product marketing

Top 10 Steps for New Product Marketing Strategy

8th February 2015 By theoriser Leave a Comment

With the increasing competition in the field of marketing and promotions, you might be wondering about how to launch a new product in the market and hit the right chords with your prospective customers?

In this post, we will discuss about the various steps that are involved in developing a new product marketing strategy. The strategies will have to be developed through active brainstorming and participation from the leadership team and the executives.

Step – 1

Things to consider before you develop a marketing plan for a new product:

If you wish to launch any product, the first thing that you will need to do is ensure if it serves the needs of a certain set of niche or targeted customers.

Your marketing strategy for new product launch will be successful only if your products add value to your prospective customers. Most importantly, your executives will need to believe in the fact that the product will be truly helpful to your customers. Only then will they be able to execute their tasks effectively.

While planning for any new product marketing strategy to meet the financial goals of your business, you will need to ensure that you leave room for scalability and flexibility. Any plan that you create should be clearly defined with the timeframes for delivering results. If not, it should make room for successive plans that can help in improving the effectiveness of your new product marketing strategy.

Step – 2

Validation and proof:

Before you even think about how to launch a new product in the market, it is very important for you to prove how it can add value to your customers. The product should go through stringent quality checks and validations, before you expose it to the market. Most of the products have failed to reach their true sales potentials, because they were not tested thoroughly before being introduced to the sellers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, or the customers.

It is not viable to pull back the product from the market, because it does not live up to the quality standards promised by you. Such setbacks can tarnish the reputation of your business. Hence, it becomes a paramount responsibility of your company to ensure that the product that you are launching has the complete potentials to meet up with the user expectations.

Therefore, it is always important to test your products and validate their effectiveness before the launch. Alternatively, you could release the beta version launch on a small scale to check if your product is truly effective in catering to the needs of your customers.

Step – 3

Document the process:

Before getting deeper into your new product launch marketing plan, you will need to document certain key factors:

Defining the market opportunity
Profiling the target customers
Finalizing on the prices
Identifying and documenting the financial goals, with respect to specifically defined timeframes

In addition to the above mentioned factors, you will also need to give highest priority towards improving and development of the existing product in an ongoing basis. Your new product launch marketing plan should ideally work as the roadmap for at least 3 to 4 quarters.

Also, it is very important for you to start off with your outreach and promotional activities early, preferably before a month or two. Your product will be more effective when people get to hear about it from you, which is before reading about it in the news. Therefore, it is of the paramount importance for you to develop a marketing plan for a new product, well in advance.

Step – 4

Setup your team:

The success of your new product launch marketing plan will depend on the people you choose to work in your team. Your team should ideally comprise of professionals with technical expertise, market analysts, project managers, and marketing executives. The executives should be guided by the top level leadership and the project managers at each and every phase.

The top level management should clearly articulate the importance of the project for the company, and they should create deadlines for the tasks, in order to bring about accountability from each and every member in the departments and teams.

The project managers you choose to develop a marketing plan for a new product should also be equipped with analytical skills. They will need to monitor the workflow and collect feedback in an ongoing basis. They should be able to make decisions based on the data they collect.

Your product will have a better outreach, if your marketing executives are trained inside-out on the product that they will be promoting. They will need to have a deep understanding of the features of the products, and should be able to effortlessly convey information about the benefits and advantages to the prospective customers.

You will also need to sensitize them about the customer requirements, so that they are able to handle questions related to price and product features. Therefore, it becomes very critical for you to choose a team that is dedicated towards driving more sales.

Step – 5

Inform your existing customers and targeted prospects:

Make your products available first to your patrons. New product launch is a very good opportunity for you to engage further with your existing customers. Develop a newsletter to be sent out about your new product launch, especially to your hot prospects and loyal customers.

When you give them the due importance at the important stages of your business, you will be building the path for creating long-term business relationships. Also, it is more expensive to find new customers, when compared to initiating repeat business from the existing ones.

Step – 6

Create the interest:

Your new product marketing plan will be effective if it succeeds in creating a certain level of curiosity and interest among your potential customers. One of the best ways to do so is by going social, but you will need to hold back the urge to give out all the information, all at once. It will help you in creating more interest among your prospects.

