Why You Should Develop More Than One Product
It’s an amazing feeling when the product you’ve developed begins selling, and you realize your dream of owning your own business. You should take some time to celebrate and look back at all the hard work you’ve put in, but you should also be looking forward towards your next product. Developing more than one product is essential to keeping your business thriving and growing. Your first product may have put you on the map, but now it’s time to keep working and developing more products. Here’s why.
There are a few different reasons why it might be time to develop a new product. The most pressing reason is that the market can change quickly, and products that were performing well can begin to lose sales rapidly. Consumers’ needs and wants may undergo a change, and you need to be able to change along with them.
Developing a series of products gives you a consistent stream of sales, and means that you won’t be completely at a loss if one of your products stops selling. Relying on one product to support your business is surefire way to find yourself in trouble when the market changes.
The new product doesn’t have to be a completely different from the initial product. If your product reaches the end of its life cycle, then it’s time for a new, updated version that may reflect different market trends or consumer desires. Developing new products shows your customers that you’re working to be on the cutting edge of your industry.
So what are the steps in developing your new product?
- First and foremost, you need to have idea generation. Even if you’re developing a new iteration of an older product, you have to bring something new to the table to convince consumers that they need it.
- Once you have your idea, you need to screen it. You’ll want to get input from employees, customers, and even other businesses to make sure that your idea is viable and there is a demand for it. Don’t assume that because your immediate circle likes the idea, that consumers will as well.
- You’ve successfully screened your product, so now it’s time to develop and test your concept. A prototype will be created, and you can play with the features and get real feedback from test groups on what they like and dislike about the product.
- If everything has gone well, you then begin the process of commercializing and launching your product. This involves finalizing pricing and beginning a heavy marketing campaign to attract attention to your product launch. Once you’ve launched your product, review the results of its performance, as well as your own practices leading up to the launch. This will help you refine your process and fix mistakes for future products.
And if you feel like the development phase is beginning to overwhelm you, then you should think about hiring an outside firm to help you streamline the process and get your product to market quickly and efficiently. Contact Pivot International today to find out how your business can benefit from our product development specialists.
A Brief Guide to Taking Your Product to Market: What Comes After Perfecting Your Product?
If you’ve got a product idea that you want to make reality, then doubtless you’ve spent countless hours trying to perfect its design and functionality. What may have started as a simple napkin sketch gradually became a more formal drawing. From there, maybe you created a CAD prototype, at which point you troubleshot some initial issues.
Then, let’s say you created a working prototype, where you worked out any other problems that arose. After one or two more iterations, you decided your product was ready for the marketplace.
But how do you get it there? How do you go from a functioning prototype to a product with safety certifications, packaging, a marketing plan, and a spot on store shelves?
The process, as you’d imagine, is a complicated one, but here’s our brief guide to how to take your product to market.
Take steps to protect your intellectual property
If you’re planning on spending the time and effort to get your product in stores, you should really take the time to secure a patent.
It’s the only way you can be absolutely sure of legal recourse if someone tries to copy or steal your product idea. While the process can be time-consuming and expensive, it’s a little bit like insurance – you’d much rather pay for it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
Depending on how complex your product is and how much commercial value you think it has, you can either patent the product yourself, or hire a patent attorney.
If your product is more of a trade secret, then you can apply for trade secret protection instead, which is a quicker and easier method of legal protection. Trade secret protection can apply to any design, formula, process, instrument, or commercial method that gives you an economic advantage over other businesses. The formula for Coca-Cola and Mrs. Fields’ chocolate chip cookie recipe are examples of trade secrets.
Decide on your business model
Once all your legal ducks are in a row, it’s time to decide whether you want to start your own company, or license your product to an outside organization.
There are pros and cons to both approaches, but essentially, starting your own company to market and sell your product means that you’ll retain complete control over the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of your item. You’ll also assume all the risk involved in those processes.
If you choose to license, you would sell the rights to your product to another company. From there, that company could decide either to manufacture and sell it, or to simply hold on to the rights indefinitely – the choice is theirs.
