What I think you’re missing is that they weren’t paying for ‘nothing’, nor were they buying a rock. They were, initially, announcing support for a silly 70s idea, then, before long, they were joining a tribe.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the thing you’re selling is the thing you’re selling. What you’re selling is whatever is in your customer or client’s mind. Only way to succeed is to sell them something that’s already there.

Portable music players aren’t an exception; they’re just an exceptional version of selling something folks didn’t *know* was in their heads—but it was, it definitely was.

Did Crocs create a new market? No, people already wanted shoes. Crocs were just (unfortunately) the next big thing in shoes. Clogs already exsited. Croc’s unique take on clogs did not, in my opinion create a market. They created a fad.

Did the iPod create a new market? No, music players already existed. A music player market already existed (though Apple fired it up).

Did Red Bull create the energy drink market? Even if there were predecessors, nobody knows who they are, so I say yes, Red Bull created the energy drink market.

Toyota created the hybrid car market. When people think of hybrid cars, they think of the Prius. The general car market already existed of course, but it’s not often a new segment in such a huge, well-established market gets created. I would say the minivan was the last time that happened in the auto market.

Maybe instead of trying to meet hungry market needs in the most obvious way, it pays to look a few steps ahead at more imaginative, non-obvious ways.

Its better to have tried and not made it – than not to have tried at all.

The best market research is a product or service. Analysis paralysis kills more products than any market force could.

As a kid, I remember watching people grab these Pet Rock’s, sitting in a box lined with fake grass, from the front display table in Abraham & Strauss and then wait in a register line to fork over $4.50 for it.

Later while walking home, I stooped to pick up a rock and examine it. I marveled at the guy who was able to pull this off and even more so at all the people who bought them – and then tossed the rock into the weeds.

BTW: The pet rock mania was such that I remember a few people opened Pet Rock Cemeteries. Once a Pet Rock “died” people would pay a nominal fee to have their beloved cemented into a little wall with other dearly departed rocks in a sort of outdoor mausoleum. Unbelievable…

Jon