You will need to create pages in most of the top social networking websites, and start initiating conversations about your new product that is to be launched. It will also give you an opportunity to engage with people on a one on one basis, and build long-term business relationships with them.

The primary focus of your promotions should be aimed at conveying all the information about how your product can specifically cater to the needs of your potential customers. Additionally, you could also use the social networking platforms for creating surveys and competitions. Make people feel enthusiastic about doing business with your company.

Try things differently:

Do something different to attract attention from your potential buyers. Your new product marketing strategy will be successful only if the customers feel that you have something different to offer to them. There are many platforms on the net that can help you in conveying why exactly people should do business exclusively with your company.

You could create blogs to step up the participation levels. Many companies have been able to draw attention to their products by publishing funny videos related to their products. Such initiatives encourage more and more user participations. Also you could offer freebies and demos. Your onetime investment can pay rich dividends in the long run.

The success of your new product marketing strategy will depend upon how well you answer this particular question from your buyers – “what’s in it for me?”

The collaborative efforts of your team should be aimed at showing how your product and your company can add value to your customers.

Step – 7

Participation from stakeholders and partners:

Active participation from stakeholders and partners is very important for the product launch. The internal clients of your business are the best people to do the word-of-mouth recommendations that will help in bringing about more awareness, and exposure to your new products. More importantly, you don’t have to spend money for this type of advertising.

Step – 8

Commercialization – Opening up sales channels:

If you are planning to sell your products across various geographical regions, then you will need to start building networks with local retailers or resellers. Multi-tier administration and logistics management will be the key for meeting the market supplies in the future. That way you can promote your business across a wider customer base too.

Step – 9

Eliminate the unnecessary:

The purpose of your product lunch is to bring abut awareness among your targeted customers. Therefore, you will need to eliminate the strategies which do not technically drive sales. It will also help you in curbing the unnecessary expenses and cost cutting.

For example, if your product caters only to the needs of local audience, or is restricted to a certain geographical location, then it would not make much sense for you to try the marketing strategies that are designed for global marketing.

Social Media marketing strategies can help you in reaching out to the right set of audience according to your marketing requirements.

Step – 10

Ongoing process improvement:

It is of the paramount importance for you to measure the results of your new product launch marketing plan, in order to drive more sales down the line. You will need to identify the areas in your strategies that are pulling back the success, and then work towards finding the alternative plans, or eliminating the ineffective ones altogether.

You will need to improve your marketing strategies in an ongoing manner. For most products, the market will not be the same all through the year. Although the product launch can bring about the initial exposure, your marketing strategies will change from time to time.

The decisions on such changes should be based on the customer feedbacks, sales figures, performance of your executives and managers, etc.

Eat, S**t, Sleep: Let your Customers Sell You ! – Referral Marketing – the New age Dark Horse

17th July 2014 By theoriser Leave a Comment

You know, it is better to be lazy in Digital marketing world. Because if you are lazy, you will find out ways to get your goal achieved without breaking a sweat. Have you ever thought that If those people who have already purchased from you, sends in at least two of their friends to your door, how many sales will you get and the friends, if they send their friends and like this it goes on…

You might end up over achieving your sales goal by a huge margin and you can call this with a well packaged name of “Referral Marketing”.

If you take a closer look at this new dark horse (new in digital world), you will notice that it is social in nature but has elements of direct marketing..

Referral marketing is a more systematic way to monetize time-honored word-of-mouth marketing (the latter of which dates back long before digital). Like other social tactics, referral marketing taps into a long-standing human behavior, and, as in the case of social, digital has helped referral take hold.

Refer-a- friend programs are now being used in industries ranging from retail to entertainment. Recently even Google launched its own referral-marketing program that pays $15 bonuses to businesses for each user they sign up for the Google Apps for Business.

GigaOM’s study shows that marketers are getting value from referral, especially for acquisition and conversion. And marketers who use referral give it high marks for rewarding existing customers and generating valuable new customers. It’s extremely effective, generating a higher percentage of new customers for its practitioners than other tactics. A sizable number of marketers also believe referral helps them capitalize on their social follower base and capitalize on their existing email user subscriber base.

