Product Marketing, also known as product strategy or product policy, brings together all the strategies and decisions relating to the products sold by a company. The product (or service) is at the heart of all the issues for the companies that market it.
The product is a key element of your market positioning. It is he who will attract customers, face competition, and generate revenue, and its characteristics must be studied closely to meet the needs and expectations of the target clientele. Hence the interest in product marketing, which consists of working on the characteristics and specifications of the product.
Product Marketing, A Fundamental Element Of The Marketing Combination
of product marketing, refers to marketing studies that determines consumer needs. It also refers to marketing decisions that relate directly to the product or service to be marketed. We also talk about product policy.
This product policy will define the technical and visual characteristics of the product. Along with the price, communication (promotion), and distribution (place), it forms the 4 Ps of the marketing mix. Choices regarding the product must be consistent with the other elements of the marketing mix.
The Product Policy, Pillar Of Your Competitiveness
Each element that makes up your product must be studied and specified through product marketing: brand, design, packaging, standards, labels, and range.
The objective is a product in line with market demands and prospect expectations. A product with which you can distinguish yourself and face your competitors.
The product policy makes sure that your offer and your marketing actions are good. You are more likely to win sales with a product that meets the expectations of the target clientele.
Work On Functional And Visual Characteristics With Product Marketing
the marketing product focuses on the two fundamental axes that make up the product. You must define its functional characteristics: the functions that the product performs for consumers.
Visual features refer to images that help identify and distinguish your product. It can be the brand (nominative and figurative), the design, the packaging, or the label.
Product Marketing: Why Do You Need To Segment?
Product marketing is aimed at a limited market. It is difficult to meet the expectations of a heterogeneous market, composed of consumers with diverse needs. Before defining your product policy, you must segment your market. To cut it into homogeneous groups according to multiple criteria: socio-demographic, behavioral, or psychological.
Then you can choose a relevant segment for your offer. That is, consumers are likely to be interested in your product and who will allow you to achieve your marketing objectives.
Segmenting means defining the targets precisely to shape the product according to their expectations.
Product Marketing: The Importance Of Market Research
Market research involves analyzing the needs of target consumers. It helps you to understand the existincurrents on the market better and to choose the characteristics accordingly.
Segmentation delineates the scope of your study, focusing on your potential market. Nevertheless, during your market research, you can review the segmentation criteria, and change or multiply the subsets concerned if you realize that the criteria selected need to be more relevant or sufficient.
You can use Internet resources to understand your market better. Market research can be done through desk research or marketing surveys. This documentary study provides the critical information or figures that will guide you in the product’s design.
Since the documentation is insufficient, you also need to carry out an in-depth study of the market. A qualitative study to know the nature of the current needs. The brakes or the motivations of the potential customers. And quantitative study to assess the purchasing potential of consumers or estimate the number of sales.
These Marketing Studies Can Be Done By Telephone Survey Or Individual Interviews.
Competitive Intelligence To Better Position Yourself In The Market
The competition also plays a crucial role in defining your product marketing. Competitive intelligence involves identifying key critical formation to better position yourself against competitors.
To carry it out successfully. You’ll first need to set the objectives of the process. For example, identify the market leaders, their strategies and the selling prices applied. Then determine the competitors to analyze as well as the information to collect.
The purpose of competitive intelligence is to identify existing offers, the main competitors, their strengths, and their weaknesses. But, in addition to observing the behavior of the competition, this monitoring allows you to learn more about the target market, the evolution of needs, and consumption patterns.
Concretize Your Policy In The Product Plan
The product plan takes up the points put forward by product marketing. It details the marketing strategies and actions to position the product on the market. It also describes the means to be implemented for its launch.
The Product Plan Is A Component Of A More Global Plan, Which Is The Marketing Plan.
To attract the target clientele, offering them products that meet their needs is necessary. It then aims to shape the product’s characteristics by considering consumer expectations. For an effective policy, however, you must conduct marketing studies that allow you to better identify your targets’ needs.