New Product Sales and Marketing Strategy

New Product: Debut to Target Market
Developing and refining a new product is an exciting time, particularly one that fulfills a clear and present need of consumers all over the world. Introducing a new product to the world is even more exciting, especially if that product has done well with test markets. Introducing a new product to existing and new markets requires strategy and motivation in order to get the product into the hands of the people who are going to use it, love it and tell their friends. The key to doing this successfully is to truly understand your product and to promote it to the target markets using proven strategies for both sales and marketing.
Product Description
This product was born out of the fact that the world of business, sports and entertainment has evolved at a rapid pace and continues to each day, and for the average professional, it can be daunting to keep up with. However, the professional obligation demands that one keep up with it, because that is the expectation. Hence, the product proposed is a mobile app called ReachOut that provides two distinct services. The first service that it gives the user is that of a personalized social media marketer/manager for their behalf (if say, the user is a celebrity or public personality) or for their company/brand/product. The user initiates themselves into the app by entering all relevant information about their brand as a personality or their company or field. They enter all relevant details, such as what they do, what their goals are, who their competitors are, and what some of their obstacles are. The app then makes suggestions about what to do on social media, such as how to promote their content, people to respond to, people to network with, and articles to post. It’s essentially like have a social marketing guru in one’s pocket and with one every step of the way, helping one navigate the fast-paced world of social media.
The second service that the product offers is that it is constantly scanning and curating the photos on your phone, noting that ones that are appropriate for posting, including one’s that the user might have overlooked. Furthermore, the app can also track the user’s location using GPS and can send alerts of things or landmarks to snap photos of to post on social media so that one can strengthen each post with a photo image.
Strategy for Entering Markets
Obviously the prospective consumers who would need and frequently use this product are numerous. However, when starting out, it’s crucial to pinpoint the market with as much precision as possible so that there is a deep and innate comprehension of exactly who one is selling to. For example, instead of all women from 18-35, it might be upper-middle class women who have no children and are unmarried. Likewise, instead of all women 30-45, it might be professional men makes over six figures per year. “The more specific you get, the more accurately you'll be able to target your sales and marketing efforts, choosing the sales channels most receptive to your product” (Entrpreneur.com, 2007). Thus, creating a hyper-specific pitch to the segment of the market that one has chose needs to be drafted. This marketing plan will follow the pillars of product, price, promotion place (Rudelius & Kern, 2015).
There is every possibility that the company understands its existing market, its customer base and their requirements and knows how to meet these needs effectively. If the company enjoys strong sales, has great brand awareness and the business is stable overall, it may be the right time to take the plunge. In this case, the product will be marketed to men and women between the age of 25-40, who make six figures or more and who are childless, and who are already avid social media users. This is key because the product will be promoted on social media in order for consumers to become more aware of it. The product at its core is for people who want to improve their social media game in a professional manner and who already have made some effort in this regard. Hence, it will be marketed at a price of $9.99 monthly with a free one week trial period. Of course, if the user wants to pay for additional or elite benefits, they can pay a little bit more each month for certain a la carte services. Thus, the product will be promoted aggressively using Instagram and Twitter ads, and through the use of Instagram and Twitter influencers.
Potential Barriers
The potential barriers we may encounter are that our promotional efforts might just get lost on the big outer space environment that is Twitter and Instagram. We might not get the interest or engagement that we anticipated nor the opt-ins for starting a free trial. In this case, we have saved a portion of our budget to pay influencers to promote the product for us, such as leaders in the tech, entertainment, business and fashion worlds. We can ensure that our product will be successful, because we have adequately budgeted more than enough money to not only advertise the item, but to insure the most influential people in their fields are willing and able to help us with our promotional efforts.
In conclusion, a solid sales strategy can help one weather many storms that can occur when marketing a product to consumers. The better one understand both their product and their target market, the higher the likelihood for success. It’s also crucial to have a large portion of the promotional budget set aside for emergencies or aggressive pushes forward.
References
Kerin, R. A., & Hartley, S. W. (2016). Marketing: The core (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Martin, M. (2016, September 13). How To Enter A New Market. Retrieved from https://www.cleverism.com/enter-new-market/
Monosoff, T. (2007, 29). How To Market A New Product. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/179084