Those findings suggest a number of attributes about referral:

• Referral is efficient, providing a double reward to a business. When a transaction occurs as a result of a referral, the business gains a new customer and also builds loyalty with an existing customer.

• Referral enriches social media by complementing social’s awareness and retention value with the elements of acquisition and conversion.

• Referral can provide more value to marketers when integrated with social and email rather than when used in isolation.

Brand B****es: Does your Brand have a Plot – How to turn your good customers to Great ones ?

6th July 2014 By theoriser Leave a Comment

In the previous post I was muttering about how would you justify your organic expenditure, and there was a point where i was assuming about average customer value and this factor depends on repeat sales which actually defines Great customers from Good customers.

However, whatever you do, how much you do, if you want great customers your Brand needs to have something which i call “the love connection” with your audience, Strong enough to make them turn into a great customer from being good, make them to return back.

To really do this your brand has to hit the cord of the “Basic Human Need”, the purest and the most fundamental form of human desires that evoke deep emotions which are namely :

the classic hero, outlaw, ruler, etc. Each type has its own set of values, meanings and personality traits.

In the words of Carl Gustav Jung, they are known as “archetypes” and they reside in collective unconscious of people the world over, and here is how you can actually relate them to a brand.

1. The Innocent

Motto:Free to be you and me

Core desire: to get to paradise

Goal: to be happy

Greatest fear: to be punished for doing something bad or wrong

Strategy: to do things right

Weakness: boring for all their naive innocence

Talent: faith and optimism

The Innocent is also known as: Utopian, traditionalist, naive, mystic, saint, romantic, dreamer.

The Innocent provides an identity for brands that:

offer a simple solution to an identifiable problem are associated with goodness, morality, simplicity, nostalgia or childhood
are low or moderately priced are produced by a company with straightforward values need to be differentiated from brands with poor reputations.

2. The Regular Guy/Girl

Motto:All men and women are created equal

Core Desire: connecting with others

Goal: to belong

Greatest fear: to be left out or to stand out from the crowd

Strategy: develop ordinary solid virtues, be down to earth, the common touch

Weakness: losing one’s own self in an effort to blend in or for the sake of superficial relationships

Talent: realism, empathy, lack of pretense

The Regular Person is also known as: The good old boy, everyman, the person next door, the realist, the working stiff, the solid citizen, the good neighbor, the silent majority

The Regular Person provides a good identity for brands:

that give people a sense of belonging
with an everyday functionality
with low to moderate prices
produced by a solid company with a down-home organizational culture
that need to be differentiated in a positive way from more elitist or higher-priced brands

Examples of Regular Person brands: IKEA

3. The Explorer

Motto:Don’t fence me in

Core desire: the freedom to find out who you are through exploring the world

Goal: to experience a better, more authentic, more fulfilling life

Biggest fear: getting trapped, conformity, and inner emptiness

Strategy: journey, seeking out and experiencing new things, escape from boredom

Weakness: aimless wandering, becoming a misfit

Talent: autonomy, ambition, being true to one’s soul

The explorer is also known as: The seeker, iconoclast, wanderer, individualist, pilgrim.

The explorer is a good identity for brands that:

helps people feel free, nonconformist or pioneering
is rugged and sturdy or for use in the great outdoors or in dangerous settings
can be purchased from a catalog or on the Internet
helps people express their individuality
can be purchased for consumption on the go
want to differentiate themselves from a successful regular guy/gal brand or conformist brand
have an explorer culture that creates new and exciting products or experiences

Explorer brands would be: Virgin, Jeep, Trope-Snacks, Marlboro, Bounty.

4. The Sage

Motto:The truth will set you free

Core desire: to find the truth.

Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world.

Biggest fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance.

Strategy: seeking out information and knowledge; self-reflection and understanding thought processes.

Weakness: can study details forever and never act.

Talent: wisdom, intelligence.

The Sage is also known as: The expert, scholar, detective, advisor, thinker, philosopher, academic, researcher, thinker, planner, professional, mentor, teacher, contemplative.

