The Power of Product Plans

I normally do not devote a lot of this space to discuss the Product "P's" of marketing. Primarily, this is because my client base needs more guidance on the other "P's" of promotion, pricing, and place (channel).

But, today I want to take the discussion of "Product" to a higher and more complete level. I want to show how the products a company sells can be leveraged to kill - or at least wound - their competition, thereby increasing their own sales and market share.

Products Can Kill the Competition or You

Obviously, the easiest way for a product to shorten a competitive product's life cycle is for it to better meet the needs of the product's buyers and end users. Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door....at least until the competition one-ups you.

That is the case unless you've prepared for that competitive move and can leave the competition scrambling. To achieve that takes proactive planning and continued innovation. It takes a solid Product Plan.

iPod and Steve Jobs

Let's consider the genius product and marketer of our time - the iPod and Steve Jobs, respectively. Jobs is a true believer in the power of the product to differentiate his company from his competitors and create market demand. See BusinessWeek 2/6/06 issue and a related article previously published by the Chicago Tribune.

When you think about it, the original iPod was nothing more than an MP3 player. But Apple re-worked the technology into a cool, small, easy-to-use, long play-time package that blew away the existing MP3 market and expanded the larger digital music market.

Once competition was able to package key attributes (size, battery life and interface) in the same way, they also began to introduce knock-offs of the funky gold, pink, silver and mint green iPods mini's.

So what did Jobs do?

He stopped making the iPod mini line and killed the market for that earlier genre of "iPods" leaving the competition, well, scrambling.

While dropping the mini line, Apple simultaneously introduced the Nano line. And as competitors started to knock them off and develop them in colors, Apple reverted back to making the line only in basic black and classic white. Again, playing product gambits to win the day and hurt the competition.

Current of this writing, the latest product ploy for Apple's iPod is the introduction of the refreshed original line with color screens, video-download capabilities and easy-to-use interface.

I can't help but wonder, what is next from Apple?

How Can Your Products Kill the Competition?

See below for the two word answer.

"Product Plans" Are the Answer

Apple succeeded because they did not rest on the success of their original technology. They strategized on what competitive reaction would be and then developed (in advance) product iterations that would resonate with their end users and buyers.

By creating this product plan, Apple was not only able to create and maintain its high profit share of the digital music market, it was able to expand the market to include on-the-go video and develop additional high profit download revenue streams.

There are really only three components to being able to create and maintain product plans that grow your business. They are:

1. A keen sense of your market needs today and tomorrow
   
   
2. Great product innovation that keeps up with those needs
   
   
3. The guts and internal support to cannibalize or make your own currrent product line obsolete with new, value-added, end user-focused alternatives

Need help with those three "simple" steps, give me a call. We've worked with developing and marketing new products for years.

Remember, Mosaic creates customers for business-to-business companies through specific project work, on-going retainer assignments or marketing coaching sessions.

Until next time.....

Rosemary Walter
847-483-5018
Rose1Walter@MosaicMM.com

Quote of the Month

© 2006 Rosemary Walter, all rights reserved. You are free to use material from Mosaic's Monthly Marketing Tips in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including a live website link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

"By Rosemary Walter of Mosaic Marketing Management, Inc. Please visit Rosemary's web site at http://www.MosaicMM.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for business to business companies."