Since the company holding the rights now has a vested interest in making your product successful, if they do decide to sell it chances are they’ll use their best marketing, manufacturing, and distribution people to get the product moving. However, as mentioned earlier, you won’t have any control over things like the packaging, the materials they use, etc.
Essentially, it comes down to how committed you want to be to your product: is it something you want to dedicate all your time to for as long as it takes to make it a success? If so, you should probably look at starting your own company. If not, consider licensing a less committal, potentially easier route.
Put together your marketing and launch plan
If you’ve decided to produce the product yourself, you’ll need to develop your marketing and launch plan.
First, this involves doing market research (some of which you probably completed before you developed your product) to get a clearer idea of whom you should target your product toward. This will help you narrow down your list of potential retailers, trade shows, and other outlets to target. Pivot International conducts market research for our business development clients frequently – contact us if we can help you with yours.
Then you’ve got to create a detailed launch plan that includes a crystal-clear message and defined goals. As you go through the launch process, you’ll most likely meet some of these goals, and fail to meet others – but having them set out will allow you to quantify your actual results, rather than relying on your gut feelings about how the process is going.
At Pivot, we love helping entrepreneurs and companies make their product ideas a reality. Contact us for a free consultation today!
Tips for a Successful Product Launch
In some ways, creating a product is like having a baby. First, you have to decide to just go ahead and take the plunge: you put pencil to paper, nose to the grindstone, and you finally sketch out that product idea that’s been bouncing around in your head for months or years.
Then you have to see your little product through revisions, redesigns, prototyping, and finding a manufacturer. By this point, your product has grown up! It’s finally ready to graduate into the real world of sitting on shelves and waiting for people to come pick it up.
Once you’ve shepherded your product this far, it can be tempting to loosen the reins a bit and expect that people will just naturally want what you’ve created. And while that’s true for some lucky product designers, it’s most often not the case. That’s not because there aren’t tons of great products out there—it’s just that success depends on so much more than simply what you’re selling.
With that in mind, here are some tips for a successful product launch.
- Make sure your product works and functions exactly like it’s supposed to. Hopefully this is something you already went over in the prototyping phase, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to do another test before you officially launch. There’s nothing worse than unleashing your product on an eager world, only to have it fall apart or malfunction in your customers’ hands. That’s a mistake that’s hard to come back from.
- Have your marketing plan in place before you officially launch. You can start working on your marketing plan before your product is even finished—in fact, it’s a good idea to do so. Just as you had to research whether or not there was a viable need or desire for your product, now you should research who exactly is going to need or want it. Working with a marketing firm is a great option if you have the resources, but if you don’t, you can do a lot of research online yourself or by talking to friends and acquaintances.
- When it comes to your buyer list, choose quality over quantity. Chances are you’re going to need to sell your product to retailers, whether that’s your entire selling strategy or just a part of it. That means you’ve got to build a list of retailers or other sellers who, firstly, will want to buy your product, and secondly, who can buy your product. There’s no point in having a list of 50,000 names if most of them have no interest in what you’ve got to sell. For example, let’s say you’ve invented a new outdoor toy aimed at families with children ages 5 and up. The price is reasonable, but significant.
- Make sure your product has an online presence. You don’t necessarily need to create a full website for your product, but you do, at minimum, need a landing page with information about
You could stick Wal-Mart, Target, and every other chain store that sells toys on your list, but how likely is it that they’ll give you a shot? And if they do, it’s almost certain that they’ll just put it on a shelf along with the hundreds of other toys they sell each day. You might do better by contacting small, independent toy stores that specialize in high-quality items. They’ll not only be more likely to be interested in your product, but they’ll also be more likely to feature it prominently—at the very least, it won’t be lost among thousands of other items.
your product and how consumers can purchase it. If you can tap into social media, too, that’s even better. As you surely have experienced yourself when looking for products online, it’s getting harder and harder to trust any product that doesn’t have some kind of online footprint. Instagram is a great medium to start with, as all you have to do is take pictures and write some short captions.