The Sage would be a good identity for brands:

that provide expertise or information to customers
that encourage customers to think
that are based on new scientific findings or esoteric knowledge
that are supported by research-based facts
want to differentiate themselves from others whose quality or performance is suspect

Examples of Sage Identities: CNN, Gallup, McKinsey & Co.

5. The Hero

Motto:Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Core desire: to prove one’s worth through courageous acts

Goal: expert mastery in a way that improves the world

Greatest fear: weakness, vulnerability, being a “chicken”

Strategy: to be as strong and competent as possible

Weakness: arrogance, always needing another battle to fight

Talent: competence and courage

The Hero is also known as: The warrior, crusader, rescuer, superhero, the soldier, dragon slayer, the winner and the team player

The Hero could be good for brands:

that are inventions or innovations that will have a major impact on the world
that help people be all they can be
that solve a major social problem or encourage others to do so
that have a clear opponent you want to beat
that that are underdogs or challenger brands
that are strong and help people do tough jobs exceptionally well
that need to be differentiated from competitors that have problems following through or keeping their promises
whose customers see themselves as good, upstanding citizens

Examples of companies that express themselves like this archetype: Nike, Tag Heuer.

6. The Outlaw

Motto:Rules are made to be broken

Core desire: revenge or revolution

Goal: to overturn what isn’t working

Greatest fear: to be powerless or ineffectual

Strategy: disrupt, destroy, or shock

Weakness: crossing over to the dark side, crime

Talent: outrageousness, radical freedom

The Outlaw is also known as: The rebel, revolutionary, wild man, the misfit, or iconoclast

The Outlaw may strengthen your brand’s identity if it:

has customers or employees who feel disenfranchised from society
helps retain values that are threatened by emerging ones, or paves the way for revolutionary new attitudes
is low to moderately priced
breaks with industry conventions

Outlaw brands include: Diesel, Harley-Davidson.

7. The Magician

Motto:I make things happen.

Core desire: understanding the fundamental laws of the universe

Goal: to make dreams come true

Greatest fear: unintended negative consequences

Strategy: develop a vision and live by it

Weakness: becoming manipulative

Talent: finding win-win solutions

The Magician is also known as:The visionary, catalyst, inventor, charismatic leader, shaman, healer, medicine man

The Magician could be the right identity for your brand if:– the product or service is transformative

its implicit promise is to transform customers
it has a new-age quality
it is consciousness-expanding
it is user-friendly
has spiritual connotations
it is a very new, contemporary product
it is medium- to high-priced

Example of magical brands: Axe, Smirnoff, Polaroid, iPod.

8. The Lover

Motto:You’re the only one

Core desire: intimacy and experience

Goal: being in a relationship with the people, work and surroundings they love

Greatest fear: being alone, a wallflower, unwanted, unloved

Strategy: to become more and more physically and emotionally attractive

Weakness: outward-directed desire to please others at risk of losing own identity

Talent: passion, gratitude, appreciation, and commitment

The Lover is also known as: The partner, friend, intimate, enthusiast, sensualist, spouse, team-builder

The Lover may be a good identity for your brand if:

it helps people belong, find friends or partners
it’s function is to help people have a good time
it is low to moderately priced
it is produced by a freewheeling, fun-loving organisational structure
it needs to differentiate itself from self-important, overconfident brands

Some of the great Lover brands: Alfa Romeo, Häägen-Dazs

9. The Jester

Motto:You only live once

Core desire: to live in the moment with full enjoyment

Goal: to have a great time and lighten up the world

Greatest fear: being bored or boring others

Strategy: play, make jokes, be funny

Weakness: frivolity, wasting time

Talent: joy

The Jester is also known as: The fool, trickster, joker, practical joker or comedian

The Jester may be a good identity for brands:

that give people a sense of belonging
that help people have a good time
that are low or moderately priced
that are produced by a fun-loving company
that need to be differentiated from self-important, overconfident established brands

Examples of Joker brands: 7UP, Fanta

10. The Caregiver

Motto:Love your neighbour as yourself

Core desire: to protect and care for others

Goal: to help others

Greatest fear: selfishness and ingratitude

Strategy: doing things for others

Weakness: martyrdom and being exploited

Talent: compassion, generosity

The Caregiver is also known as: The saint, altruist, parent, helper, supporter

The Caregiver may be right for your brand identity if

it gives customers a competitive advantage
it supports families (products from fast-food to minivans) or is associated with nurturing (e.g. cookies, teaching materials)
it serves the public sector, e.g. health care, education, aid programs and other care
giving fields
helps people stay connected with and care about others
helps people care for themselves
is a non-profit or charitable cause

