According to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, each year more than 30, new consumer products are launched. There are a multitude of reasons at play here. It could involve a lack of customer demand. Or it could have something to do with an incorrect pricing structure.
Needless to say, marketing will be a huge piece of your product launch puzzle. Ask anybody—trying to sell bacon to vegetarians will never end well for you. While understanding those nuts and bolts about your customer is important, you also need to dive a little deeper by answering this one key question: What problem does your product solve for them?
In order to be successful, your product has to have some demand—which also means that it needs to meet a need. One way that you can really gain the customer understanding that you need? Begin selling to them directly at first. To learn how to bring a product to market, begin by selling directly to end-users, advises entrepreneur Tamara Monosoff in an article for Entrepreneur. You not only need to understand your audience, you also need to have an intimate understanding of your product.
This is especially when your product is in its early stages. You need to think of yourself as the all-knowing expert on your offering:. At the same time, milk consumption was on the decline in California. And what was so special about milk anyway? It was white. Not much to say about milk. Through focus groups, they found consumers only drink milk with something else.
Also, they never think about it until they run out of it. Though intended just for Californians, it became a cultural phenomenon. And the campaign itself garnered three Gold Clios. You can increase demand even among your loyal fans. Think of the Life Savers soda again. They might think you rock at making the product but they might not either. The takeaway: If you have multiple products, create a completely new brand.
A Consumer Reports press release debunks myths about three high-priced ab muscle machines:. In all cases, each machine engaged ab muscles the same or less effectively than working your abs without the machine.
But you must deliver on it. However, you do have to provide sensational value. The takeaway: Product marketers have to make promises to get people excited about trying new things. Trying to find a market for your product, before you know the market exists, is a practically guaranteed recipe for failure. Many new product marketers fall for this because they believe their product rocks. Unfortunately, they never checked with the market. One such product bombed in the national spotlight.
Get your ad in a newspaper, magazine, or other print media like phone books and real estate guides. This is easy to do, as you need only contact the advertising department for the companies which produce your chosen publication.
Consider television ads. If you have a large amount of money to produce a good television ad and get it to play on local television, this can be a good way to advertise to a broad audience. Unless you have very large amounts of money, however, you will probably be limited to local channels or daytime television, so only use this method if you think your ad will reach people who would actually buy your product.
Part 3. Become an expert in your market. Conduct research about your target market. You can look up information online or at a library, or you can conduct your own experiments by polling members of your target market or giving them samples to try to review.
Certain demographics to consider include age, gender, education level, location, interests, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Perfect your product for the market.
Once you have some feedback about your product and more information about your target market, make any changes that seem appropriate to perfect it for your market. Remember that while you will get widely differing opinions, if there are common criticisms of your product, they are probably correct and should be addressed.
Determine your startup budget. Think about how much money you will have to market your product in the beginning. This will determine what type of marketing you do and sometimes what strategy you use. Develop sales goals. You will need to determine how much of your product at what price will need to sell in order to keep your business afloat. This is very, very important. Balancing this will be tricky and it may take some time to figure out the right formula.
Develop a sales plan. This is when you will need to write out and specify your sales timeline, target market needs, priorities, objectives, challenges, how you will acquire new business, and how you will grow your existing business.
A sales plan will be necessary if you want investors to consider your product. Choose a strategy to succeed. There are a number of different ways you can market your product, or different approaches in who you market to and what aspect of people you appeal to in your marketing. These strategies can bring you widely different customers or they can help you soar with a specific set of people. This is when your marketing appeals to and is targeted at only your target market.
This is commonly seen with luxury items, which get marketed to very specific parts of a population, but can also be seen in other areas as well. Think Teen Magazine. Consider an undifferentiated marketing strategy. This is when your marketing appeals to and is targeted at pretty much everybody, and certainly a very broad audience.
This strategy works well when you have a product which is broadly useful or appealing. Usually this means the traditional marketing mediums: television ads, print ads, and billboards for example.
Consider a differentiated marketing strategy. This is when your marketing takes different aspects of your product and markets it to different demographics. Use the price, for example, to market to customers with a limited budget who may be looking for something less costly than your competitor's products.
Meanwhile, use convenience to make your product appeal to a local market. Seed your market. Give samples, trials, or introductory sales to show your customer base why they want your product.
You can do this by handing out samples outside your store, or finding a complementary business with whom your product can be paired with for short run, among a number of other ways.
This will help build your initial business base and is very important. Continue to test your marketing strategy as you go through this initial phase, to ensure that you are taking the right approach for your market. Expand your market. Once you've had a certain measure of success and you feel your product is ready, you can expand your market by getting your product into major retailers.
You will want to consider where you should sell Walmart, etc. Following the advice in the Serious Success section will be very important, as stores will not want to carry your product if they feel you are unprepared to handle the volume.
Add a feedback form to your website. Send a thank you email with a link to a survey form. Often, vendors through whom you sell will have a rating or review section in place.
Not Helpful 3 Helpful Clarify your mission. Audience — Who are your targeting with your marketing? Tools — What tools do you need to execute your product marketing? Channels — What platforms do your audience engage with and can you use to market your product?
Content — What messaging excites your audience? Calendar — When will you market your products, and how often? Refine Your product marketing plan will need continual refinement. Ads — Use Google Shopping , social media, and marketplace ads to get specific products in front of targeted audiences. Gift guides — Get your products into high-traffic gift guides or create your own. Blogs — Use internal and external bloggers to review and write about your products. Social media — Add product tags and links to content on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.
PR — Get product coverage through press releases and news coverage. SEO — Research keywords and create a content strategy that drives customers straight to your product pages.
Referral marketing — Use existing customers to share your products to their family, friends, and followers. Email marketing — Email existing customers about new products relevant to their interests. Affiliate programs — Use a network of affiliates to promote your products in return for a commission.
Competitions — Run contests and giveaways to draw people and attention to your products. Related Tags Conversions. You might also like. Full name. Amazon store link example here.
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