Positioning a really new product

I received a comment to a recent blog (Customers, not you, position your company) asking how to position an unproven new product or service in a new product category with little competition.

Great question many entrepreneurs will face, but few will realize or take advantage of this very unique and important opportunity.

Usually when there's "no competition" it means there's no one filling a spot in a new category.

There's plenty of competition. People have been devising ways to solve a problem or satisfy a need that this new product will do better. But people have been coping. Now they're offered a better way, a more powerful way, a less expensive way, a faster way, or at least a more novel way to gain the satisfaction they are striving to acheive.

So you position your new offering against the old way of doing things.

Geoffrey A. Moore in the book, Crossing the Chasm, gives us a specific model to position a truly new product. It was written specifically for hi-tech product introductions, but I've used it with modifications as a basis for low-tech launches as well. Incidentally, I recommend this book as a strategy primer for any new product launch even though it was written over 15-years ago. Anyway,

Geoffrey provides the following formula for developing a position for unique products. You just fill in the blanks.

• For (target customers)
  Who are dissatisfied with (current market alternative)
  Our product is a (new product category)
  That provides (key problem-solving capability)
  Unlike (the product alternative)
  We have assembled (key product benefits)

A product category is key to positioning. You compete within one. You position your product to the competitors in your product category. It's important to know your category. And if you're first in a particular category, you have a distinct advantage.

In fact, unless and until you really foul up, you own that category. So if you truly have a unique product that doesn't belong in an existing product category, your position is that you own that category. Act like a leader and customers will follow, provided the product serves a purpose, solves a problem or fulfills a desire.

Martin Jelsema
Signature Strategies
Helping smaller companies profit from the power of branding

www.signaturestrategies.biz