Product Marketing – the Impact of social media
Corporates are setting new expectations on the return on marketing dollars and have shifted their spend from expensive advertisements, direct mailers and tele-marketing to search marketing/optimization, contextual specialist content and social media which help them have a presence in their Customer’s search results. This is indeed laying a strong foundation for a new Product marketing approach with more accountability & visibility of outcomes.
The 5P’s are always relevant!
Product Marketing is not about responding to proposals, making a sales pitch or spending $$$’s on a huge advertisement campaign!!! It is all about Product, Place, Promotion, Price & People!
Product: In-bound Marketing, product teams can today leverage social media to help decipher accurate Customer needs through online surveys, specialist forums and product ideation blogs than the traditional sources of gathering requirements through Customer meetings, Product improvement requests, advisory panel and sales teams.
Place: The question to ask is; do we sell more into our existing Customers, or is it time we look for new markets where they are facing similar challenges like what our existing customers have faced? While entering new markets the dichotomy is, we do see an opportunity, but what should be the right level of investment into this initiative to get a desired result . Here again, social media can help do the market seeding activities and back it up with a right mix of online marketing campaigns.
Promotion: The Impact of social media is a reality, If you're not taking advantage of the opportunity to establish new markets than the only alternative is the traditional method, for example: direct customer meetings, you're missing a big opportunity by not tapping into the social media. The impact of social media has a phenomenal amplifier effect that, when Customers are influenced by what others think, do or buy, their individual choices clearly tend to shift. The case in point is the evolution of 3R models (review, recommendations & ratings sites like Bazaar Voice & Wisdom Tap) in the Product Search & Marketing arena.
Price: Remember this always! The price a customer will eventually pay for a Product should reflect the value and functionality delivered to the customer and should not be the resources invested in the product. Pricing is a combination of a) what we want to achieve through pricing of our products b) method that relies on a particular pricing decision factor. c) pricing actions which consider the current life cycle stage of the product. To validate your pricing model, it is best advised to share the possible price-points in various domain specific industry forums, online specialist advisory councils and Customer forums, which can be undertaken well before the actual launch of the product.
People: The better the synchronization of goals and objectives of the TEAM, more satisfied is your Customer. It is important to have an open exchange of ideas and strategy to improve your Customer’s experience & deliver benefits on a continuous basis. It is imperative that the organization is “Customer Buying Behavior” driven, wherein all moving parts of the organization are aligned to meet the customer's needs. It is also equally important to honor the customer and treat him as always trustworthy and intelligent. Most of this can be achieved by right internal alignment & developing a multi pronged approach through online Customer forums, User forums & surveys to capture your Customer’s experience & provide the level of service.
The 5P’s are always relevant!
Product Marketing is not about responding to proposals, making a sales pitch or spending $$$’s on a huge advertisement campaign!!! It is all about Product, Place, Promotion, Price & People!
Product: In-bound Marketing, product teams can today leverage social media to help decipher accurate Customer needs through online surveys, specialist forums and product ideation blogs than the traditional sources of gathering requirements through Customer meetings, Product improvement requests, advisory panel and sales teams.
Place: The question to ask is; do we sell more into our existing Customers, or is it time we look for new markets where they are facing similar challenges like what our existing customers have faced? While entering new markets the dichotomy is, we do see an opportunity, but what should be the right level of investment into this initiative to get a desired result . Here again, social media can help do the market seeding activities and back it up with a right mix of online marketing campaigns.
Promotion: The Impact of social media is a reality, If you're not taking advantage of the opportunity to establish new markets than the only alternative is the traditional method, for example: direct customer meetings, you're missing a big opportunity by not tapping into the social media. The impact of social media has a phenomenal amplifier effect that, when Customers are influenced by what others think, do or buy, their individual choices clearly tend to shift. The case in point is the evolution of 3R models (review, recommendations & ratings sites like Bazaar Voice & Wisdom Tap) in the Product Search & Marketing arena.
Price: Remember this always! The price a customer will eventually pay for a Product should reflect the value and functionality delivered to the customer and should not be the resources invested in the product. Pricing is a combination of a) what we want to achieve through pricing of our products b) method that relies on a particular pricing decision factor. c) pricing actions which consider the current life cycle stage of the product. To validate your pricing model, it is best advised to share the possible price-points in various domain specific industry forums, online specialist advisory councils and Customer forums, which can be undertaken well before the actual launch of the product.
People: The better the synchronization of goals and objectives of the TEAM, more satisfied is your Customer. It is important to have an open exchange of ideas and strategy to improve your Customer’s experience & deliver benefits on a continuous basis. It is imperative that the organization is “Customer Buying Behavior” driven, wherein all moving parts of the organization are aligned to meet the customer's needs. It is also equally important to honor the customer and treat him as always trustworthy and intelligent. Most of this can be achieved by right internal alignment & developing a multi pronged approach through online Customer forums, User forums & surveys to capture your Customer’s experience & provide the level of service.
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