Launching a new product is always nerve-wracking. Even if you are confident about the design and you’ve had good feedback so far, there’s no telling whether it will sell well or not. When your product finally goes live, you will be waiting with bated breath to see if the orders start rolling in. Hopefully, the product will be a success and you’ll get plenty of orders right away, but what happens if you don’t?
In most cases, products flop because businesses don’t do enough research during the design and marketing stages. Research is crucial if you want to know whether your product has potential and how you should market it, but what should you be looking for? These are some of the main areas you should research before launching new products or services.
Visionary Roadmaps
Before you start looking at the specifics, you should create a visionary roadmap. Companies use an internal roadmap to identify various market trends when designing new products. A visionary roadmap focuses on the overall market trends in the industry and society as a whole. It’s important that you consider the big picture so you can get an idea about popular trends right now. You can then use this as a jumping off point and start coming up with product ideas that fit into those trends. If you don’t look at the big picture first, you can easily miss the mark and release a product that nobody is interested in.
Previous Products
Doing some research into your previous products is important too, especially the ones that were successful. It’s important that you work out what sets your product apart from the competition and what your customers loved about it. By identifying what you got right last time, you can recreate your success. That doesn’t mean that you should copy exactly what you did before, but it’s important that you keep your unique selling point. For example, if your product was popular because it was a low-cost version of a premium product, you won’t get far if your new offering comes with a hefty price tag. If you are known for using quality materials and excellent craftsmanship, don’t make compromises when designing new products. Often, products flop because businesses misunderstand what made their previous products successful in the first place.
Customer Profiles
Knowing your customers inside out is the only way to create effective marketing campaigns. When you are designing a product, it’s important that you have a clear idea of the market segment you are aiming for. Once you have decided what your target market is, you need to understand your average customer and what makes them tick. Make use of any customer data that you collect about existing customers and run focus groups with product prototypes so you can see how people respond. The better you know your customer, the easier it will be to create marketing campaigns that resonate with them.
Trying to launch a new product or service without doing these 3 pieces of research first is always a big risk. But as long as you put the work in beforehand, you can greatly increase your chances of success.
No comments yet.