Product Marketing Strategy And Planning

Developing a marketing plan or strategy to introduce a new technical product can be painless, and seems confusing only when we lose sight of objectives.  Like USA, UK and all other countries, Asian Marketers are also going to start online presence by doing mobile/tele marketing, E-mail marketing and Social Media Marketing.  Before we discuss product marketing strategy, we first take a look at marketing.

What Is Product Marketing?

It’s a technique to spread product/service to large number of audience and increase sales.  Here are some key facts about product marketing strategy.

1.         Marketing is about meeting the needs and wants of customers.

2.         Marketing is a business.  It is not something that operates alone from other business activities.

3.         Marketing is about understanding customers and finding ways to provide products or services which customers demand.

4.         Before we start marketing for our product, we should have a brand name.  It may be term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies the uniqueness of product.

What Is A Brand Name?

A brand name distinguishes one product from another.  There are several different types of brand names, and many benefits associated with having a good one.  Because of this, businesses spend a lot of time and effort choosing them.

Even the best name might not translate into another culture though, so companies may choose to localize a name when they enter a market in another country.  There are also a variety of branding strategies, including making families of products under one brand or choosing different names for products from the same company.

Like Uniliver in Pakistan has different brand names e.g. LifeBoy, Safeguard, Sunslik, Fair & Lovely.  This is called brand marketing strategy.  Many companies take advantage of the idea of brand loyalty and create a family of products that are all sold under the same name.

For instance, a person who feels comfortable buying a brand of lotion may be more likely to buy shower gel, shampoo, or loofahs from the same range.  This is also known as umbrella branding.

Here are some steps which should be kept in mind while choosing brand name

1.         Brand names can be made up of just about any word or series of letters.  Companies may name the brand after a founder.

2.         An ideal brand name is unique, memorable, easy to understand, and creates an emotional connection with a target audience.

3.         Having a recognizable brand name is very valuable for a company, as it can lead to higher sales.

4.         Though it’s often best to keep a consistent brand name wherever the product is sold, sometimes a name doesn’t work in another culture, and companies have to change it.

While launching a product, we should not neglect the type of our clients.  The following checklist will do that.  These will be helpful in making good Product Marketing Strategy.

How many of them are there?

What are they buying?

What practical problems do they try to solve?

What emotional problems do they try to solve?

What is the size of your market?

What are your customer’s price point and other economics?

Exactly what does it take to win an order?

How long does it take to win an order?

Exactly how do customers use competitive products?

What’s the current satisfaction with competitors?

I hope after reading this article on product marketing strategy, you will be quite happy to launch your new product.  In next part we will continue discussing it, what is a strategy, brand marketing strategy, characteristics of service marketing, database marketing analyst, strategic marketing process and marketing strategy.