4 tips for making your product a success.
Unless you're a carefully regulated government-overseen monopoly, you know that competition is everywhere in business. So, how do you stay relevant in a shifting consumer eco-system? By doing everything we tell you to, of course.
But seriously, we don't put out these guidelines as a secret recipe that will guarantee success; this is what we’ve observed from thousands of case studies in businesses that have successfully moved product and managed to fit nicely and profitably in their niche. To be clear we're not going to go into details about how to run your business, but focus on our realm of knowledge, namely packaging, branding and presentation.
Does your product fill a need?
The most common reason for a product's failure is that it doesn’t fill a consumer need. That doesn’t mean that your product is worthless, it just means that your potential customers have yet to realize they need your product. For example, let's say you make a great eye drop. If used just once, you know your customers would never use anything else to soothe their itchy red eyes. But there is one problem. On the shelf your eye drops look like this:
It's a great design (kind of). But what does it tell your customer? Does it even look like other eye drop products? Does it look like this product will soothe your itching red eyes? According to FMI, a retail research group, the average retail customer spends less than six seconds in evaluating and selecting a product. That's not a lot of time to make an impression. (I should also mention that those six seconds are spread across everything on that shelf.) If you're sending the wrong message, your portion of those six seconds are gone.
How does your target customer view your product?
How does your ideal customer spend money? Do they value quality? Do they like to buy in bulk? Will they pay top dollar or are they hunting for the lower price point? Believe it or not, how your product is presented says a lot about what values you may share with your ideal customer. Part of the reason why your new fruit drink isn’t flying off the shelf could be that your label is more fitting of a fine wine rather than a refreshing blast of sweet citrusy goodness.
Does your label or graphic need an update?
Have you ever been browsing a shelf of products and seen one that looks like it belongs in another decade? It probably isn't too often because successful products are keeping their artwork up-to-date. They understand that you don't mess with a classic, but there is no harm in updating that once in a while. I remember working as a stock clerk at a gas station in the late 90's. During my shift, I had to restock these flashlights that looked like they were straight from the early 80's. I wondered if those flashlights had been sitting on the shelf for the last 15+ years, and was shocked to discover that they were still making these with the same 80's graphic! We hardly moved any of those outdated units. The flashlights worked fine but the packaging practically screamed that it was an antique.
Does your packaging need a change-up?
Your packaging may be partly to blame. It may be an amazing bottle, but that drop dispenser is just a little too big. Sometimes it's as easy as changing a dropper tip. Maybe it's the pump or dispensing cap. For over ten years, I have used a particular brand of hair gel. I love my hair gel, but they recently switched from a flip top cap to a disc-top cap. This was a big deal! The flip top never clogged, but the disc top gets all gummed up. This new cap has actually altered my opinion of the gel, even though the product is still the same. A good way to prevent this kind of misery is to use proper packaging. As someone once told me, Think about how much better pop-tarts would taste if the brand managers had to eat them every day for breakfast.
Conclusion
If you need help with new packaging, a fresh label, or just some outside advice, just call or email us at 1-800-473-4144 or customerservice@conpak.net.