How Your Business Can Develop Irresistible Products for Customers
Before a customer gives you his hard-earn money, you must present to him something valuable for exchange. Be it a good product or a service product.
The ability of the producer to develop something useful which is cherished by customers for some period is very important. This is a major factor in the marketing mix that can determine the success and the failure of the business and its entire operation.
Many businesses have failed because they didn’t go through the process thoroughly either by inadequate product superiority or by making wrong projections and poor planning.
How Your Business Can Develop Irresistible Products for Customers
1. Idea Generation
In developing a product, the first thing to do is to generate ideas. They are continuous and systematic thoughts that have the potential to solve the problems of customers. New product ideas might come from business owners, employees, customers’ feedback, and competitors.
Most successful businesses develop irresistible products by innovating existing ones. Here, the modification and innovation of the existing product are strategically done on product quality, product features, and product style and design.
2. Idea/Product Screening
Once numerous potential product ideas are collected, there is a need to filter and sort the various ideas generated. The screening is done to select the most viable and appropriate ideas.
This is done by taking each idea and analyzing its pros and cons in relation to the available resources of your business. It is advisable to share the list of product ideas generated with key decision-makers of your business to help choose the best product ideas which are the potential to attract more revenue.
3. Concept Development
After the best idea is identified and selected, the idea is conceptualized and stated in more functional terms. How the idea is going to solve the consumers’ needs is clearly stated in detail.
The product concept is first tested with a small target group of consumers to find out how it appeals to consumers and their reaction to the new product.
4. Marketing Strategy Development
How to ensure that the promising tested product will reach the target market and consumers are considered and planned at this stage. In developing the strategy to market the product, it is important to consider other elements in the marketing mix which are;
Place - distribution channels, storage, transporting, wholesale, retail, etc
Price - monetary value to be exchanged to meet profit targets and costs
Promotion - advertising, communication, public relation, sales promotion
5. Business Analysis
Another screening is done at this stage. A review is done of the sales, costs, and profit projections for the new product to find out whether these factors meet the objectives and goals of the business.
This analysis informs and guides business owners to continue with the commercialization of the product or stop the production process. Getting your analysis right is very important in order not to waste resources on unprofitable products.
6. Actual Product Development
Product development is the process of turning conceptualized products into concrete and tangible forms. At this stage, the concept is transformed into a physical state which is workable as a market offering.
It involves developing and constructing a prototype of the product, packaging, labeling, branding, and product positioning. A prototype can be sent to key partners and customers to try and ask them to provide feedback.
7. Testing the Market
This is the stage of implementing the marketing strategy developed with the product in real market settings. Per the plans stated in the marketing strategy, the product is placed for sale in a small-scale market to test the effectiveness of the product and the marketing plans.
If marketing objectives are achieved with the intended results, the business can therefore go ahead and commercialize the product on a large scale. However, if the objectives are not achieved, a new marketing strategy needs to be developed for the products.
And if this also fails, the business can decide to stop the commercialization and start the process all over until attractive and profitable products are developed.
8. Commercialization
After the successful market testing, the business then makes a large investment in the new product. A large scale of new products is being introduced to the market, say nationwide or globally.
Production and distribution of the new product are done on a huge scale. And this also calls for advertisement on the mass media like TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and journals.
It is worth knowing and understanding the stages for developing new products to guide you along your entrepreneurship and business journey as you increase sales and serve customers with their needs.
Written & Edited by;
Arthur Kwame Philip
Insightful!💥
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