Entrepreneurial Small Business 4th Edition by Jerome Katz ,Richard Green

Exercise 21

Focus on Small Business: Steve Niewulis and Tap It!
Steve Niewulis, a minor league baseball player, came up with a solution to a problem all baseball players have-keeping the baseball bat handle dry between pitches. He invented Just Tap It!, a rosin bag attached to a wristband so a player could dry the bat handle between pitches. While it seemed like the perfect product for all the major sports stores, the stores were not interested because they prefer to buy from companies with several products in their product lines. Undeterred, he began attending trade shows and association meetings for high school coaches, tennis association meetings, and other similar venues. He was able to set up a booth displaying his product for just a few hundred dollars, and he created interest, recognition, and sales. At one show, he met up with Baseball Express, a catalog that targets high school, college, and minor league teams. Since he already had orders and customers using the product, he was able to show Baseball Express that this was a product it should carry. Niewulis's company Tap It! now sells thousands of units not only to baseball players, but also to athletes who participate in other sports such as basketball, tennis, golf, and rock climbing.
Would this method have worked as well had the product been something like baked goods Or mural painting What methods would work better for these sorts of products