Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge - Test Driving Your Way To More Sales

Tweet We talk a lot about how marketing can help you sell more products...but at the end of the day, it's the product that sells the product.

Let me explain what I mean and why you might want to listen.

Last night I finally broke down and became a Netflix customer via their on-demand streaming $7.99 a month membership. Long story short, I needed the ability for my 8yr old to be able to watch a movie at my office while we worked on his Christmas gift for my wife. I haven't hooked up cable or DirecTV yet, so I needed either a DVD or streaming. The idea of unhooking a DVD player from my house and rehooking at my office didn't sound like fun so my son suggested Netflix.

I have to say I am frankly amazed and a convert. I also think I just saw the future of video entertainment and it's decidely multi-device, on-demand and smart. With Netflix, I just ordered a movie on my iPhone, jacked the iPhone to my TV in my office and presto - instant Iron Man movie. We finished the Christmas gift and there was still 10 minutes in the movie but it was getting late so we just unjacked the iPhone from the TV and headed home. As we lost Wifi the movie stopped. I told my son to give it a few minutes and then click the play button. He did and presto, the movie began streaming right where we left off -- streaming via 3G connection and the picture was still good. Think about that for your next long drive. He finished the movie and selected another on the drive home.

Once we got home, I needed my phone to make a call so he simply picked up the iPad, logged into Netflix from there and picked up watching his second movie right where he left off on the iPhone. Even better, when I was done I decided to play a bit and grabbed the iPad from him to explore. No worries though, he just picked up his iTouch, logged in and got right back on his movie. I meanwhile found something I wanted to watch and started watching via the iPad. That's right, we were BOTH streaming movies on demand at the same time. Again, if you're a parent with lots of kids -- think about that ability.

Now on the downside, a lot of the really good movies are not available on-demand, you have to pay $2 more to get the DVD membership, but there is still plenty of good stuff on the stream only side.

The point to all of this is that I've seen more Netflix advertising, online advertising and stories about Netflix than I care to remember. It was never compelling enough to make me buy.

It wasn't until I had a unique need that Netflix streaming fulfilled that I truly considered. Then, their 30 day free trial gave me permission to experience the product. After that, I was so blown away by the product benefit vs monthly cost that the purchase decision was a no brainer. Which means, at the end of the day, if you really want to be successful, have a great friggin, write home to mamma kind of product and give folks an easy way to test drive it. If you do that, the rest should take care of itself.

But that's just my POV.... what do you think?

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