Product is, of course, the thing (or service) that you have to offer to the customers. There are a number of thing about the product you should evaluate.
It is important to understand your product from the customers point of view.
What's On This Page
- It is critical to be able to say in one clear sentence why your product is perfect for a specific buyer and what it does best.
- "To (target audience), (product name) is the type of software that (performs this task)." For example, the product description of the fictional lemonade software "To restaurant owners, lemon-aid software is the type of software that manages all aspects of lemonade from production to sales".
- It is more important to be descriptive than creative
- One of the best ways to determine a name for a product is to have a brainstorming session. The rules of brainstorming are:
- No ideas are rejected or criticized
- It is a free form "brain dump"
- Someone is in charge of writing the ideas on a board where everyone can see them
- After the ideas a generated, they are ranked by preference
- The pros and cons of the top ideas are discussed
- For example, the "Lemon-aid Software" name shows it is software that has something to do with lemonade. In addition, the "aid" shows it will help somehow. A better name may be "Lemon-aid Management Software" to tell exactly what it does.
- In order to begin to understand the product from a customer’s point of view, list the functionality, the features, and the benefits that product has.
- List functionality and features that could be added.
- Prioritize each for the target market or market segments to determine the development of the product going forward.
- This list will be used in positioning the product.
Sample Matrix of Features by Target Market
| Target Market | |||
| Features | Lemonade entrepreneurs – kids | Retailers – convenient stores | Restaurants |
| Low Cost | Very High | Medium | Medium |
| Compatible with other business software | Low | Very High | Medium |
| Stand alone | High | Low | Low |
- By understanding how adaptable your software is, you can incorporate the necessary elements into your marketing.
- There are five factors for measuring how "adaptable" a new product is:
Relative advantage of the product: How superior is the innovation to the product or other problem-solving methods it was designed to compete against?Compatibility: Does it fit with current product usage and customer activity?
Complexity: Will difficulty or confusion arise in understanding the innovation’s basic idea?
Divisibility: How easily can trial portions of the product be purchased?
Communicability: How likely is the product to appear in public places where it is easily seen and studied by potential users?
©1997, 1998, 1999 Michele Determan