If you are a B2B company and want to grow your business by adding new products to your existing product portfolio this clause and my other related clauses will help you. They describe how a 4P Marketing Strategy can help you produce a fortunate "product launch" plan for your chosen marketplace.
A merchandising scheme supported the merchandising 4P's looks at four key merchandising and gross revenue areas that need to be considered when producing your product launch plan:
1. Product. How to choose the right product to sell?
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2. Place. Where to find the customers who will buy it?
3. Promotion. How to "package" and promote your product?
4. Price. How to choose a gross revenue price that's acceptable and profitable?
I don't intend to cover all of the 4P's in that clause. I am going to center on the first one by providing some advice and guidance on "How to choose the right product to sell".
Choosing the Right Product
If you already have a fortunate B2B business or you want to grow one quickly it's important to be able to assess whether your new product will harmonise with your current product portfolio and whether it will meet the requirements of your marketplace.
Looking at your product in the context of the 4P's of merchandising is an first-class way of doing this. I have used the 4P Marketing Strategy approach for many years when launching new products. It's easy to understand and when used right it's very effective.
To be confident that you're taking the right product to the market place you must be able to answer the following questions:
- Will the product sell in your market place?
- Can it be sold profitably?
- What skills and experience do you need to sell it?
Will the product sell in your marketplace?
If you are considering taking on a new product from other company do some research first to establish whether the product has a good gross revenue chronicle and whether your existing customers are likely to buy it?
If the product isn't being sold as luck would have it elsewhere or is only being sold as luck would have it by companies with a very different company visibility from yours you need to make a realistic assessment of the extra merchandising and gross revenue costs that are likely to be incurred before your new product can become profitable. You also need to carry out some "consultative research" with your existing customers to find out whether they would buy your new product. If they wouldn't, you need to understand why. (You may find that it's necessary to talk to other contacts inside the same company or consider approaching companies in different market sectors if the customers in your main market sectors indicate that they are unlikely to buy your new product).
Can it be sold profitably?
Make a list of all the things you'll need to do to market and sell your product. Use this list to build a spreadsheet of your projected merchandising, gross revenue and body costs and compare these with your forecast gross revenue for the new product. Use some simple calculations to work out how long it will take before your product becomes profitable.
Sometimes it makes sense to sell a product even if it doesn't make a profit! If your new product is very complimentary to existing products in your product portfolio and can be accustomed boost gross revenue of these products it could still be worthy merchandising it. It may eventually become profitable on its own, or prepare the ground for other similar product that will be profitable (e.g. one you develop yourself).
Take into consideration all the factors best-known in your previous research and don't forget to admit some estimated costs for the effort and time that you and/or your work colleagues will need to put in to launch and sell your new product.
What skills and experience must you have to sell it?
If your product is a very different type of product from those you are presently merchandising you will need to get some extra help (staff or bought-in resources) with your merchandising and merchandising. Alternatively you could acquire the cognition and skills required to market and sell the product by buying in consultancy services and training.
Whichever of these two options you choose, until you have built up a good level of cognition and skill you won't do a very good job serving your customers understand what the product will do for them. Neither will you be able to support them well once they've definite to purchase it.
The Value of the 4P Marketing Strategy Assessment
The reason why the opening of the 4P Marketing Strategy approach is so important is that it will help you reject a product that power not become very profitable and provide you with information that you will be able to use to select an alternative product that will fill the same gap in your product portfolio much better.
There may be other questions that you need to get answers to additionally to those we have considered above, but if you can provide comprehensive and satisfactory answers to my three main questions you will be able to move forward and start working on the other P's of your 4P Marketing Strategy.
I hope I have made it very clear that thorough research is very necessary at this stage. It's very easy to decide to skip this research if you have been "bowled over" by an exciting new product that you want to start merchandising as soon as possible. But mind that every new product you take on will distract you from other important merchandising and gross revenue tasks.
If your new product starts to sell well soon after it's launched into your marketplace all your effort will seem worthy. You'll soon be able to invest in extra resources and help to maximize the gross revenue of your new product. However, if your new product turns bent on be unprofitable or provides only a small profit you will have wasted a heap of time and money that could have been endowed in merchandising and merchandising your existing products.
In summary, a 4P Marketing Strategy will help you develop a detailed, solid plan for the launch of your new product and will also help you to feel confident that you have the right product to ensure that this plan will succeed.
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