Defining your products involves much more than just deciding to sell something as a business. Defining your products means defining which of your products is your core product, what result will it create, what will customers expect of it, what price should it have and many other factors that will be essential in creating a successful marketing strategy. Sometimes we care about our products so much that we don’t take the time to decide which product is the one we should be focusing on, the one that will result in the company’s, and even for other products’, growth.
Within your company, it could be the case that you have several branches, and within those branches, you have several products. Before creating a Marketing Plan you should define whether it is going to be for a particular branch, for a particular brand, or for all of the company’s products. The more specific, the more effective your Marketing Plan will be. Sometimes, you have to start with a general plan and later on do a more specific plan for each of the branches. So start thinking about dividing your products into different branches.
Your core products will be defined by many factors:
Once you define your core product, you should define which of the products you sell help customers discover your core products. These are the products that will lead your ideal customer to your core products, and to loving your brand. They build trust so that when they are exposed to your core product, they know they’ll be buying the best and they fully believe it’ll bring them the solution to their problem. Be sure to create some orbit products that build a solid path to your core products, if you have a product that distracting instead, or has nothing to do with your core product, consider eliminating it. This can sometimes save you a lot of money and other resources, not to mention customers you might lose because of them. A misleading product can sometimes give the wrong impression about other products or even your brand. Keep an eye on this!
Following is a sample of a core product definition table for the Marketing Plan:
Not necessarily. This is a tricky question, but I did give you a hint before. If it is not misleading your customer’s perception or attention, you should treat other products within that branch as orbit products. Try creating a solid path to your core product with your orbit products. i.e.: if your core product is the service of interior design, maybe you offer free guides (this is a free orbit product) of design in your store where you sell furniture (paid orbit products) at a competitive price and in the store you also offer full kitchen design and installation (another paid orbit product). Once they are satisfied with all or one of these products, they will consider hiring you as their designer for a house project. See the path here?