Choose a Place to Sell Your Products: Location, Location, Location

One of the most important steps of launching a successful product release is choosing a location where you can sell your products. “Place,” one of the 4 Ps of marketing, is key to converting sales. The ideal location for selling your products is a place where your target market frequents. Choose a place to sell your products in five basic steps.

Step 1. Identify your target market first and foremost. This is the group of people you believe will be most likely to need or strongly desire your product. If you’re unsure, you can determine the target market by performing market research on companies similar to your own.

Step 2. List places where members of your target market frequent. For instance, if your target market is teenage girls, possible places include the mall, movies or the beauty section of the local pharmacy. List as many potential locations as possible.

Step 3. Decide on the specific area that you want to target with your product. Narrow it down to a town or city based on information about your chosen target market. You can use a demographics reporting service like ZipSkinny to find areas densely populated with members of your target market.    

Step 4. List the cities or towns you want to target alongside the types of places where you could potentially sell to your targeted customer (such as local malls). Match the places to the cities and start developing a list of the specific businesses where you want to sell to your customers so that you can contact each place to ask about retail opportunities. For instance, if you decide to sell in local mall A in Anytown, Michigan you can list and contact the mall management office of local mall A in Anytown, Michigan to ask about the cost of renting a kiosk to sell your products to customers.

Step 5. Write down a short description of how you plan to reach customers in each of the specific places you identified in the previous two steps along with more details of the plan. Narrow down the list based on the options that best fit your budget and other requirements. Finalize distribution or rental agreements to service customers in the places you’ve chosen.