John Maddox
So you’re trying to set up a company which supplies consumer or commercial products. Obviously, you’ll need some products to sell! You might have an idea which could change consumerism forever. Still, if you don’t take the steps to turn that idea into something physical, your business won’t be going anywhere fast. Like a lot of tasks in business, getting your new product out there might feel daunting when you know nothing about it. Don’t worry, it’s a much simpler process that some people would imagine! Here, I’ve put together a guide which should help you towards getting your product off the ground.
Before you draw a single rough sketch of your product, you need to define and understand your audience. I’ve always believed that the best plans start with the end goal in mind. This applies to launching a product like it applies to everything. Everyone with an idea for a product wants theirs to be a winner. To ensure yours doesn’t fail as soon as it’s released, you need to make sure it’s filling a market gap. You need to think of the scope of different products out there. Enterprise is becoming more and more accessible for everyone. Because of this, you need to make sure you’re not creating the 100th version of the same product. Obviously people have their reasons for buying either Pepsi or Coke, despite those two products being as similar as two can be. My point is that you need to fulfil some kind of need or preference which isn’t being fulfilled already. The more unique and exclusively useful your product is, the better your chances of success.
To make sure your product is received as well as possible, you need to ensure it fits the needs of your target audience. Seen as it’s your business, you probably have a lot of knowledge concerning the niche your product is going to fall into. If this isn’t the case, then I suggest rethinking things! When you’re producing for a niche audience which you know well, you’ll already be at a big advantage. Use your inside knowledge to go through all the biggest complaints or issues faced by your target audience. With each item on that list, add a few notes, and develop new, innovative ways to solve the issues surrounding your audience. After that, it’s time to do some real market research. Head over to forums concerning your niche, social media platforms, amazon, and so on. Here, you’ll have access to countless comments and input from the kinds of people who you’re going to be selling to. Inc. has a pretty good feature on this. With information that valuable, make sure you don’t waste it! Spend a decent amount of time on each of these sources. With each one, note down any reoccurring things your audience brings up which they want to see in a new product. Make sure the idea you’re left with actually solves problems though. The internet is great for finding out what goes viral, but not necessarily what sells.
Once you have a solid design in mind, it’s time to get a prototype. Being able to present something physical can really help with the professional image of your start-up. Aside from that, it can also help to test the functionality of your product, depending on what you’re trying to create. There are a lot of entrepreneurs who have had an idea which works beautifully on paper. Then, it presents a number of physical issues when they start prototyping. This may happen to you, so don’t be disheartened when it does. The whole idea of prototyping is being able to see errors. If you’re making your first few steps into the world of business in 2016, then prototyping is going to be much easier than it was for those before you. This is thanks to the emergence of 3D printers, and companies who will offer rapid prototyping services. With these, you can have a primitive outline of your product made from acrylic, and shipped to you in a matter of days. Once it’s there, you can take all the time you want to plan out the necessary changes, and have another version sent to you. Check out Proto Labs for an idea of what I’m talking about.Prototyping also functions as a handy visual aid when you’re explaining the new launch to potential partners. It’s around this stage that you should start to think about the packaging as well. The packaging which your new product comes in will need to be practical and distinctive if you want your whole venture to be a success. It’s true that packaging isn’t the largest part of your whole marketing drive. It certainly shouldn’t be neglected though. Look at how the rugged packaging in DIY stores is aimed at men, or how the stark simplicity of Apple packaging leaves it open to everyone. C.L. Smith is a great place to look for a professional standard of packaging.
When everything’s lined up, start generating some buzz for your new product. In my experience, the best way of doing this is focussing all your marketing efforts on your target audience, rather than the product itself. Let’s say you were launching a cutting-edge smartphone. I know, that’s not a very likely seen as you’re a start up! You wouldn’t spend all your marketing efforts telling people about the amazing screen resolution or reliability. These features will be important to some people, true. However, a lot of your audience wouldn’t care. Even if they did, there’d be ways for them to find out such information. Make sure your advertising emphasises benefits for as wide an audience as possible. This will ensure your pre-release hype does its job to the full. Of course, you should adjust your campaigns to different niches, but don’t restrict yourself!
There you have a brief guide to releasing your new product. After your idea actually makes it onto the market, there’ll be all kinds of other work for you to do to keep it afloat. However, when you give your product a healthy running start, you’ll have a much easier time from then on.
