Perceptions are Reality
Launching a product is a complex proposition. With the numbers of new products skyrocketing by almost 59% in the past decade, it has become all the more difficult to gain customer attention. Each year, millions of dollars are wasted when products enter the market ill-prepared to attract customers and meet expectations. You might have a great product at hand and you could even be sure that it is going to take the market by storm, but to stand out in this tidal wave, your product needs to be backed by a carefully planned and executed branding strategy.
Birth of a Product
A product's start-up phase is probably the most critical time in the product life cycle. This is when it is essential to get the branding strategy in place. Sure the money is tight and the pressure to build credibility and confidence among the target audience is intense, but insufficient customer feedback and lack of customer involvement can result in an unsuccessful launch. While a consistent marketing plan is a continuous and an ongoing process, the birth of your product requires focused strategic branding. Active collaboration with target users improves branding strategy research and decisions on fundamentals like positioning, value proposition, unique selling proposition, etc. All of these become integral to your corporate branding strategy. To put it simply, this is the time when your brand needs to be engineered to appeal to the primary target audience.
Forging New Brands
Branding started as a method used by ranchers to identify their cattle (the owners in order to insure that the cattle did not wander off the property or get stolen by the competitor, burnt a distinct symbol into the hide of the baby calf, so that they could rightfully claim it as their own). Today, branding has become the 'be all' and 'end all' of product positioning. No longer is strategic branding only considered to be a creative presentation of products and services. It is the reputation that a company has with its customers, a dynamic where customers react to the output of a company and, if the brand relationship is strong, they see the services as positive, consistent and evolving with their expectations.
- Primary target customers: No product can be successfully launched without knowing who its target customer is. It is essential to learn everything about who your best prospects will be and what they might want from you. Think of your customer as a single person and do a branding strategy research based on the demographics (age, sex, education, likes, dislikes, personality). Make sure that strategic branding has maximum appeal for the largest customer base.
- The competition: If your product is entering an already established market niche, it is obvious that you aim to have a cut of the market share from that. To survive the cut throat competition, it becomes essential that you develop a branding strategy that places your product as distinct and different from the competitor's.
- Tools of marketing: The marketing mix should talk about a USP (unique selling proposition) that distinguishes your product from the rest. The entire promotional package should click with the target audience (Name, Product Niche, Color, Identity, Package, Size, Décor, Attire, Pricing, Business Card, Stationery, Order form, Inside signs, Outside signs, Hours of Operation, Days of Operation, Phone Demeanor, Consistency, Neatness, Location, Window Displays, Service, Community Involvement, Tie-ins with others, Special Events, Testimonials, Sales Presentations, etc).
- The advantage: Your branding strategic marketing should clearly focus on the advantage that your product has to offer over other brands and the special value it holds for the customer that would induce him to shift.
Professional Help
Preparing for the positioning war can be quite tough, and in case you are introducing a new product, it is often intimidating. At PYCCO we take on the challenge for you. Having almost 25 years of experience in the field, PYCCO works to make your businesses successful. Our analytical and strategic branding support has gone a long way in providing a strong foundation for new brands to emerge and create a strong and steady market base. Over the years, we have achieved scalable results for our clients through effective and compelling branding strategy research. Once entrusted with the job, we build a dependable corporate branding strategy plan and employ proven marketing tactics for the successful launch of your products.
PYCCO services include:
- Defining the market that you are going to serve. Segmentation on demographic and psychographic parameters.
- Developing a positioning message for your target audience based on the product benefits
- Determining the tentative price for your products, depending upon the cost of manufacturing, competitor pricing, and your marketing objectives.
- Branding strategy research on distribution. This may include a geographic plan, channels of distribution and reseller options.
- Communication strategy for the product - Internet, direct mail, print collateral, presentation, etc.
We offer complete management services that ensure that your product does not fade away unnoticed in the fiercely competitive marketplace. Employing a systematic and thorough branding strategy for the launch of your product is sure to deliver exceptional returns on your investment. So, the next time you decide to hit the market with your revolutionary new product, don't fail to back it with strong strategic branding.
Please take a moment and view our portfolio of branding and marketing projects. Just visit the Portfolio page on this web site. |