Examples of caregiver organizations: Volvo, Amnesty International

11. The Creator

Motto:If you can imagine it, it can be done

Core desire: to create things of enduring value

Goal: to realize a vision

Greatest fear: mediocre vision or execution

Strategy: develop artistic control and skill

Task: to create culture, express own vision

Weakness: perfectionism, bad solutions

Talent: creativity and imagination

The Creator is also known as: The artist, inventor, innovator, musician, writer or dreamer

The Creator may be right for your brand identity if:

it promotes self-expression, gives customers choices and options, helps foster innovation or is artistic in design
it is in a creative field like marketing, public relations, the arts, or technological innovation
you want to differentiate it from a “do-it-all” brand that leaves little room for the imagination
your product has a do-it-yourself aspect that saves money
your customer has the time to be creative
your organization has a creative culture

Examples of Creator brands: Lego, Sony, Swatch

12. The Ruler

Motto:Power isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

Core desire: control

Goal: create a prosperous, successful family or community

Strategy: exercise power

Greatest fear: chaos, being overthrown

Weakness: being authoritarian, unable to delegate

Talent: responsibility, leadership

The Ruler is also known as: The boss, leader, aristocrat, king, queen, politician, role model, manager or administrator

The Ruler may be right for your brand identity if:

it is a high-status product used by powerful people to enhance their power
it makes people more organized
it offers a lifetime guarantee
it empowers people to maintain or enhances their grip on power
it has a regulatory or protective function
is moderately to high priced
you want to differentiate it from more populist brands or one that is a clear leader in the field
it is a market leader that offers a sense of security and stability in a chaotic world

Examples of “Ruling” companies: IBM, Mercedes.

Let me know how you are applying these personalities to your brands and if you have got some interesting stories associated them too :).

Soap, Sex, and SEO Traffic – The promise of free land. Or Is it So ?

29th June 2014 By theoriser 1 Comment

ssc Do you think the fabled organic traffic or aka SEO traffic is Free ?, I mean you are not paying the search engine for it. I know you will say that “yes I know its not free, I am paying the “content creator” the “SEO guy”, of-course its not free.

But my question is, If we all know that

We are paying for the content
we are paying for the process
we are paying for the service that goes with the process
And we are creating “stuff” for the search engine to “offer” their visitors (aka your content)

Then why are you still treating the “Organic traffic” as Free ?. Why are you not judging ROI of the SEO organic traffic ?

I know you will say, Yeah! we are tracking rankings of our keyword, but is that it ? where is the ROI ? Here is how you will calculate it :-

Lets Find out your total Cost Per Acquisition (for SEO)

Cost Per Acquisition (SEO) =

(Your SEO service cost + Process Cost + Creative Content cost) % Total number of Acquisitions (from organic sources)

Now let us find how much your Customers’ worth

Customer Worth = Your Gross Profit % of {purchases per year x Average Bought value x Average retainer ship (number of years)}

So your ROI % is :- [{Customer Worth – Cost Per Acquisition (SEO)} /Cost Per Acquisition (SEO)] x 100

Let me know if I missed anything :).

How can I generate website traffic with $0 marketing budget, Have Already done all general stuff, but no avail – Part 3?

12th June 2014 By theoriser Leave a Comment

Continued from Part 2

I will assume that you went through the first part and the second part, if not you can go through the first part Here, and the Second part here, now getting right on to it :- The third method is Be the David.

3. Be the David

It’s not that you don’t have a marketing budget. It’s just that people keep doing everything to stop you. You have such a wonderful product, but people can’t hear about you.

Just look at the chilling tale of Häagen-Dazs vs. Ben & Jerry’s. This story is an oldie, but a goodie.

Reuben Mattus was a Polish immigrant. He was 47 when he decided to start his own ice cream company with his wife, Rose Mattus. They called it Häagen-Dazs, which as you may already know, means absolutely nothing. It’s two made-up words meant to look Scandinavian.

