We’ve covered a myriad of topics during this blog series, and as we draw a little closer towards the end of this journey, it’s time to look at marketing your product and how to launch that finished article for your customers to find and buy!
Whilst getting the product specification, functionality and aesthetics right for your market is critical for success, if you don’t market your product in the right place, to the right people, at the right time, you may find yourself (and your idea) getting tangled in the tumbleweed!
You should have identified your target market early on in the design process. This will have helped you to understand how your product should look, feel and function, to ensure that it will appeal to your audience in a commercial sense. Now the product is nearly ready, we need to revisit that audience to understand how best to reach out to them.
If you’re not familiar with how to take a product to market, the best place to start is to take a look at the 7 P’s of Marketing. This will give you a good clear overview of the different considerations you will need to be aware of when getting your product market-ready. But what do the 7 P’s of Marketing stand for? Here’s a brief overview:
To learn more about the 7 P’s and how to apply them to your product, take a look at this article from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Marketing your product is all about making sure you are showcasing your product where your audience are hanging out. We are lucky to be living in a time where reaching out to your customer may seem quite straight forward – social media is surely the way forward – isn’t it? But who are you trying to speak to, and which social channels appeal to those people? How do your potential customers like to shop? Do they prefer to shop in a store or online? Do they visit websites to make purchases, or browse Instagram for months on end until it’s the right time in the buying cycle for them? There is no one-size fits all, so you will need to bring together the elements of the marketing mix that fit the buying habits and profile of your customer.
Critically, you will also need to understand who your competitors are and what they are doing. Are they doing it well, or could they do better? Do you need to be promoting your product in the same space, or do you need to take a different approach? These are all considerations you will need to research in order to glean a full understanding of the marketing channels that will likely best fit your product and keep you ahead of the competition.
Reaching out to a marketing consultancy could be helpful, especially if this topic is new to you. With so many routes to market available, a marketing team with experience in working with a product like yours, could save you a lot of time and money. Remember, it’s unlikely you will require a singular approach – you will in most cases need to select a number of activities or channels to ensure your product is seen everywhere your customer hangs out. For example, if you are taking to market a fitness watch, it could be recommended that you consider the following marketing channels and activities:
We’ve simply provided a taster to get you thinking. But every product is different, so your audience will require an approach which best communicates your specific USP’s.
In summary, if you can put yourself in the mind of the customer and truly understand what drives their buying decisions, how, when and where they buy their products, and at what price, you’ll be on the path to commercial success.
Conficio Product Design is a design consultancy based in Wilton, Wiltshire. Our team of engineers are dedicated to supporting both established corporations and small tech start-ups to develop exciting and bespoke products. Conficio will undertake the detailed components to your design whilst ensuring that your original idea is adhered to, we work with you to realise your goals. We require our clients to be invested in their design to ensure that we can Make Together.
// Meaning: From con- (“with, together”) + faciō (“do, make”).
// Verb: To make together, prepare, construct, produce, do thouroughly, complete, accomplish, finish, execute.
// Pronunciation: Con - fee - see - o
At Conficio our team of multi-disciplined product design professionals are on hand to work closely with you to explore your concept and bring your idea to life.
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