In addition, when you’ve got an online presence you can get in touch with online influencers—bloggers, journalists, and others—who may be interested in helping you promote your product. This can be invaluable to your success.
Pivot International develops, builds, and manufactures new products every day. If we can help you bring your product to market, contact us!
How To Put Together A Successful Product Launch Plan
If you’re getting ready to launch a product, you’ve probably realized that it isn’t as simple as you might imagine. Many times, people think of a product launch as an event, rather than an ongoing process with many different aspects that need to be taken into consideration. No matter how great your product is, there’s a good chance it’s not going to simply break into the market without some serious planning. So what are the necessary steps you need to take to put together a successful product launch? Take a look at our list and see for yourself if you’re on the right track.
The Product
This may seem like a no-brainer, but you have to have a product that meets the needs of the market. You’re going to want to get out and actually talk to potential buyers to see what the market truly needs. Just because you are experiencing a problem, and your product solves that problem, that doesn’t mean that everyone else has the same need. So start your product launch plan by matching the needs of the market.
Market research will help narrow your message and give you a better idea of who will be the early adopters of your product.
The Message
Everything about your message should be as clear as possible. You don’t want to wind up confusing your buyers or partners, so you need to effectively communicate the benefits and capabilities of your product before your product launch. There shouldn’t be any ambiguity in your message, and creating a document that spells out your launch positioning is a great way to keep things clear and focused.
Set Goals
Setting clear goals for what you hope to accomplish with this product launch is an ideal way to evaluate if the launch is going as planned, and what you can do to improve. Establishing these goals early will give you something to compare the actual results to, rather than just assuming the launch is going as you planned.
Practice
You’ve heard the phrase “practice makes perfect” a thousand times, and it rings true in this situation as well. Your product launch strategy should include at least one practice run to make sure everything goes smoothly. Training and practicing for the launch ensures that everyone is on the same page, and it’s a great way to communicate the launch message to the company.
Timing
Another important aspect of your product launch is how you are timing it, especially if you’re working on a global scale. It might be determined by a key trade show or other industry event, but just remember that you should be doing everything you can to maximize the impact of your product launch. Too early, and your product may not be fully ready; too late, and you may end up losing the excitement that you’ve built.
If you need more help launching your product, contact Pivot International today. We offer product design services, manufacturing services, prototyping, and even business development services, and we’d love to help you get your product to market.
Two Reasons Your Product Failure Isn’t Actually a Failure
There’s nothing like a failed product to break an inventor’s heart. After pouring weeks, months, even years into product development—not to mention all that mental and emotional energy—seeing a product fail to become what you imagined can be an incredibly challenging hurdle to overcome.
But it is absolutely possible to overcome those hurdles. We’ve all heard countless stories of highly successful people who failed spectacularly before hitting on their successful idea. In fact, you might even say that failure is just one of the steps on the way to achieving success.
Bill Gates’ first product, a device for processing traffic data, didn’t work; GoPro founder Nick Woodman’s first business was one of the casualties of the dotcom bust. Both of them, of course, went on to create products that are known and loved throughout the entire world. (If you’re still smarting from the pain of a product failure, recognize you’re in good company with this slideshow from Daily Finance on the top 25 worst product flops of all time).
Now, becoming the next Bill Gates is pretty improbable, but that doesn’t mean you should throw in the inventing towel. For some products, a set of fresh eyes can be extremely helpful.
But often, it’s hard to find someone with the expertise—or, let’s face it, interest—to help you rethink your product development.
That’s why Pivot International offers the same product design and development services to inventors hoping to rework unsuccessful products as we do to inventors working on brand new products. We often sit down with people who’ve gone through the product development process, but are having issues they can’t resolve on their own.
Problems with Design or Development
Maybe you’re working on a product with touchscreen technology, but you’re having trouble with the software, or the user interface. In this case, experienced software developers can help you pinpoint where the problem is and find a way to fix it.
Or perhaps you have a wearable technology product, like the ActiGraph Link, that could use a redesign to be more attractive to consumers.
And mechanical devices, with their own particular challenges, can also often benefit from a second look with experienced mechanical engineers.
