Marketing Test: Let Products Fly?

Huiyuan launched its own water in 2004. It was once known by the industry as a product of thousand years, and then fell down quickly. When Mr. Kao was launched, when many experts predicted that it would not last long, it lived to the present. Sales in 06 years have exceeded 4 billion.

Yunnan Baiyao launched 20 yuan of high toothpaste failed, and LG launched 10-15 yuan high price of bamboo salt toothpaste has become the industry's dark horse!

The same new product, but why completely different fate?

Is it the product itself or other factors?

What factors should be reasonably designed and planned when pushing new products?

As an important part of the market - marketing test, how to test it effectively to avoid the fate of failure?

Select product features to meet customer requirements

Market opportunity analysis is very important in understanding customers' requirements for products.

Through the analysis of market opportunity, enterprises discover the needs of customers for certain products, and then design products to select different product characteristics to meet these needs.

Many managers do not feel comfortable doing this job.

The problem is that customers purchase products that can be provided for the purpose and benefits, rather than the characteristics of the product itself.

The business operators consider what components should be selected in the product, how they cost, how compatibility is, how the product is planned, and so on.

But what customers care about is not what components are included in the product, but whether the product can meet the needs of customers.

Therefore, before designing a brand, an enterprise must understand the value of the components and characteristics that can be selected, that is, their functions.

In 2003, when he introduced pulsatile vitamin water, the function of this product was significantly different from that of cola, tea and water.

Since then, Wahaha as a follower has launched its activation, adding the so-called "Amazon rain forest youth vigor fruit la la". Kangshifu has launched a X to supplement vitamin, glycogen and amino acids. Huiyuan's hers also provides nutrition for men and women of different genders.

So how do consumers see these products?

For consumers, only vitamin water is the most simple and clear.

He would not take too much mental effort to compare such a difference and then pay for it. He would simply regard all other products as pulsating ones.

In this way, these products are essentially different.

The leading pulse is to curb the development of other brands by strengthening the distribution of goods and emphasizing that they are the first brand of vitamin water.

In fact, it is also a strong vitality of pulsation, and there is no movement in activating and running.

On the contrary, the fifth quarter launched by Jianlibao is not a well-defined product.

It includes soft drinks, fruit juice, tea and water, and soft drinks include cola, apples, lemons, orange juice, ice cream and so on.

If consumers want to drink fifth seasons, there will be dozens of bottles and cans to be further determined, which will artificially create obstacles to consumer purchase decisions.

That is to say, from the beginning, this vague combination of product characteristics is hard to meet the needs of consumers.

Therefore, it is suggested that when undertaking market opportunity analysis, enterprises should start with the product benefits that customers need most recently, and consider which characteristics or components can provide customers with the benefits of product requirements.

In brand design decisions, it is suggested that enterprises start with characteristics or components and think about the benefits that product characteristics can bring to customers.

Find out the uses of each product's characteristics, and what type of customers need these functions.

Different customers have different evaluations of various characteristics.

Then a list of characteristics that can be produced by a company can be listed and a brief description of the benefits of each characteristic can be provided to the customer.

Thereby establishing the relationship between product characteristics and customer benefits.

Then, match the benefits that the enterprise can provide with the customer's requirements.

Through this matching process, enterprises can determine which characteristics are suitable for market segmentation.

When experience is not enough, it can serve as the logical basis for enterprises to design brands.

Another important problem is that enterprises must consider the price that the market can bear while matching the characteristics and benefits of products.

Consider the price acceptable to the market.

When designing a product, an enterprise must take account of the price that customers are willing to pay for this product. Customers always weigh the performance and price.

High performance is often more expensive than low performance products.

Are target customers willing to pay extra product performance?

Enterprises must analyze and judge the goals of enterprises, the sensitivity of customers to performance and price according to market opportunities, then work out the price ceiling for each target market, and design the products of enterprises in this price cap.

The price of the product can be estimated by multiplying 2 or 3 times the cost of the material directly.

If the selling price is higher than the price acceptable to the market, the enterprise must modify the product design so that the price of the product is within the scope of the market.

Sometimes enterprises can add new features to the product, so that the price of the product is close to the market price.

The pricing decision of products will be constantly trimmed in the later stage of listing and extension, but in the product design, we should consider the price and product design that the market can bear on the cost of production and the time of delivery, rather than the passive adjustment in the middle and later stage of the listing.

In 2005, Yunnan Baiyao Group launched Baiyao toothpaste.

It is understood that it is the route of high-end products, according to the different regions, the test price set at 22 yuan to 24 yuan per yuan, it is really a surprise.

Then the actual retail price basically stabilized at 19.8 yuan / branch.

There is no doubt that from the price point of view, it belongs to the most expensive products of the same kind.

However, can consumers accept such a price?

According to the industry's general statement, a toothpaste with a weight of 120 grams, priced at more than 6 yuan, belongs to high-grade toothpaste, such as LG bamboo salt, Colgate, blacks and so on. The price of 2~6 yuan is medium toothpaste, 2 yuan below the low grade.

