What are the five topmost important considerations for a successful product? This brief editorial will answer this question with the list of equally-weighted factors provided below:
Number 1 – Satisfying Market Needs with Product Solutions
All products fulfill market needs at some level of importance. A highly successful product provides potential customers with major benefits that increase their value and demand. The challenge for entrepreneurs as well as established companies is identifying market opportunities.
Once those opportunities have been defined, designers and engineers are called upon to develop a product that will satisfy the needs of the market. Product success or failure is determined by the synergy between marketing and engineering during the development cycle. Successful products represent cooperative interactions between these two disciplines sharing a common visionary goal.
Number 2 – User Satisfaction
Products must be designed for an end-user who must be satisfied with their purchase. Accumulated dissatisfied end-users will ultimately result in product failures. User satisfaction will vary based on the product, the number of suppliers and the product life cycle.
Newly introduced products typically experience little to no competition focusing user expectations on how well their recently purchased product performs its intended function. As competition from other suppliers increases with products offering additional functionality, improved aesthetics, or lower costs consumers are offered choices. These choices may increase throughout the product life cycle until a product reaches a point after which it has become obsolete. Industrial designers provide clients with creative user-centric features to maximize user satisfaction.
Number 3 – Cost and Value
Every product can be rated based on its cost-value ratio. Products with great value are competitively priced while providing exceptionally high performance or satisfaction. Conversely, poorly valued products perform marginally and are overpriced.
High-performance products that are overpriced can be successful if they are marketed on strong brand recognition. Likewise, very low-cost poor performing products can succeed in certain markets where low cost outweighs performance. Poorly valued products are usually quickly discovered by consumers and short-lived. Good designers are an invaluable resource for optimizing the value of a product by creatively including desirable features cost-effectively.
Number 4 – Reliability and Performance
Brand names are recognized because of marketing and advertising campaigns as well as product performance. Corporations want their customer base to associate high quality, reliability and performance with their products. Product brands can be quickly destroyed because of low quality and inferior performance. That is why there is so much emphasis placed on quality in today’s market. These product attributes reflect corporate culture, values and social responsibility which are directly associated with profits. Designers are critical to establishing and maintaining high standards for product quality. The standards established in design specifications set the requirements for production which must implement protocols for maintaining quality.
Number 5 – Consumer Awareness/ Marketing
Effective marketing, advertising and sales are essential for any product or service. The best product will never be sold to anyone without being recognized by the buying public. Highly successful products have been marketed by a tightly integrated strategic relationship between design and marketing departments.
Designers are intimately aware of marketing objectives, user requirements and critical selling features of a product that are all represented in the design. Conversely, marketing personnel are appreciative of design features and benefits that are cleverly communicated to the buying public. This synergistic combination of knowledge and strategy leads to clever advertising campaigns that propel products to the top of their markets.
I hope this brief summary of the five most important considerations in designing and marketing a successful product has refreshed your outlook for your next big product launch. Let’s discuss. Please contact me at paloian@idsys.com or visit our website www.idsys.com.