What do customers want
I like it but....
I hate and love hearing that phrase... the "I like it" is the good part. It means that the product line will sell. I hate knowing that there is a "but"... but at least that means I will hear how the product line can improve and what suggestions I can forward to the company. The most recent "but" has to do with missing workbooks.
The Italian product is missing the workbooks for four languages and I have parents asking for the French workbooks. They said it would help immensely if they had something to look at while watching the cartoon. Since these are German mothers teaching their daughters French, I will try and provide them with the products they want.
I have a translator interested in translating the material and now I have to find out from the Italian company if they are already going to translate the workbook or if that is open for discussion. Another issue that one parent brought up is that the packaging is in Italian. Now it is odd to be selling product in Germany with packaging in Italian. Future products will need to have packaging that fits the country in which we are selling or be in English. Luckily there is a little flag on the product package which designates what language the product is teaching.
The Italian company announced on Friday that they are interested in representation at the Book Messe. It is a relief to finally have an answer and to know that I have two full product lines to sell and I will be looking for publishing companies to publish the materials internationally.
Even though I will be selling the licenses at the Book Messe, I still want to sell products through a distribution channel and need to test the product line. Why test the product? I need testimonials from some parents and experience using the materials.
This week is my first test of the Italian product with a class. I have four children in the test group. Three of the children are German and have never used the Italian product line. It is a good gauge to see if the material will be interesting to both children who are beginners, children who know some English and Children who are fairly fluent. The test class will be one week and I will be getting reviews from the parents to use for our advertising. The children get a video and CD to take home with them and we are using the workbook during the class. The class is four hours a day for five days and the children are between the ages of four and seven. Today was the first day. Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate. Although we are using the Italian product during the class, I am taking the children out and teaching them vocabulary having to do with travel and adventure... One useful phrase the children learned today was " That truck stinks. That truck stinks like oil." A very useful phrase when you are living in the city. Another useful phrase is "Watch out for the dog poop." Of course those phrases are not in the Italian materials, those are phrases the children have asked to learn. Really, children are pretty amazing... They really do like learning if they don't know they are doing it.
I hate and love hearing that phrase... the "I like it" is the good part. It means that the product line will sell. I hate knowing that there is a "but"... but at least that means I will hear how the product line can improve and what suggestions I can forward to the company. The most recent "but" has to do with missing workbooks.
The Italian product is missing the workbooks for four languages and I have parents asking for the French workbooks. They said it would help immensely if they had something to look at while watching the cartoon. Since these are German mothers teaching their daughters French, I will try and provide them with the products they want.
I have a translator interested in translating the material and now I have to find out from the Italian company if they are already going to translate the workbook or if that is open for discussion. Another issue that one parent brought up is that the packaging is in Italian. Now it is odd to be selling product in Germany with packaging in Italian. Future products will need to have packaging that fits the country in which we are selling or be in English. Luckily there is a little flag on the product package which designates what language the product is teaching.
The Italian company announced on Friday that they are interested in representation at the Book Messe. It is a relief to finally have an answer and to know that I have two full product lines to sell and I will be looking for publishing companies to publish the materials internationally.
Even though I will be selling the licenses at the Book Messe, I still want to sell products through a distribution channel and need to test the product line. Why test the product? I need testimonials from some parents and experience using the materials.
This week is my first test of the Italian product with a class. I have four children in the test group. Three of the children are German and have never used the Italian product line. It is a good gauge to see if the material will be interesting to both children who are beginners, children who know some English and Children who are fairly fluent. The test class will be one week and I will be getting reviews from the parents to use for our advertising. The children get a video and CD to take home with them and we are using the workbook during the class. The class is four hours a day for five days and the children are between the ages of four and seven. Today was the first day. Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate. Although we are using the Italian product during the class, I am taking the children out and teaching them vocabulary having to do with travel and adventure... One useful phrase the children learned today was " That truck stinks. That truck stinks like oil." A very useful phrase when you are living in the city. Another useful phrase is "Watch out for the dog poop." Of course those phrases are not in the Italian materials, those are phrases the children have asked to learn. Really, children are pretty amazing... They really do like learning if they don't know they are doing it.
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