It is not enough to have a great product. You have to have the ability to create awareness and interest. Every day, people invent really great new products and then don't go any farther, approach the wrong market, or approach the right market in the wrong way.
One cure for the wrong market or wrong way is to keep at it. To push through "The Dip" that Seth Godin wrote about. In 1983, the literary agent for Ken Blanchard and Stuart Johnson's "One Minute Manager" contacted 14 business book publishers and was turned down by every one of them. In desperation she tried a publisher of religious thought books. That publisher accepted. When the book hit the shelves it sold like hotcakes. In fact it sold over 30 million copies! There was nothing wrong with the book except that it was not a 400 page professorial publication.
The trouble is that despite the feeling that we would like to be taken on merit and not appearance, we don't get to make that choice. In may cases a little extra work to look more professional will mean a lot more acceptance.
One of my favorite YouTube videos is Paul Potts who tried out for Britain Got Talent! If you are not one of the nearly 12 million people to have watched this, then you should. This is one of the best visual cases of a situation where even though you see him as he is when he starts, you do not see him the same afterwards. At first you are prepared for the next William Hung to begin singing, then you, like the audience, are astounded. If your product can do as well, then maybe you don't need to worry about packaging, just hope for a very lucky break.
Here's Paul's first try (4:10) in front of American Idol's own Simon no less:
(Watch the faces of the judges - it should match your own.)
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