Charles Darwin said something that really ought to resonate with today’s marketer: “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Even the most successful organisations continue to face new and unexpected challenges in today’s tumultuous political, economic and social climates. Marketers are expected to provide the evidence, and the market strategy to mitigate and manage the change parameters that surround their organisation in order to position their company for the next ‘evolution’.
Let’s talk about evolution for a minute. We think that your organisation has quite a few ‘evolutionary’, if not ‘revolutionary’ new product and service developments up its rather large sleeves, ready to hit the market, when the time is right. Most companies are often so focused on designing and manufacturing that they postpone the hard work of getting ready to market until it’s too late. You, as a marketer have probably lost count of the number of times you’ve been called in as an after- thought (that’s the way it feels, but perhaps you boss would beg to differ), to mitigate and manage the marketing process.
There are three issues here:
- How does a marketer help their company adapt to parameters outside their control?
- How can marketing as a function find a natural place at the beginning of a design and manufacturing process?
- What are the warning signs that ‘evolutionary’ and ‘revolutionary’ products are ‘cruising for a bruising’ or worse, destined to fail?
Helping Companies to adapt
Your responsibility, perhaps above everything else you think you’re responsible for, is to know the market and that includes the market conditions in PEST and SWOT terms. You also need to have very good insight when it comes to the competition. That’s the context within which you will operate and your job is to design your regular ‘upward’ communications to reflect not only the issues, but the solutions.
Marketing as part of the Design and Manufacturing Process
Questions: When was the last time you invested time in relationships with key members of the design and manufacturing teams? Do you even know who these key people are? Or are you so externally focused that you’ve forgotten the need to act as the key liaison point between the customer and the product teams? Do you regularly and without being asked, send those teams market information that could add value to their work? You can have a prime seat at their top table if you demonstrate your value – add.
Warning signs for product fizzle or failure
- As a marketer, working with product design and manufacturing, you need to be confident in signing off product ‘claims to fame’. Let us not forget the problems Microsoft had in 2007 when it launched Windows Vista and set high expectations with both the media and the public – this truly was going to be ‘evolutionary’. Microsoft allotted $500M for marketing and predicted that 50% of users would run the premium edition within two years. But the software had so many compatibility and performance problems that customers revolted and Apple lampooned it, adding to Microsoft’s woes. Warning sign: The product isn’t really ready. Action: Don’t launch- be brave. Hold your line.
- If your customers can’t quickly figure out how to use your product – take note! You’ll know that educating consumers if you’re in the B-2-C space and those that purchase product for companies (B-2-B space) just don’t have the marketing funds available to educate huge numbers of people. Of course you can always count on social media and user-generated reviews to spread the word, but don’t be caught out, because as you are well aware, those same great tools can also generate negative publicity too. Warning sign: No-one except early-adopters gets it’. Action: Test on your ‘lowest common denominator’ purchasing group to get the feedback on whether to cut and run or not.
- The design teams promises this product is ‘revolutionary’. Warning sign: You can’t exactly define a market for it. Action: Being the one person who stands up and tells the emperor he has no clothes on his body is not a popular place to be. Hearing your opposing opinion is possibly career- limiting. Why not let someone else stick their neck out? Rise to the challenge and make sure you have documented the evidence which delivers the fatal blow. Have you asked the right questions to get to the ‘no market’ answer? Make sure you do. The right evidence is pretty irrefutable and could actually make you a hero.
- The bells and whistles on your soon-to-be launched product are just like your competitors. Warning sign: You can’t put your hand on your heart and confidently talk about the differences between your product and the competitions. Action: New products can take on lives of their own within organizations and become so hyped that there is no turning back. Engaging the brand team, marketing, sales and web professionals early on gains valuable feedback in product design and it can help steer a course to success, or if necessary, abort a great idea that isn’t right for the market.
Finally, we will leave you with one more quote from Charles Darwin which we think as a marketer, you’ll appreciate: “As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.”
(marketingmoves specialises in IT marketing recruitment, recruiting Only the best marketers.Only for IT and Telecoms.)
