If you have ever run a start-up, then you would be familiar with how difficult it is to get people to try your new product. Potential customers are not even sure if you would be around for so long that they wouldn’t bother to spend even the least of their dime and time to acquire or use your product. According to a Booz and Company's report, 66% of new products fail just within two years. Some contributing factors include economic conditions, shifts in decision-making behavior, an explosion of consumer touch points, the intention to meet up with the latest trends, among others. Yet, some start-ups that introduced new products got millions of people to use them. These start-ups selected products and customers that satisfied two crucial tests:
Address customer needs: If you indeed want to survive, then your start-up must meet the needs of your target customers – either by relieving of their pain that is yet to be solved by any other company or solving their specific problem. Very often, customers are not only interested in trendy new items; rather, they seek for a solution. When your product fills the void in their lives, it will become a success. In other words, successful products first identified the needs of prospective customers and then introduced their new products as solutions.
Outperform the competition : It is not only enough for your product to solve customers’ problem; it must do that better than the competition. If your new product was able to make headway, imitators would eventually get attracted to producing a similar product. If they do a better job than you did, then customers will switch their loyalty.
In other words, how you present and sell your new product or service contributes to its success or otherwise. Aside from the two tests highlighted, the following – but not limited to – five secrets will make your new product a success.
Offer a good price for the product’s value
Upon the identification of customer needs and the provision of a reasonable solution, the value of your product needs to be defined. No customer will ever purchase a product which is not worth its price. Customers can even go as far as improvising to get around their needs through the use of other products that normally fit if your product is unreasonably priced.
Test run with prospective customers
Before your product can yield a wide customer adoption, it may require a prototype to be given to customers while also observing how they use it. Ask them to think of similar products and compare them with your product. That’s what they will do in a real-life situation anyway. They will be able to pass their judgment on the product – what they like and don’t like about it. With this data, you can know whether or not your product will succeed. If otherwise, you can then make necessary adjustments to the production stage.
Want to learn more about asking for feedback? Check "The dos and don'ts of asking for feedback"
Employ a good promotional strategy
Promotion is undeniably a marketing strategy that is as crucial as the product itself. How do you convince customers to buy your product when there are other reliable and similar brands already on the market? In other words, your product’s appearance and presentation have a long way to go in promoting a new product. A good strategy is to line up your product with a particular catchphrase, character, or situation, while also promoting them simultaneously. A good interaction among the elements will get your product ringing in both the conscious and unconscious mind of your customers.
Also, you can use social media such as Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest to create an awareness of the launch of your new product.
Make it readily available
Any product that seeks to achieve huge success rates must not be difficult to acquire; or else, customers will seek another solution within their reach. While preparing to launch your new product, carefully consider its mode of distribution – how, when, and where customers can get it. Irrespective of the route you want to take for distribution, it should be direct and hitch-free for consumers. Once this is achieved, customers will be rest assured to have a long-term business relationship with your company.
Prepare and carry-out the launch
Even though customers might have heard about your product, new products will always face a lot of curiosity from them. They need to know what your product is all about, where to find it, its cost, and why they should purchase it. Before this time, you already know the ideal users of your product, how they perceive it, what they intend to use it for, among others. For instance, new beauty products should provide increased efficiency to users. All this information will give you a smooth way into making a good launch and successful outcome.
