Marketing is an extremely important tool in today’s world. Not being able to market directly translates to failure. There are various types of marketing available nowadays and every type of product – be it physical, intellectual, creative, service or consulting has many proven types of marketing strategies. Most of the big brands in this world carry a very strong marketing campaign. Coco-cola when launched managed to sell just 14 drinks a day, but look at their sales today- it is in millions. With advent of the Internet and television, marketing around the world is very simple yet very effective.
Marketing is not just about selling a product. It can be very effective and useful in many other ways. Good marketing generates enough money for the company that can be invested further. The money can be spent on new products or to engineer the existing product to make it better. Marketing a skill or expertise is no different. We all love fame and money and the only way to achieve both is to effectively market ourselves. So how do we do it? What are the things to consider before marketing a product? I think, there are 3 basic requirements to consider.
1. Do you have a good product?
First thing to consider is that if you have a good product in hand. There are many products in this world that are just OK and sell like crazy. But none of them last long. To have long lasting success the product needs to be exceptional. Good and genuine products always require lesser marketing to be done than their not-so-good counterparts. Their quality speaks for themselves and hence before you market make sure you have a good product to sell. I think if the product is flawed there is no point in pursuing a marketing route – instead that time and effort can be spent in improving and upgrading the product. This is entirely true for marketing skills associated with a person. If the skills are not suitable enough for the current market there is no point in concentrating on preparing an excellent CV. Instead that time could usefully spent on building competence.
2. Do you have a market for the product?
The next most important aspect is whether there is enough market potential for the product. Recently i received an email from a fellow blogger saying even after writing more than 100 articles, his blog did not churn out enough visitors. He had spent hundreds of hours of effort on the website but had very less returns. He had also tried popularising his blogs in various methods but none of them really got him to a point where he can call it success. The problem here was he was in the wrong market. He had spent a lot of time on something that doesn’t have so much demand. He believes he has an excellent product but if there are no takers then there is no way he is going to sell it. So before you market it make sure this question returns an definite yes – or else you might have to repent later.
3. Does your product add any extra value?
The third and final question before marketing the product is if it adds extra value to life. This could be anything from making life easier to adding fun and enjoyment. Does it have a niche where competing products might not flair? If there is no extra value then it can be very easily replaced by another product in the near future. Providing exceptional value with a new idea also lets you to patent it and that deters competition. The only way to add value is to genuinely understand the needs of the market and to bundle it with the product. The product should make buyers feel that they are paying for something that is indeed worth paying for. This creates a huge customer base who would want to be repeat customers.
A recent study showed that more than 60% of the customers are likely to stick to a brand or a store if they had a successful experience the first time. So never miss an opportunity to impress the buyer the first time. If any of the three questions here returned a no, then it is time to get back to the drawing board and do some serious thinking on how to fix the problem. Satisfying these criteria definitely helps build a brand – one that can survive for many years to come.
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