DELUSION
One of the many mistakes common to the marketing of a new
product has to do with the perception of the company. You may think a product serves a specific
purpose, but the world does not agree with you.
There are two ways this usually
happens, over-promise the product or service’s benefits and then (inevitably)
under-deliver, or conversely weakly market due to an overly constrained market and
miss penetrating the larger (and more accurate) consumer base.
The first of these situations is the most common. Think of a product you have seen advertised that
promises to solve all of you (specific type of) problem. This is the marketing version of selling snake
oil. There is no single cooking gadget
that will replace the rest of your kitchen.
There is no phone, prescription, pair of jeans or shoes, idea or social
media site that will make everyone happy for all time. Sorry, there is no ring to rule them
all. Don’t fall into the trap of
overselling. You will only regret it
later. It is close to impossible to undo
that kind of mistake.
Another form of delusion can come on the back of the public’s
overwhelming support. Before you
consider this the best kind of problem to have, consider Kentucky Fried Chicken’s
initial marketing of their grilled chicken.
A brilliant idea was hatched (I sincerely have to give someone credit
for this) to offer a coupon for a complete grilled two-piece meal, for free. Not the mistake. The mistake wasn’t in advertising the deal on
the Oprah Winfrey Show, either. The
problem arose when the masses of people began to arrive, all expecting chicken,
and the stores were completely wiped out.
Although you may believe that throngs of people demanding your product
is amazing, be realistic in your ability to keep your promises before throwing
it out to the world.
Now the flip side:
There is an equal amount of danger in being too
conservative. Think about the
development and marketing of two household products (these I can almost
guarantee you have in your home and/or office) Post-it notes and Scotch
Tape. They are such successful products;
we as a consumer base have made these brand names synonymous with the product
and manufacturers. It does not
matter
what brand of
invisible tape you purchase,
in your mind, it is probably
all
“Scotch” tape.
Knowing the current marketing of these products, it is hard
to believe that these products had very humble beginnings. Invisible tape was created to aid one
specific customer, to seal insulation in airtight packaging. Post-it notes were developed internally, by a
division manager to use as a bookmark. Since
3M did not plan to create such powerhouse products, instead 3M was not even
sure where the market was for these products.
Fortunately for all of us (and Christmas, too) they eventually figured
out the mass of the products they had on their hands.
As I said in the beginning, developing the next product is a
tough job and convincing the consumer that they want or need to buy is even
tougher. Do not shoot your product or
service in the foot before it has a chance to flourish or fail. Go cautiously, planning thoroughly but be
flexible during implementation. Listen to
your experts, your customers, each and every step of the way. Finally, do not allow your vision to be clouded
by ego or fear.
Laura McCormack
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