? The latter of course. The difference is subtle, but important. Yes, they were known for selling books, but the real question surrounding them in the early days was, could an on-line retailer with no brick or mortar to back them up, survive?

They got into the mind of the consumer primarily as an experimental way to sell products, not as a book seller. When they expanded into other products it was a natural extension.

Foistock_000006226289xsmall.jpgr Daniel to succeed in expanding from selling his pens into corkscrews and bottle stops, ornaments, and confetti lights—which he’s already doing—as well as expand into bowls, vases, walking sticks, and pepper mills, he needs to be thought of as an artist first.

If Daniel brands himself as an artist, and these are the products he sells, then his expansion plans will work. But if he is in the mind first as a manufacturer of gorgistock_000000086450xsmall.jpgeous pens, it will be tough sledding to get into the mind of his customers with other products.

You might think a Mount Blanc pen is the most exquisite example tool of writing in the world, but I doubt you’d think of buying a corkscrew from them.

Also in this series:

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