I am often asked by start-ups, "How soon after I start
product development should I begin to develop my
marketing plan?" The answer is always the same - you
should begin your marketing plan even before you start
product development. In the same way that you prepare
a product development plan, you must also develop a
strategic marketing plan -- as early as possible in
the process. Starting today, Enable begins a series of
columns dealing with the major aspects of marketing
that start-ups must deal with. We begin with the key
first step in any marketing program - what is the
need, who is the customer and why will he/she buy your
product?
What Is The Need?
Needs and wants are what create market opportunities.
All needs and wants are satisfied to some degree by
available products, services and the status quo. A
market opportunity arises from an unfulfilled or
insufficiently fulfilled want or need. You must first
determine if there really is a need for your product.
Is it simply a "me too" product or does it really
provide a needed solution. Is the product nice to
have, or is it something that users must have. This is
particularly true in Internet based products and
services. What out for the nice to have and focus
heavily on the must have.
Who Is Buying The Product
You must also determine the exact buyer of your
product. Do not confuse buyers with users. In many
cases the user is much different from the buyer. This
is especially true with hardware and software. The
buyer is probably going to be either the CTO or the
head of IS. The users will be programmers or engineers
who are concerned more about features and bugs than
pricing and user benefits.
What Is The Buying Process
Once you have determined the need and who is making
the purchases, you need to try and figure out how the
product will be actually bought. Market research (both free and paid)is a
very good source for this but your own
observations, investigations, and "gut" feelings are
just as important. Understanding the buying process is
critical because it will lead to all the possible
routes to reach buyers. The buying process includes
all of the steps that a person takes leading to a
purchase. This typically includes the following:
- Awareness You must determine how the users will
become aware of your product, and where your targets
are most likely going to be exposed to it.
- Information Search People involved in purchase
decisions are confronted with information from a wide
variety of sources. The Internet, magazines, sales
people, commercials, etc. Therefore, even before you
prepare to launch your product, you must make sure
that plenty of information about it is ready and
available to the best possible targets.
- Evaluate The Alternatives Here you must identify the
influencers of your target's buying behavior. This is
your champion who will help push your product because
he/she truly believes in it. If you can sell to the
champion, you can sell to anyone else.
- The Purchase Decision Even if the first purchase may
only be a trial, but you must focus on determining who
will make this decision and why. Then you must make
sure that there is plenty of data - advertisements,
white papers, articles, etc. - to make the purchaser
feel secure about buying something that is new and
generally unproven.
All of the above must be completely thought through
prior to the development of your particular product.
This may take precious time at the beginning, when you
feel that you really should be rushing to develop the
product - but it will save you tremendous time and
money in the long run by helping you identify key
issues that cannot be corrected later - at any cost.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on February 8, 2000.