Market Testing To Prevent Product Failure!
So you have developed a product and it’s ready for market, good for you. Now it’s just a matter of developing an effective marketing campaign right? Well, hold on partner…let’s look at your product and see if there are any “Edsel” gremlins lurking about.
Market testing is perhaps the most painful process in your product cycle, other than coming up with the idea in the first place. No one wants others to analyze something you’ve made; it goes back to when you drew your first horse for the refrigerator. Imagine if your mother chided you for drawing five legs…it would be enough to send you into therapy for years. No, we Americans don’t like criticism of any kind, that’s why we love to hate Simon Cowl. However, when it comes down to it, we appreciate a straight shooter.
That’s why you are going to have to subject yourself to the scrutiny of others, let them evaluate what you have created, pick it apart and offer their advice. It’s going to hurt and you will have to bite your tongue, but in the end, it could save your product from becoming a dismal failure.
We all remember product failures. It’s fun to talk about big companies falling down and doing something stupid. There are many reasons for a product to fail too. Anytime something is withdrawn from a market is definitely the worst type. That means someone was hurt or at the best it failed so dramatically that no amount of advertising could save it. Drug companies have their share of these disasters. They spend millions of dollars on research to develop a new elixir, have it tested and then wait for FDA approval, only to find later that it caused people’s hair to fall out.
It may not even be a true side effect, but if people perceive it to be true, the product may fail to sell. Prozac was plagued in its early years when the family of 50’s singer Del Shannon claimed it prompted his suicide in 1990. The suit was dropped, but the claim still circulates today. Auto companies have had their share of duds too. Remember these flops beside the Edsel?
Cadillac Cimarron
Pontiac Fiero
Chevrolet Corvair
The DeLorean
Crosley
The Tucker
The Gremlin, the Javelin and a complete line of other models by American Motors
We love to pick at big companies when they make blunders, but it’s probably because they rarely do. They spend vast amounts of money doing market research, then more money developing the product and then yes, you have guessed it…more money to test and advertise it. I certainly do not have those resources, and I doubt you do either, but just the same, we need to take the time to investigate whether our product is reasonably safe, effective and priced to sell.
A product does not have to hurt someone or be designed poorly to make it fail. It may fail simply because it never caught on and achieved it’s market share. Finding the right niche in your market is crucial to creating sales. It has to appeal to your target audience, but priced competitively to keep customers coming to you. Oh, the complexities of the marketing game…but every game has rules, so let us keep a stiff upper lip about it shall we? Finally, the ultimate test is whether your product can make a profit. If all other tests pass with excellence, if it doesn’t make money, it won’t last long. Politicians may not understand it, but isn’t making money the goal here?
Most of us probably aren’t building a new car or widget. We are likely selling products created by others or developing teaching and coaching aids to help others get started, so how can we test these? If we are selling an item already on the market, it has probably been tested to a certain extent. However, you’re not off the hook yet, you still need to find out if people actually want it, can you price it low enough to attract sales and does it give a favorable spin on your business presence. In the case of coaching and informational aids, testing is more straightforward, but still ignored by impatient marketers.
Do you make instructional videos? Try them out on a spouse, preferably, if he or she is unfamiliar with the material. Ask them if the video was interesting, was it understandable and were there any noticeable glitches or mistakes in the presentation. Most of us don’t like constructive criticism from our spouse, but they can be very insightful, so swallow your pride and listen. It may mean the difference between successes or failure. You could then offer the video as a gift to a limited amount of loyal customers on the condition they send their thoughts and comments in return. This would be an inexpensive way to test your product and make these grateful customers greedy for more material later on.
At the worse, if the product is rejected, you will get valuable feedback before it is released to the public. In addition, if you have partnered and collaborated with others before on a product development, these folks could lend important insights into the viability of your latest idea. Just make sure you are not tipping your hand to a competitor. I doubt Ford submits their ideas to Honda for their approval.
Just eyeing your product in an unbiased and critical eye may catch potential problems before they are unleashed market wide. Most likely, the biggest critic is yourself, so use it to your advantage. Just make sure you are not so critical that you give up…entrepreneurs exude positive thinking you know; we just have to be realistic too.
You owe it to yourself to take the extra steps necessary to make sure your marketing masterpiece is a Picasso and not a piece of graffiti on a train car. Spend that extra time and effort and do some testing, get some opinions, even when it can be rather painful. The successful are willing to get their toes stepped on in order to avoid a black eyed marketing disaster.
It isn’t just the product that needs to be tested. You should continuosly be testing through the entire process including your website or individual pages such as squeeze pages and sales pages.
First of all make sure you understand that it’s important to think about the goal of your page. What action do you want your visitor or the user of the product to take? Does your page clearly communicate that action to your visitor? What sections of your page will have a significant impact on whether users take that action?
In general, there are several different elements we recommend testing — headlines, images, promotional text, and calls to action just to mention a few. You should continually be striving for top product and website performance.
The Market Will Judge Your Product, Shouldn’t You Test It First? You need to become your best critic.