Let’s go back to 1978 in Burlington, Vermont. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, “a couple of hippies,” as they have described themselves, took a twelve thousand dollar investment– four thousand of it borrowed– and opened an ice cream scoop shop in a renovated gas station.

They called it Ben & Jerry’s, and within a few short years, it became a staple of Burlington, Vermont. They opened their first franchise in 1981, and in 1983, the same year Pillsbury bought up Häagen-Dazs for eight figures, Ben & Jerry’s opened their first out-of-state franchise. Within a year, the two companies would be, more or less, at each others throats.

I probably don’t need to tell you that Häagen-Dazs was a huge success. In 1983, Häagen-Dazs was sold to the Pillsbury company for 70 million dollars. See, while the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream scoop stores were nice, the real business was in the cartons of ice cream they sold in grocery stores.

When Ben & Jerry’s began moving into Boston, the “Doughboy” tried to throw his weight around. Häagen-Dazs threatened to pull their product from grocery stores and other distributors unless those distributors signed an agreement that would basically make them the exclusive premium ice cream brand in all of Boston.

It might sound a little outrageous now, but it makes sense. Pillsbury had just paid 70 million for this name brand. Of course they were going to try and protect it. Besides- Häagen-Dazs was a huge seller, one distributors couldn’t afford to lose. Ben & Jerry’s were certainly doing well for themselves– the company brought in about 4 million dollars that year– but they simply couldn’t compete with Häagen-Dazs on that level.

As for ice cream in Boston, it seemed Ben & Jerry’s was out of the game before it even began.

But the folks at Ben & Jerry’s weren’t going to go down without a fight.

Tactically, it was a brilliant move. After all, Häagen-Dazs was more than just “another ice cream company,” It was a truly inspiring entrepreneurial achievement, an embodiment of the American Dream. Pillsbury on the other hand? Well, it was a bit easier to pass them off as a faceless corporation.

And it was that thinking which begat their now infamous slogan, “What’s the doughboy afraid of?”

They plastered Boston with the slogan. They took out ads on buses. They handed out flyers. They made T-shirts. They took out an ad in Rolling Stone magazine.They set up a toll-free number that people could call to learn more about the situation, and they printed that number on every single pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream they sold.

“Do you think the Doughboy is afraid of two guys working with 23 people in 4,000 square feet of rented space?” one of their flyers read. “Do you think the Doughboy is afraid he’s only going to make $185.3 million in profits this year instead of $185.4 million? Do you think the Doughboy is afraid of the American Dream?”

A little verbose, maybe. Hyperbolic even. But it worked. Ben and Jerry were able to successfully cast themselves as the underdog victims of a cruel, faceless corporation. And the media was starting to take notice.

As the deadline Pillsbury had set for distributors to stop carrying other brands of premium ice cream neared, publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Boston

Globe started running pieces on this “David vs. Goliath” battle.

Finally, Pillsbury gave up. After months and months of back-and-forths, an agreement was reached: Pillsbury would not punish distributors for carrying Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and Ben & Jerry’s would take the 1-800 number off of their ice cream pints.

For Ben and Jerry the battle was worth the time and effort. After all, they got more publicity in that short time than years and years of advertising would have gotten them

How does this translate to your startup? Again, if you pitch a reporter a story about your new startup and what it does, you have a limited chance of getting attention. If you’re however the victim of some big unknown evil, or even better, a David fighting a Goliath, the media will love your story.

The key lessons from there are that

(a) if you’re competing against Yammer you should be fighting Microsoft (for the purpose of the story);

(b) if someone is trying so hard to stop you, then it goes without saying that your product is so good and superior that it deserves attention.

Morale of the Story

Traditional low budget marketing methods have a very limited success rate because your message usually gets drowned out in a sea of other messages and highly funded campaigns that as a result get much more attention.

None of the examples I shared tell you exactly what to do with your particular startup, because to really be successful you need to customize these concepts so they apply perfectly for what you are offering. I do hope that at the very least I gave you some food for thought and some leads you can follow in designing a low cost marketing solution for your launch.