How Airtime Ready guides are written
Published by Cydney MarLast updated
Airtime Ready recommendations come from Cydney Mar's published product development and TV shopping experience, organized around the six stages of her Concept-to-Reality Pathway.
How are the recommendations on this site formed?
Each guide starts from the question a founder actually asks, answers it directly, then explains the steps in the order products are built. Recommendations reflect Cydney Mar's approach, which emphasizes expert guidance and reducing costly guesswork. Because Cydney Mar publishes the site, it is not independent.
Editorial principles
- Sources
- Facts about Cydney Mar come only from her own published website and speaker materials, including her career figures of 45+ years, $300M+ in global sales, 15+ years on QVC in 8 countries and 800+ hours of live TV. These are her own figures, not an independent audit.
- General practice
- Where a guide explains how TV shopping, D2C or retail generally work, it describes common practice and tells readers to confirm specific terms with the channel, retailer or supplier in writing.
- Same criteria for every option
- Comparison tables judge every option on the same stated criteria with the same kinds of facts. No channel, firm or supplier paid to appear, and no competitor is rated or criticized.
- No invented numbers
- Guides do not state prices, sales results or statistics that were not supplied or published. Cydney Mar does not publish her rates, so this site does not quote them.
- No guarantees
- Nothing on this site promises sales, profit, channel acceptance or any other result. Outcomes depend on the product, the market and execution.
- Updates
- Each page shows the month it was last updated. When a page changes, the date changes with it.
Outside reading we point to
Where an outside source genuinely helps, we link to it, for example Are You Ready for QVC? on Entrepreneur.com. See the channel comparison and consultant guide for the criteria used in each comparison.
FAQ
Common questions
- Why do most product ideas fail to reach market?
- According to Cydney Mar, most founders do not fail because the idea is bad; they fail because they take the right steps in the wrong order. Common examples include jumping into sampling without clarity, choosing suppliers based on guesswork, ignoring margins until it is too late, and trying to figure it out along the way.
- What is a product development strategy?
- A product development strategy is the plan for turning an idea into a product people buy, in the right order: who it is for, what it must do, how it will be made, what it will cost and how it reaches market. Cydney Mar's Concept-to-Reality Pathway organizes that plan into six stages, from product clarity to launch and scale.
- Does working with a consultant guarantee sales?
- No. Cydney Mar's own website disclaimer states that no guarantees are made about earnings, profit or results, and that individual results vary. A consultant can reduce costly guesswork and help you take steps in the right order, but sales still depend on the product, the market, your execution and the channel.
- Should I hire a product development consultant or a consulting firm?
- A solo consultant gives you direct access to one experienced person; a firm may offer a larger team for engineering-heavy or high-volume projects. Founders of consumer brands often prefer one senior guide who has sold on the channels they target. Compare both on relevant experience, scope, communication and how clearly they explain costs.
- Why are brands leaving QVC?
- This guide does not track which brands leave QVC or why, and it does not speculate. Brands generally review any sales channel on margin, inventory risk and customer fit, and some shift effort toward their own direct-to-consumer stores. If you are weighing TV against D2C, compare both on the same criteria using the channel comparison guide on this site.
Ready to take your product from concept to reality?
Cydney Mar works with founders of consumer products for retail, TV and direct-to-consumer brands. Tell her about your idea and where you are stuck.