How important is knowing your product? What are the benefits to knowing and understanding it and what are the downfalls or consequences if you don't?
We're using the word "product" in this context as a broad term. This means if you're a jewelry company then your product is obviously jewelry, but if you're a marketing company then your product is the services you provide. All businesses have a product of some kind. The problem we've noticed, though, is how often people don't understand their product, haven't defined their product or, in some cases when a person is just starting a company, they don't even know what their product is or is going to be. This can't happen, your product is the single most important thing about your business and you need to know what it is and know everything about it.
If you already have a business and a product, you want to focus on getting to know and defining your product. The best way to do this is to ask yourself a few questions that will help you start this process.
What is your product?
What does it do?
What solution/benefit does it provide to an individual who buys it?
Why is there a need for this product?
Why is your product superior to those similar to it?
What benefits do you offer that other companies with the same or a similar product do not?
Who is your target buyer? What is their age, gender, education, income, occupation, and why do they need this product?
What problem are you solving for people with this product?
Without having a proper understanding of your product you can't do effective marketing. You need to understand exactly what you're marketing, why people need it, and who you're marketing to in order for a strategy to be effective.
If you're just starting a business, but don't know what your product is yet you need to find out before you do anything else. Not only is marketing impossible without a defined product, but a business itself is almost non-existent when you don't know what it is you're selling. So, how do you figure out what your product is? Luckily, there's a set of questions to get you started on this as well.
What problems do you want to solve for people?
What kinds of products do you wish were around for you to purchase?
What do you imagine your target audience will be?
What do you want the focus of your business to be?
This is a way to start brainstorming about what you want your product to be. The real thing you need to think about is simply: What do you want to sell to people? What can you provide to them that will help them and make you money at the same time? Once you've figured out what your product is going to be, you can go back to the previous section of this post to work on defining your product.
A defined product means a defined business, marketing strategy, and plan of attack. Before anything else; before marketing, business plans, or anything else can happen you have to know what your product is. Your product is what your business and your marketing will be centered around.
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