It’s true that you may still decide to throw out the product, even after going through a redesign or reworking process. That’s OK—there’s always something that can be learned from going through an unsuccessful product development process.
Problems with Prototyping or Manufacturing
What about issues that emerge later in a product lifecycle—prototype design, for example, or finding a manufacturing company? In these cases, maybe all you need are experts who can guide you through these processes.
Prototyping might be one of the most important steps in getting a product successfully to market (you can read more about why in our post “5 Ways Creating a Prototype Boosts Your Product’s Success”). Skipping the prototype stage means that you might miss small, but important, problems with design or functionality that can make all the difference between a successful product and a forgettable one.
With the availability of Computer Aided Design, or CAD, it’s possible to create a three dimensional, scale representation of your product in a highly cost-effective manner. Physical prototyping is another option and may be better for inventors who are able to afford the slightly longer timeline and higher cost. You can read about both types of prototyping in our free eBook.
Finally, there’s manufacturing and supply chain management—these are complex processes to manage, and it’s easy for problems to emerge if you don’t have expertise in these areas.
There are lots of options when it comes to manufacturing, from keeping everything domestic to outsourcing some or all of the process. There are advantages to both—outsourcing manufacturing often means lower costs, although there are times when you want to keep your manufacturing process closer to home. Pivot’s manufacturing team can not only help you decide which route you want to take, but also manage every aspect of the process. We also offer contract manufacturing services.
Whether your product just isn’t working correctly, or you’re having troubles later in the product’s lifecycle, Pivot has the expertise to help you resolve the problems keeping you from getting your product to market. Ready to get to work? Contact Pivot International today!
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A Guide to a Successful Product Launch Event
You finally have your new product ready to go, and are ready to launch it into the world. You might find yourself wondering whether or not you should host a product launch event. While these events are high-impact and can help you leverage press potential to its fullest, they certainly aren’t cheap. Depending on the nature of the event, a company may need to shell out money for a venue, food, drinks, and entertainment.
How to host a product launch event
This can be especially difficult for start-ups that may not have large budgets, to begin with. Are product launch events really worth all the time, effort, and money? The short answer is a resounding yes.
Whether it’s Coke launching a new type of Coca-Cola product, or Chanel announcing a brand new fragrance, major corporations never just ship their products to new stores. They hold product launch events, which not only work to garner press attention, but also introduce the product to a key group of people. “When Apple launches a new product, you don’t see some PR lackey trundling out onto the stage to read a press release,” prominent digital advertising company KISSmetrics explained. “They stage an entire event around it, going so far as to even close their online store, so that everyone knows something important is happening and they need to pay attention.”
The bottom line is that a product launch event requires a lot of time and effort, but your brand will certainly reap rewards. Here is what every brand should keep in mind when deciding whether or not to a host a product launch event.
Invite key people
When it comes to planning a product launch party, the guest list is crucial. Of course you want the press to be there, but you also want key people, including influencers, in your niche. They are the ones who will help get the word out about the product to your target consumers.
Consider a rolling launch
The pace of news these days is faster now than it ever was. This means that getting and maintaining media attention for any prolonged period of time can be real challenging. Therefore, it can be a wise idea to consider a rolling launch. Launch a series of outreach activities a month or two before the official launch date. This can be especially beneficial for social media marketing, as well as for capturing the attention of leading bloggers or specialists in your specific niche.
If you don’t have the budget for an all-out press event, shoot for a low-key event online. If finances are tight and you simply don’t have the budget for a major event, don’t ditch the idea of a product launch event just yet. At least have some type of online event. “If you make a big deal about your product launch, both your potential customers and the media are likely to take it more seriously, and it’ll be reflected in your product sales,” KISSmetrics advised.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
3 Social Media Tips for New Product Launches
The right social media campaign can make or break your product launch.
Utilizing Social Media to Launch Products
How can you effectively harness the power of social media to give your new product launch an extra boost? Check out these three simple tips.
