Want to start your own business and launch a brand? Start by creating demand for your product using these five steps.
Creating a new product is an exciting achievement for every entrepreneur, but it comes with some predicaments. Usually, people don’t readily embrace new products from unknown or untrusted brands. Therefore, what can you do to create that much-needed demand? With over 78% of Americans checking product reviews before buying a product, it’s worth knowing the right steps to take. Bigger brands like Apple still need to create demand for their new products, so it’s vital for every forward-looking business to always keep their product growth in mind. Here are some ways to help create a demand for your new product.
1. Find a group and conduct market research
Learning or knowing what the customer needs in a product is the first step to creating demand. What does the end-user want or need in a product? How can you find that information? To do this successfully, you’ll need to test select groups or conduct a general survey. Thankfully, usability testing is still in great demand and a critical tool in assessing how the end-user will receive your product. There are two ways to do this, and they’re:
Remote moderated: A moderator watches the user in real-time (via technology) as they use the product and allows you to ask questions right in the moment.
Remote unmoderated: This is conducted via prepared written questions that participants are required to complete and requires no moderator.
In any market research exercise, it’s essential to understand that various elements affect how a potential customer perceives or will use a product. For example, finances, social status, education level, and even marital status can be significant factors. In other cases, geographical location and parenthood could influence participants’ answers to such exercises. Nonetheless, the market research style you adopt should fit and be appropriate for your allotted budget. It's advised to use highly popular methods like a MaxDiff Analysis to find out opinions on the products, so you can be sure you're getting all the information you need!
2. Educate the market on the product
Before customers can buy into your idea and your new product, they must know what it’s all about. Human beings are naturally curious, and until they have enough information to convince them about something, many will not venture out. It’s your responsibility to educate the market on what the new product stands to offer or how it provides a solution to an immediate need. Sometimes, people don’t realize the need for something until they’re faced with it or must find a solution to a challenge.
It’d help if you appreciated the learning curve that your target market must overcome to accept your product. Therefore, the content you decide to go with must be concise, strategic, clear, and appropriate for each target group. Once you can jump over that hurdle, your leads can turn into customers and clients. Some strategies that have worked for some companies include the following:
- The show, don’t tell approach
- A detailed starter guide
- Multiple platform promotions
The secret to a successful mass education exercise is in trusting the effectiveness of your product and brand identity.
3. Product scarcity or shortage
This is a deliberate and strategic approach that works well only when the new product has finally been accepted on the market. When done right, a deliberate product scarcity can turn leads and prospective end-users into repeat customers and tends to tip the scales of demand and supply. In the long run, that works in your favor and contributes to establishing a sense of urgency among users. Furthermore, as the brain or entity behind the new product, you’ll have the upper hand to decide how to supply their needs.
However, experienced marketers recommend not overstretching the scarcity period, to avoid creating a vacuum that motivates customers to move on to the next available product. You may have noticed that this strategy is used most among popular mobile and electronic products. For example, several months after Apple released its iPhone 6 and 6plus models, the company was unable to meet the global market demands. It was therefore speculated that the global brand was using a product shortage to boost interest and demand. In the long run, it benefitted the company’s bottom line, and to date, Apple continues to remain at the top of the mobile industry. Before the launch of the iPhone 6, the iPhone 5 recorded a similar fate. Apple deliberately delayed shipping by two whole weeks, less than an hour after they launched the new model.
Do you remember the Amazon Fire TV shortage just a week after its launch? Indeed, sometimes the ‘out of stock’ signage you see online or in real life may not entirely be the truth. It has become a useful strategy that manufacturers and entrepreneurs leverage to bolster sales.
4. Exclusivity
Exclusivity works like the scarcity concept, but the former dwells more on some set criteria. In a lot of cases, exclusivity works best for high-end products. In other words, this approach informs the customer it’s different and in a higher class than any other within its category. Product exclusivity tends to deal with and even eliminate competition. Some companies have gone even further to patent and trademark new products to deal with imitation and brand projection.
5. Offer new customers special deals
Just like the idea behind loyalty programs, giving new customers special deals can boost demand for your new product. It could be through discounts, a promise of an added product in a repeat purchase, special monthly rates, etc. The guiding rule here is to segment your market and target each group with specialized packages. Especially when your deals can knock out competitors, go along with it. After all, business is a competitive world, and any legal strategy you can use to make yours succeed can be pivotal in your business’ growth.
There’s no single strategy that you can use to increase demand and draw attention to your new product. Many things go into these strategies, and until you adopt a multi-faceted approach, you may be unable to increase sales or build market value for your innovation. Fortunately, social media is a free tool making it easier to create product demand. Being able to reach an unprecedented number of people virtually or non-virtually is an essential foundation to building the necessary demand for a new product.
Have you thought about launching your own business? What would you love to know more about? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll include your suggestion in SOCIÉTÉ’s next Basic Biz post!
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