Is it a dud?
You only sold a measly few of your new products, while the rest remained on the shelves, collecting dust. It is natural to feel disappointed when you invest a great deal of your time, effort, and resources into putting out a new product that you eventually realize no one seems to be buying. Taking that product off the shelf and declaring it a failure might be tempting. But before you do, there are valid reasons that can explain why your product might not be getting sold. This article will explore how poor pricing, marketing strategy, product packaging, and customer knowledge can contribute to slow or no-moving products and services. Read to the end for some tips on how you can turn this around.
Is your price the problem?
Pricing is often one of the most obvious factors to consider when selling a product and has considerable influence over a customer’s decision to buy. Consumers may avoid your product if they believe it to be too expensive compared to its perceived value. In the end, pricing comes down to knowing the quality of the product you are offering and understanding the culture and socioeconomic elements that drive the market you are targeting.
Selling below competitors to get sales will most likely end up working against you. Instead, work out a pricing strategy that would appeal to your ideal customer profile.
Middle to high-income earners will expect to work with higher price brackets when buying products, as quality is often their primary concern. Customers with lower income streams may focus less on quality and more on affordability. Therefore, it is vital to evaluate your target market and set your prices accordingly.
Too High or Too Low
In a 2017 BBC article titled “The psychology behind spending big”, Tiffanie Wen illustrates how higher prices affect perception. She indicates that Michael Norton of the Harvard Business School says that buyers think that an item is twice as good if it’s twice as expensive. Therefore, we can assume that if you are pricing an item below market price, it may be perceived to be of lesser value, and therefore, ineffective at best or not worth the purchase. She cites the example of a study where participants who were told that a pain-killing drug cost $2.50 cents experienced more pain reduction than those who were told that the drug cost only 10 cents, even though both groups were given a placebo.
Take care to align your price well with your target customer, market conditions, and brand identity. In some cases, that may mean reducing your prices, and in others, it may very well mean increasing them.
Tell the story, the right way
How well are you marketing your product? Did you confidently put the product on the shelf? Or placed a short paragraph on a flyer or website with the new service, then waited for the sales to come? Or did you develop a marketing campaign that includes a pre-launch, launch, and post-launch activity to maximize the sale potential of your product or service? The excitement, resources, and energy you pour into creating a new product for your business should extend to your marketing strategy for that product. If you believe in the value and need for your product in the market, your job is to make others see that as well..
For example, when you are excited about a new movie, what do you do? You tell your friends and family about it, try to get them to come with you to the theatre when the film is finally out, and then you talk about how good or bad the movie turned out to be. Telling others about the movie before, during, and after its premiere gets people curious about it eventually, they want to see it.
Switch it up
A closely related solution to modifying your price is altering your marketing approach. There are many directions in which you can tweak your marketing. However, what matters most is that it is relevant to your customers. Start with the media you are using to promote and push your product, what percentage of your customers utilize this type of media. You may need to switch from radio to podcasts if you feel that more of your customers consume digital audio media instead of traditional ones. Or you may even need to redefine who your target customer is altogether. Share this article with your friends who are business owners who may value fresh insights on the marketing side of their business.
We judge a book by its cover
The way you package your product can be a big game-changer for customer perception and purchasing behavior. Some of us make actual purchasing decisions by how “cute “ the packaging of a product is. Are you one of them?
The packaging of your product influences whether or not a customer feels attracted to your product because it conveys the quality, practicality, and content. Your product packaging should catch the eye of your customers and strongly tempt them to buy. It should display a clear, strong message that immediately lets customers know what the product is and what it does. Ideally, You will also want packaging that protects the product from environmental elements that may damage the goods inside.
Reimagine it
If you have determined that the packaging was the issue, it will behoove you to repackage the product in packaging that is more appealing to your target audience. A tried and true strategy is to test the new packaging with a special edition packaging. The same product can be offered in special packaging for a short period only. You utilize this opportunity to observe and analyze customer feedback, and then you can reintroduce the Special Edition Item later as “ back by popular demand.”
Are you throwing in the towel?
Launch a sale if you have determined that this was a poor investment to get it off the shelf pronto. Offer a “ while stocks last” deal, just enough to cover the cost, create urgency and watch it fly off the shelf, never to grace your inventory again. The cost of keeping it on the shelf is the opportunity cost of stocking your next best successful offering. It’s a waste to take it off the shelf and hide it in a box at the back of your warehouse, or delete it from your service list and pretend that it was never there.
Whether you are already a successful business owner with a large client base or just starting your business venture, the key to success lies in fully understanding and catering to your targeted client base and their needs. Consider your consumers' lifestyle, income bracket, and social influencers when deciding to market a new product or service. You will find that it will be much easier to position a unique offering in a way that finally takes it off the shelf and places it into the shopping carts of your customers.
Kimalene Regis Consulting can help you identify opportunities to launch and market the next new product , or your business. Market your brand wholistically with our Brand X Design Solution. Find out more by emailing kim@kimaleneregisconsulting.com.
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