Harness the power of the teaser campaign
Teaser campaigns work to build anticipation and get your customers excited about your launch. Use tools such as Vine and Instagram to post photos and videos of your product in the making without actually giving away what the product might be. People will become curious, which will help ramp up the attention surrounding the launch.
Taylor Swift mastered the art of the teaser campaign prior to the release of her album 1989. She told the story of her album visually via Instagram, tantalizing fans with an intriguing 13-day countdown. “A teaser campaign sends a message to the social media world that something exciting is about to happen,” explains marketing guru Steve Olenski. “Even if you do not end up creating the exact product you have originally hoped for, you have probably developed relationships across social channels, giving you a great opportunity to take the launch process to an entirely new level.”
Designate a hashtag for your new product
Designating a hashtag for your new product is not only a great way to drum up hype and attention in preparation for your launch, but it also helps users find information relevant to the launch. Furthermore, if you are running a social media campaign in preparation for the launch that relies heavily on user participation, a designated hashtag makes it easy for users to submit their own content (photos, videos, tweets, etc) to the campaign. Remember, user-generated content is excellent for boosting engagement!
Consider the Toronto-based startup AvidRetail. The startup launched a new form of payment called Kash, which allows users to make purchases using only their phone. To prepare for the launch of Kash, AvidRetail developed the Twitter hashtag #WITHKASH. The unique hashtag allowed users to show off why they were excited to pay #WITHKASH, which resulted in the successful generation of a great buzz!
Launch a founder’s list
People who want to learn more about your product should be able to get in touch with you. That’s why you want a founder’s list. Create a mailing list that people can sign up for, and display it on all of your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc). That way, you can translate social media engagement onto offline attention.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
How to Use Kickstarter to Launch Your Product
Kickstarter is a great way to accrue much-needed capital to take your product from an idea to a tangible reality. But there’s more to crafting a successful Kickstarter campaign than simply posting your product information on the site and clicking “publish.”
How to Launch a new product on Kickstarter
Research shows that 10 percent of campaigns on Kickstarter fail to bring in a single cent. Kickstarter operates on an all-or-nothing system, which means if you don’t reach your funding goal, you won’t get any of the money that was raised in your favor. Research also shows that 80 percent of projects that manage to reach 20 percent of their funding goals end up being successful. Basically, the goal is to reach that 20 percent goal as quickly as possible. But what’s the key to a successful Kickstarter campaign? Check out these tips and tricks.
Keep your campaign under 60 days
Kickstarter gives you the option to set your funding timeframe from anywhere from one to 60 days. You may think the longer your campaign runs, the more money you will raise. However, this isn’t necessarily the case. Statistically speaking, Kickstarter projects that last 30 days or fewer actually fare the best in terms of meeting funding goals.
Focus on small rewards, not big ones
The most popular Kickstarter pledge amount is roughly $25. The average is $70. While it’s a great practice to offer big rewards to generous funders, you want to make sure you have a large chunk of small rewards for the average pledger. If rewards run out, you may run the risk of losing critical support. “When you do a crowdfunding campaign, you aren’t asking for donations. You are selling a product, and it needs to be competitively priced. It isn’t reasonable to expect people to pledge $50 to receive a DVD that will sell for $10. Yet, it happens all the time. Don’t fall into that trap,” explains Shawn French, an entrepreneur who successfully raised $15,899 (substantially more than his $8,000 goal) on his Kickstarter comic book campaign. “The trick is to design your rewards and price points, so you can hit your goal, while giving your fans the best deal. The transaction needs to be a win-win.”
It’s all about quality
You need to put sweat equity in developing a stellar campaign. You need a well-written, compelling text that explains the idea behind the campaign, as well as high-quality images and a clear story. Amateur-looking photos and texts with typos are a major no-no. If you aren’t confident in your own abilities, you may want to hire a professional.
