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Bill,

My only point in suggesting the ad first, is that it is kind of like  
writing a business plan.  It makes you come to grips with how you are  
going to finance your invention.  If you can�t sell the product, it  
is of no concern how good it is.  Let�s say you want to provide a  
sextant lens cleaning tool, a universal adjusting wrench, and   
specialized sextant lubricating oil.  You could offer these things  
individually, but if you offered them as a �sextant care kit�, which  
will �nourish your sextant for generations�, you will sell a lot  
more.  In the case of the Bygrave, it was made for airplane use.  How  
do you sell it to sailors, or slide rule geeks?  Should it be  
smaller, larger, waterproof, easier to read, or an exact replica?   
How do you write the ad to make people want it?  Do you appeal to  
their curiosity, or do you tell them everything about it?  Are the  
instructions easy to understand?  What math level does the user need?  
It is only when you have an ad that you think will work, that you can  
built the product intelligently.

I will comment on the Astra mirror off-line.

Ken
On Jul 6, 2009, at 3:55 AM, Bill wrote:

>
> Frank
>
>> And once you've got product in hand, it's just a matter of  
>> advertising and
>> publicity.
>
> Ken
>> I suggest that you have it exactly backwards.  I always advise  
>> first writing
>> the ad for a new product or book, and THEN make the product to  
>> match that
>> compelling ad.
>
> LOL. Adding water to soap and marketing it as shampoo (convincing  
> people
> they really can't live without it) vs. marketing research and  
> designing a
> product people need. (I sense Ken left out figuring out what a  
> customer
> could use and price pointing BEFORE writing the compelling ad--a  
> paragraph
> of product specs.)
>
> On the other hand, I paid more for the the front-silvered mirror on  
> my Astra
> IIIB Deluxe as the ad claimed it would not trap moister and  
> desilver, and
> was easier to clean. Supposedly more expensive to produce. Then I  
> paid for a
> pair of precision drums to to calibrate the sextant as front- 
> silvered index
> mirrors do not play by the old rules.  Now I learn that we are back to
> rear-silvered as optimal and the front-silvered mirrors were  
> cheaper to
> produce because the optical quality of the glass was less stringent  
> as only
> one surface needed to be flat. Ken!
>
> Real world experience. I worked for an international software  
> company that
> did the research, wrote the documentation based on those specs, and  
> then
> tried to force the programmers to make the software conform to the  
> manual.
> The result?. 4xx pages of documentation and 143 pages or errata.
> A giggle--users wanted a Julian Calendar.  Of course it was already  
> there,
> just not documented.
>
> Despite stock options, I decided to exit stage left in less than a  
> year.
>
> Bill B.
>
>
>
>
> 

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