Marketing - Product
Description, Name, New Product Adaptability

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. 

Product Description 

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 (product) that (performs this task)." 

Product Name 

It is more important to be descriptive than creative.  There are some exceptions to this - such as music band names. 

One of the best ways to determine a name for a product is to have a brainstorming session. The rules of brainstorming are: 

1. No ideas are rejected or criticized 
2. It is a free form "brain dump" 
3. Someone is in charge of writing the ideas on a board where everyone can see them 
4. After the ideas a generated, they are ranked by preference 
5.The pros and cons of the top ideas are discussed 

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. 

Product Adaptability 

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? 
 

Example - Product Music CD 

What is it that you are selling? 

You could say you are selling music, or an experience, or a feeling, or yourself.  But the bottom line is that you want people to buy your CD. 

Note:  Producing CDs has many advantages over producing tapes.  CDs can be produced for about $2 - $3 each, and you can charge $10 - $20 for them.  CDs give a professional, polished impression, and it is the media of choice for music listeners. 

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