The most common pitfalls when promoting new products

The marketing strategy of a product must go with the trend. Correspondingly, advertising should lay out and build the consumer's decision-making ladder step by step, so that consumers can smoothly determine their product needs, search for information, and evaluate plans.

A very strange phenomenon is that many new products are busy with brand image packaging and large-scale advertising as soon as they are launched on the market, in order to expand their popularity and build their reputation.

However, the result of doing so is often not what the company expects - quickly occupying the market and then waiting to collect money.

In fact, this approach often results in mediocre sales or even failure of new products after they enter the market. Ultimately, the huge amount of money invested did not achieve the desired conversion , but only increased the so-called "public awareness" - after all, any product can achieve similar effects as long as a large amount of advertising is placed.

Why does this phenomenon occur?

A key reason is that these companies ignore the series of links that consumers must go through when purchasing products. This means that once the previous basic links are not resolved, no matter how the subsequent links are strengthened (increasing advertising investment), they are often ineffective.

It's like asking a crawling child to learn to walk. It is difficult to unlock the walking skill if you haven't solved the basic key link (learning to stand) yet.

The same is true in consumer decision-making behavior.

Research has found that when consumers make purchasing decisions, they usually go through the following steps in sequence:

• Need identification – I need to buy a new phone;
• Information search - open JD.com and see what brands of mobile phones are available;
• Evaluation of alternative options - After choosing and choosing, I decided to choose one brand from "Apple, Samsung , and Huawei". Apple is a bit expensive now (financial risk obstacle), and Samsung exploded some time ago (functional/health risks). Although Huawei is a domestic product, it has a good reputation and I like the spokesperson they hired, so I will choose Huawei.
• Buy - Huawei meets my requirements in every aspect, so I chose it.

From the above we can see that only when consumers have a definite demand for a product (I need a new mobile phone) will the brand’s popularity and reputation (Huawei has good popularity and reputation) become meaningful.

(PS: For some products, consumers directly skip the demand identification stage, such as a new shampoo)

On the contrary, for a product with insufficient consumer motivation and unclear demand, if you start with brand packaging and building brand awareness (which mainly affects the second half of the decision-making model), it is equivalent to directly skipping the demand identification stage. At this time, no matter how hard you try, it is difficult to increase sales - after all, if I don’t have the need to consume protein powder to gain muscle, then the popularity of protein powder will be meaningless to me.

Therefore, for such new products, the first step must be to arouse consumers' motivation, rather than blindly doing things such as image packaging and building brand awareness.

In fact, not only do we need to focus on the problems to be solved when a product is first launched on the market, but we also often need to constantly shift the focus and focus on different problems at different stages of product development.

To this end, combining the product life cycle model with the decision model can provide some insights:

As mentioned before, during the introduction period, companies should focus on the "demand identification" link in consumer decision-making. At this stage, the most important task of marketing is to clarify consumer needs and arouse their consumption motivations.

So, after the product has successfully passed the introduction phase and entered the growth phase , that is, after the consumer motivation issue has been resolved, where should the marketing focus turn to?

This is obviously the "information search" stage - after all, the need to buy a mobile phone has arisen, and the next step is to know where to buy it.

The common practice at this stage is to build as many marketing channels as possible so that the products are “within reach” of target consumers as soon as they have demand - this is often referred to as targeted delivery.

(PS: Because this part requires the channel capabilities of marketers , I will not go into details)

In fact, in order to establish an advantage in the information search process, in addition to accurately matching the target population and making efforts in marketing channels, it is more important and necessary to establish a cognitive connection between products and consumer needs - and this is also the key judgment criterion for distinguishing well-known brands from small brands.

In other words, once consumers think of relevant needs, they are more likely to think of the solutions you provide.

For example, once we think of "fear of getting a sore throat", our first reaction is to "drink Jiaduobao ". At this time, Jiaduobao has established a strong cognitive association with the demand of "fear of getting a sore throat". This also means that the opportunities for other products that prevent heat stroke will become very small.

For example, when I think about giving gifts to elders during the Chinese New Year, I think of Melatonin. At this time, Melatonin has established a strong association with "giving gifts to elders".

In short, companies should invest enough energy to do one thing: establish a connection between products and consumer needs. The stronger the connection, the greater the brand opportunity, and vice versa.

Therefore, the ultimate goal of marketing is obvious: strive to occupy a leading position in the category in the minds of users. Ultimately, when users have some relevant needs, they will be more likely to think of you rather than other brands.

As mentioned above, the goal of marketing is to establish a connection between products and needs, so after most needs arise, consumers can easily find solutions (for example, if there is a need to buy a mobile phone, the next step is to go to JD.com to see what brands and models of mobile phones are available). However, it is also possible that after a demand arises, consumers cannot easily find relevant solutions - which means that the "information search" stage is unclear.

When consumers encounter obstacles in the "information search" process of a certain category, it is often an opportunity to build a platform.

For example: Around 2012, if you wanted to buy brand-name shoes and clothes at a lower price, where would you choose?

Well, you would say outlets.

But what if you want to buy big brands online at low prices?

The answer is most likely no.

Why?

Because, online at that time, when consumers had the demand to "buy big-brand shoes and clothing at low prices", there was no clear search direction. This is where the problem of information search has not been solved - when consumers want to buy discounted big-name shoes and clothes for less money, they have no choice online.

At this time, if someone comes forward to integrate these low-priced big-brand resources, create a platform, and solve the problem of unclear information search by consumers, there will be great market opportunities.

Therefore, Vipshop later positioned itself as "a website specializing in special sales" and became a huge success.

As information search problems are solved, the product gradually begins to enter the maturity stage .

At this stage, consumers are sufficiently motivated to purchase products and know exactly where to search for them. At the same time, a large number of competitors will inevitably emerge at this stage.

Therefore, companies should change their focus again, and now they should pay more attention to the "alternative plan evaluation" link - that is, how to stand out among competitors.

If you want consumers to choose you among many alternatives, you need to make efforts in the "alternative evaluation" link of the consumer decision-making model - use popularity, reputation, etc. to influence consumer choices.

Therefore, it is not impossible to increase popularity, reputation, and favorability. The key is to accurately identify the period in which the product is in.

Finally, after a product has passed the maturity stage, it will move into the decline stage because better substitutes appear on the market that can better meet consumer needs. This has resulted in a gradual decline in sales of existing products and a loss of competitiveness.

At this time, companies can focus on the "purchasing" stage of consumers, because the product has gradually lost its competitiveness. Even if consumers finally choose you, they will give up buying because the price is too high or they feel it is not worth it.

At this time, if the product price is reduced moderately so that the price is generally lower than similar products, even if the function is not that good, it can still attract some consumers because of the low price.

Conclusion

Consumers often go through a series of processes to make purchasing decisions. If the previous links are not resolved, no matter how hard you try later, it is likely to be in vain.

The revelation for marketing is that the marketing strategy of a product must go with the trend. Correspondingly, advertising should lay out and build the consumer's decision-making ladder step by step, so that consumers can smoothly determine their product needs, search for information, and evaluate plans.

Only in this way, when the groundwork in the previous links has been laid, can consumers complete their purchases more easily.

Once this decision-making sequence is violated, it will be difficult for consumers to complete the process smoothly, and the purchase will naturally be difficult to make.

Notice:

This article points out that at different stages of product development, companies should focus on a certain aspect of the consumer decision model. But this does not mean that other links are not important and do not need attention.

On the contrary, no matter at which product stage, companies should focus on the entire consumer decision-making process rather than just focusing on one link.

This article is intended to explain the problem more clearly and specifically.