Marketing article 1 – Is your product market-ready? (page 2 of 3)
Start understanding the person and verbalize the problem
Markets are often segmented in such a generic way that the buyer or end-user is described as a segment or demographic rather than a person with preferences, problems, and opinions. The buyer is a real person, or a few real people, making purchasing decisions based on criteria unique to their problem. Only by constructing an in-depth understanding of the individual, their problem, and their environment, will you come up with break-through ideas that save months of customer prospecting time. By “in-depth” we mean knowing what “a day in the life of” this person is like, what they think about, what goes through their mind, and how their decision affects them personally. Most important of all, describe the problem that your product will solve, and by doing so, make a fundamental improvement to this person’s home or work life.
The value proposition and Product Positioning
Now that you have a clear picture of your target customers, and can even put names to some of them, how are you offering to solve their problem? What solutions are your competitors offering? What is so unique about your solution compared to the competition’s? A precise value statement will be the focal point of your program, and you need to define it now. Or perhaps you have created something so unique that it can be positioned as a brand new product category. In this case you will need to explore how sustainable your product differentiation will be.
Product pricing
Pricing is not magic, or a matter of ‘gut-feel.’ Go through the process of determining some of these “P’s” and you’ll have enough data to determine a price that your customers will consider, value, and provide you with a reasonable return. We’ve become used to the word ‘value’ meaning low price. Value is simply what your solution is worth to the buyer. And remember that pricing doesn’t have to reflect just the product. The value your customers see includes surrounding services and support, reputation, quality, and so on. Be creative and look for value outside of your product. Focus on delivering an outstanding customer experience from start to finish.
Prioritizing
Most launch plans target more than one kind of customer with a single event to try to get the greatest response from minimal expenditure. But your success rate will increase using focused techniques to zero in on those customers that need your solution. Knowing what you now know about your individual target customer, their social styles and preferences, and their problem, will give you a good idea how to communicate with them. Select a small set of customers, use communication methods they prefer, then select another set, re-focus and zero in using new methods. To do this you will need to prioritize, most likely because you have budgetary or resource constraints. You will need to decide who you will target first, and how you will use the success of your initial efforts to influence your second and subsequent sets of customers.
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