Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco , CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

* I suggest you research and perform a case-analysis of how "Cards Against Humanity" and other games and puzzles have developed and marketed their products.

http://www.bing.com/search?q="Cards+Against+Humanity"+case+study#!

* SCORE.org is one place to start. SCORE offer both local and remote mentors, and one great feature is that SCORE allows you to directly browse their mentors and find mentors you think might be useful to you. with no one standing watch between you and the mentors.
http://www.score.org/resources/60-seconds/find-mentor#!

* I also suggest posting your request to the Veteran Mentor Network group on LInkedIn. We have almost 18,000 members and add 400-500 new members each week.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Veteran-Mentor-Network-4466143

* You can use the LinkedIn advanced people search tool to directly browse our mentors and search for potential mentors.
http://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/f?adv=true&trk=federated_advs#!

Joel Usher ⋅ Annapolis , MD U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Hi Tom, it is not something we would necessarily be opposed to. We honestly have not approached the idea yet, at least not formally trying cultivate the multiple direct channels. We had been looking more toward placing the product in stores to generate sales.

I think multi-channel has some appeal, but there are some significant drawbacks. The biggest being channel conflict, especially if we were to include retailers or distributors in our channels. Another would be the greater expenditures necessary to support multiple advertising and customer acquisition campaigns versus the relatively low cost of placing through third parties.

Of course, the reward is better if the multi/direct approach works, because we can sell at retail price versus wholesale. Ultimately though, as our goal is to scale and try to sell the company, traction for us will trump margins.

Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco , CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

Joel - What do you think about developing a multi-channel direct sales strategy?

Joel Usher ⋅ Annapolis , MD U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Hi Rashid,

Thank you very much for the comprehensive response, it was quite helpful. The APSS looks especially helpful, I will absolutely be coming through their offering of webinars quite closely.

Thanks again!

Joel

Rashid Hill, MPM ⋅ San Diego , CA United States Navy ⋅ 33 years experience

Hi Joel. That really sounds like an exciting project. Congratulations on creating a new puzzle.

As you mentioned you have a book and making some sales via Amazon.com, that's a great place to start. I started with an ebook on Kindle. Just so you know, I published my first book earlier this year and screened numerous publishers to find the right one. Funny thing, after I chose one then many others I didn't even have a chance to evaluate popped up when my book went live. So do your due diligence and I will offer what I know about new product or book marketing.

Let me give you some information about marketing to military or military related organizations. Here area couple of places you can check out and see if you can get your book/puzzle carried or promoted:
www.militaryfamilybooks.com
http://navyreading.dodlive.mil/
I have been learning a lot about book marketing from non-traditional outlets on this site...
www.bookapss.org
This is a free membership site that has lots of webinars about promoting your book through lots of different avenues. Great site and lots of good information. He also talks about how to get to the right contact to market to the Hudson group for airports, how to sell overseas by going through the Dept of Commerce. I am looking through my notes trying to find that one. If I find it I will let you know.

I hope this helps.

Rashid Hill

Joel Usher ⋅ Annapolis , MD U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Hi Tom,

The app and book went "live" on Friday, so... brand new! But yes we have some sales. The iPad app has been a middling result, but the book is selling decently.

My plan to go from Amazon to national is:
1- gather sales data from Amazon
2- pitch indie book and game shops, I have about 12-15 identified
3- gather data from these
4- pitch larger chains (Hudson group for airports, AAFES for base exchanges, etc)
5- gather data
6- pitch the big time- national distributors, walmart, barnes and noble, etc

And yes, I absolutely love Shark Tank. I've seen em all, chatted with O'Leary's fund manager on Twitter, and been to local events in Annapolis MD to see the Ruck Sack founder present. It's a great, albeit truncated, insight into what investors want to see from a new company.

Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco , CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

Joel -

Have you already generated sales for the word puzzle?

Have you attempted a direct sales strategy that might complement (and hopefully not conflict with) other distribution strategies?

Do you ever watch the show shark tank?

http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank#!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shark+tank#!

Joel Usher ⋅ Annapolis , MD U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Hi Tom, thank you so much for the in-depth response and suggestions. Great idea to study CAH and see how they approached the problem. I appreciate your time! -Joel