Don’t wait until launch time to reach out to potential supporters
In order to maximize the power of a Kickstarter campaign, it is crucial to reach out to potential supporters before you actually launch your campaign. It is a wise idea to send out tailored messages, then follow up with people individually. For example, you might want to separate your contacts into sub-groups and customize a message for each one. In general, try to avoid posting mass messages. “While utilizing newsletters and corresponding with donors is a must, make sure you do so correctly. If you want people to support you and fork over their hard-earned money on your project, take the time to write every contact a personalized email,” explains entrepreneur Ryan Colucci. Remember, a Kickstarter campaign is essentially a form of advertising, so the more precisely you can target and communicate with potential supporters, the better.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
A Guide on Content Marketing for Your New Products
Product development isn’t just about bringing a great idea to fruition. It’s also about bringing a new product to the market, and that means marketing.
New Product Content Marketing Guide
After all, if you release a product into a market without making an effort to connect with consumers and get them interested in what you’re offering, your product launch will most likely turn into a product flop.
Get on social media
The sooner your product or brand gets on social media, the better! Facebook is a staple, but beyond that, do some research to figure out which social media sites your target consumer is using. Remember: the goal is to craft a social media strategy that facilitates engagement and interaction to maximize the visibility of your brand and your new product. The more visibility you manage to garner before launch time, the better.
Develop a publishing schedule and stick to it
Increasingly, brands are becoming publishers, and publish content for their consumers to read, watch, and listen to. The key to content marketing is being able to produce a steady stream of content. Even before your product launches, you need to get a content schedule going, and upload things accordingly. How often should you publish? It all depends on the type of product you’re offering and on your market niche. “If you are running a news, celebrity, quotes, jokes, lifestyle, or sports site, then you will have to post multiple times per day to keep your content relevant and fresh,” explains digital marketing consultant Alex Chris. “If, on the other hand you are running a blog or website in other areas (for example weight loss, nutrition, education, travel etc.) where the status of things does not change daily, then you can probably get away with a couple of updates per week.”
Don’t forget about video!
The key to any successful content marketing strategy is video content, especially if you want to ensure that your product is memorable. A study by Diode video, a digital design agency, found that roughly 80 percent of customers will recall a video ad that they have seen within the past 30 days, and video actually entices roughly 10 percent of consumers to make a purchase. Video marketing will also drive up engagement on your website and social media sites. Did you know that 90 percent of visitors will stay on a site that prominently features a video for a longer period of time than they will stay on a site that does not feature a video? That drives up time on site, which is a key measure of engagement. Video is especially beneficial to add to social media campaigns. Video-based Facebook updates receive 10 times more shares than text-based updates.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
Tips for Launching During the Holiday Season
Launching a product during the holiday season certainly presents a number of advantages. However, it should be noted that a holiday season product launch also presents a number of unique challenges.
Launching Products During Holiday Shopping Season
Once the Christmas bells start to ring, consumers are immediately bombarded with advertisements, and retailers are fiercely competing for holiday shopping dollars. Here’s how to leverage the holiday season shopping frenzy to successfully pull off a product launch.
Launch sooner rather than later
If you are trying to target holiday shoppers, don’t wait until Christmas Eve to launch your new product! The goal is to launch strategically so that you maximize your leverage among holiday shoppers. Figure out when and where your target consumer will be doing his or her holiday shopping prior to launching your product.
Get on social media
New research shows that social media has a major impact on purchasing choices made by holiday shoppers. “More than half of users (52 percent) say they learned about a product they later purchased because of Twitter, and it’s so convenient to find gift ideas on Twitter that 39 percent say Twitter serves as their new holiday shopping list,” a recent Twitter study found.
You’ll also want to spark conversation about your product and brand on social media near key shopping days. “Every year, holiday shopping conversation on Twitter peaks on key days like Black Friday,” the Twitter study also found. “In November and December 2013, the correlation between conversation about buying televisions on Twitter and sales volume was 0.98 (with -1 indicating no relationship, and 1 indicating a perfect relationship). The results for laptop shopping were similar: our analysis showed a 0.84 correlation between the conversation and sales.”
Invest time and energy into crafting holiday promotions
The key to success when it comes to holiday launches is an effective promotion. Offer a discount or special deal to effectively promote your product. When it comes to the holidays, consumers want to get the most bang for their buck. Be sure that your brand is helping them do so.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