Over the years, consumers have formed the mental positioning of this price.

Obviously, Baiyao toothpaste has positioned itself in the high-end market, that is to say, its target audience is basically locked in two groups: one is the high-end income group with gingival bleeding symptoms; the two is not necessarily high in income, but at least it is a severe patient with gingival bleeding.

In fact, second groups of people are more sensitive to price, and are often unlikely to buy toothpaste with such high price. The first group often tends to seek more treatment at this high price, rather than through toothpaste.

Although the efficacy of Yunnan Baiyao toothpaste is relatively distinct, but due to price barriers, it has seriously affected the market's attempts and further consumption.

In fact, the market performance of LG bamboo salt toothpaste priced at around 10 yuan far exceeds that of Yunnan Baiyao toothpaste priced at around 20 yuan.

Test the market to determine the customer's response curve to product performance.

After the initial design of the brand is completed, it is necessary to test the brand and the price of the product in the market.

Remember, the basis of market research can only be an abstract assessment of the benefits of brand theory.

Before customers see and use the product of their own hands, enterprises can not know the true evaluation of their products.

To illustrate this point, suppose someone asks you what ingredients you want in your candy.

You may tell him how you like maltose, chocolate, nuts and so on.

The manufacturer may design four to five different kinds of candy according to your taste.

In the taste test, it is very likely that the candy you really like is not the type predicted by the survey results.

Before mixing ingredients into a company to taste, you only make rational estimates of your preferences based on your answers.

In the same way, market research helps companies to make reasonable estimates of the market, but it is still necessary to test brands in the market to determine customer preferences.

Do well in the initial six to nine months to modify the initial brand design preparation.

Because of the lack of experience in the market, we should not expect to get a high degree of customer satisfaction evaluation from the very beginning.

Here we take a case of Apple Com puter Inc as a control.

Apple withdrew its pioneer brand Lisa from the market in seven months, and launched a more successful Macintosh.

For a newly established enterprise, it is not common to update new products just now.

In fact, it is impossible for the product to be fully tested so that customers can fully experience all aspects of the product.

The purpose of the test market is to know which products are right and which need to be improved, and then quickly modify the brand design so as to better meet the requirements of the end users.

Another point to note is that brand characteristics are not always better.

Some managers may think that by lowering prices and providing additional product characteristics, they will win the low-end market.

This strategy is not always effective.

For example, suppose that enterprises sell two different calculators at the same price, one is a scientific calculator with 36 function keys, and the other is a standard four function calculator.

As a result, many customers will choose simple calculators.

The reason is that complex calculators may also contain cost of use.

Customers must spend some time learning how to operate complex calculators.

They also need to worry about hitting the wrong button or in the wrong order.

Scientific calculators with complicated functions are not welcome.

Because for some segments of the market, simplicity and ease of use are the product characteristics that customers are pursuing.

Complex brands are not necessarily popular.

To further illustrate this point, consider the following seven hypotheses:

1. the more characters, the better.

Almost all engineers and product managers think so, and in most cases they do.

For example, the faster the PC processor is, the more popular it is with engineering computing and data processing terminal users.

However, it is wrong to assume that a characteristic is always more.

Some customers react differently to product characteristics.

For them, a characteristic is not the more the better, sometimes it is just the opposite.

For example, mobile phones, most consumers really use the function is nothing more than making phone calls and sending text messages.

2. adding a certain feature will increase the value of the product, but there is always an upper limit.

For example, TV manufacturers found that increasing stereophonic effects greatly increased customer buying enthusiasm (now 90% of TV sets have stereophonic effects).

But adding more sound performance, such as increasing surround effect or loudspeaker, can't bring more sales.

Some customers have similar feelings about the speed of the modem and the capacity of the hard disk.

For example, the number of cable TV channels, the size of personal computer monitors, the durability of some fabrics, etc.

3. adding a certain feature will increase the value of the product, but there is always an upper limit, which will reduce the popularity of the product.

For example, the romantic atmosphere in the movie can bring pleasure to the audience, but too much romance becomes sensational but rather artificial, which is hard for the audience to bear.

For example, courteous attendants can make customers feel thoughtful and subtle, but if the waiter interrupts customers, the conversation between meals will be annoying.

4. a small amount of characteristics is enough, but a lot reduces the value of the product.

Some customers only need calculators to have four basic computing functions: add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Additional functions can only cause confusion.

For example, increasing the speed shift of bicycles, increasing the length of computer instructions, increasing the grease in prefabricated foods, or increasing the number of advertisements in TV programs will reduce the satisfaction of some customers.

5. certain characteristics will only bring negative effects on products.

For example, some audiences hate violence in movies or TV programs; some customers do not like soft drinks containing sugar or caffeine, and do not like foods prepared in restaurants, fruits and vegetables wrapped in plastic bags, etc.

6. certain characteristics will only arouse customers' interest after breaking certain threshold.

For many new products, performance reaches a certain degree.