Soft plastic is "Generally" not a localized market thing, at least it can't afford to be for long. There are people who put together localized spinnerbaits and jigs, even some crank baits, but these are baits you can charge dearly for. You can't with soft plastic, at least I don't know anyone willing to give 20 bucks for a bag of 10 worms. Additionally, the manufacturing process is best done on contract. You find a pour factory somewhere, send the the mold and order half a zillion baits in each of a few colors. Most of them start out selling regionally but quickly for practical reasons have to go national. That's where you have to get a marketer for your bait. He's the guy that is a professional at presenting the bait to Bass Pro and Cabellas and convincing them to put the bait in their catalog (Which you pay for btw.) That is a tall prospect in the soft plastic market. You will also need to get to the major distributors like SOS and Henry's. Your marketer's the guy who does that. I happen to know one if you are serious.
The main thing you or any other national bait company has to do is compete for shelf space. Stores like Wal Mart do not buy your product and sell it. You own it, you pay them rent on the shelf its haning on, and pay them a percentage to sell it. If they shop lift it, its yours, if the store burns to the ground, its yours, you get the idea. When you are at that point, obviously, there are a limited number of shelves, guess what happens, they are bid on. Zoom and some of the other bigger companies are a little ruthless in that area. Other words, if it cost them an extra 10 G to keep you off the shelf, they will pay it.
The smaller stores, you can choose the Distributor method like Henrys or SOS or you can have independent salesmen working for you. Either way, its still tough to break in the market. All stores have limited space. Getting them to buy your unproven product and take up space and inventory dollars at the expense of displaying other versions of products proven to sell is tough. Demand pull is the best medicine. If you can get a half a dozen fishermen interested in using your product in an area, you can bet, some store is going to be requesting it. Demand pull doesn't mean diddly to Wal Mart, but the full service tackle shops, it is their calling card.
Skipper
