The printed ad and word of mouth

I have this particular product that I am currently selling (golfers would love this, provided they enjoy walking on the course instead of zipping around in the buggy. Oh, I carry THAT too:) ) and I am happy that it is selling quite well. I have complete confidence in the product but I was a bit sceptical at first about the selling part of it. I approached one of the major pro-shop operator and they told me, " OK, we are willing to carry your product provided we take a 50% margin". 50%??? Definitely not the way to go, as I can't position it at the price that I want. Obviously, anything not exceeding the RM1k mark would be attractive to customers who are used to buying it at RM1.5k-Rm2k.

So, I decided to take up an advertisement in one of the golf club's newsletter (which happens to be my home club, though I am not seen there a lot on the golf course!). It was a simple ad, with the picture of the product, the price and of course your truly's handphone number. I received the first of the many calls even before I received the copy of the newsletter! My handphone started to ring a lot and whenever I see any of the numbers that I don't recognize, I know that the call is for the product! But the amazing thing that happened is that people who called me for the products now are those who are recommended by their friends who were early buyers. Even members from other clubs started to contact me for the product and this is all from word of mouth of satisfied users. At the end of the day, you just to make sure that you have a reliable product that is reasonably priced.

Not bad for a RM1k investment in advertising eh ?