Most products fail once they hit the market. What you really need is a way to pre-sell your product, and the sooner the better.
Crowdfunding, marketing, and online sales can all save you money, and these strategies are the most important things you can do to improve your chances of success.
In the best case, your product will exceed pre-sale expectations, such as Huami’s first-generation wristband.
In the worst case, you won’t sell anything. Sir Wei was in charge of a fingerprint USB flash drive product aimed at the consumer market, which ended up with poor sales due to market misjudgment.
Software and online product startups have an advantage: They have a greater ability to quickly get a stripped-down version of their product — MVP — on the market to see if anyone really wants it.
As a hardware company, your job is going to be extremely hard, and you need to replicate your software or online product strategy as much as possible.
Crowdfunding on a website is a way to raise money, but it’s not the most important function of crowdfunding. What’s really valuable is that you’ll get market feedback, because people will vote for your product with real money.
In the past, it was hard to test a hardware product before it was fully developed, but crowdfunding has changed that because you can sell the product before it is fully developed.
That is, of course, if you need a proof-of-concept prototype “POC,” which is much cheaper.
In order to run a successful crowdfunding campaign, you need an online target group. Keep them interested by sharing useful content and product development updates.
You need market feedback from day one.
So start building your audience as soon as possible.
Building a successful product doesn’t have to be a grope in the dark. Here are 8 strategies.
It’s not enough to rely on friends and family to build a new product. Instead, review early plans and prototypes with potential customers.
The idea is to get people to give you feedback that can be used to confirm that the product meets their needs and, if it doesn’t, to improve it.
Is the product shape correct? Are buttons or other functional components in the right place? Is the color right? That way, you don’t have to spend weeks, or even months, developing features that don’t matter to the customer.
Simple product design is critical, as is brand continuity in every product you sell.
Your product must be noticed within the first three seconds of a glance, and quality design is the best investment you can make.
Product packaging should also be clean, eye-catching, and have easy-to-read text.
In most consumer products, packaging is the only way you communicate with your customers.
When developing packaging, consider where to sell the product. Retailers want packaging that doesn’t take up too much space, and many packers are looking for environmentally friendly options.
Don’t worry about materials or manufacturing. Low-cost suppliers may not be your best choice. It’s important not to make a purchase decision based solely on price. You have to pursue quality and reputation.
Research online, attend fairs and collect industry advice, and you must personally visit any factories you plan to work with.
To ensure the best results, you need to create guidelines for each manufacturing detail.
For example, rather than simply saying that your product should be made of stainless steel, you need to specify the grade or the factory may use the lowest end of steel.
Don’t expect a flawless product. Focus on every detail.
When considering pricing, you need to take into account all overhead costs, including shipping and taxes.
Other errors:
Mismeasure the price consumers are willing to pay; Not knowing where you’re going to sell your product; Think you can make the same profit from high-end and low-end retailers. Costs and prices are determined by the market, unless you are creating a new market for your product.
Don’t Overstock If you run out of inventory, you could turn your company into the Titanic.
If you think you’re going to sell 100, don’t go for 1,000, go for 110.
Cash flow, shipping time, storage space and shelf life will determine how much product you have in stock.
Then there is the question of how many colors, styles, sizes, and other variations to offer initially.
Give consumers too much choice and you run the overwhelming risk that a confused mind won’t buy.
Protect Your IdeasIntellectual property law can only protect you if you are armed. You must hire an INTELLECTUAL property attorney.
You should trademark your product name as early as possible, purchase the appropriate network domain and file a patent application for the appearance (which takes less time and can quickly protect the appearance of the product).
Consider retailers and Communicate intelligently Have meetings with potential retailers been held?
You need to anticipate all the problems they may encounter so that you can help them understand how to market and sell your product to their specific customer base.
Keep it simple. The most effective sales pitch is to deliver three simple, memorable selling points to potential buyers, the value proposition.
All the other money and time you spend working is for nothing when you don’t have a business, a company, or a brand. Read the scenario below.
You come up with a business idea, so you start working on it:
It took you four hours to come up with a catchy company name and two hours to come up with a slogan. You spent 2000 RMB to make 3 logos and you spent three hours asking your friends to choose their favorites. You spent two hours figuring out why none of your friends liked the same logo as you. You spent 3000 RMB asking a friend to set up a cheap website for you. You spent four hours simulating it. You spend three hours asking your friend if they like it. You paid a friend 5,000 yuan to build a prototype in your industry. You show it to 200 of your closest friends, and they all politely tell you it’s a great product. You spent four hours setting up your social media page. You invited all your friends to follow you. You spend four hours taking out a beautiful business card, then spend 100 yuan to make a beautiful business card. But you forget one thing, you haven’t found a factory to make the product, a factory at a reasonable price.
Don’t spend time judging the logo or telling all your friends about your company until you have a complete understanding of the manufacturing side.
How can I find a factory?
1) Find the right trade show: Looking for factories at trade shows is an effective way to do this.
2) Alibaba: Alibaba is still by far the best source for finding factories around the world.
Spent hours searching on Alibaba, reading and sending messages to contact factories to order samples from them to test their quality.
Read reviews to make sure they are honest business partners.
When you contact or talk to a factory, be prepared to try to learn some industry jargon or important details about the product.
Ask about minimum requirements, logistics times, manufacturing techniques, and just about anything else you can think of.
The more comprehensive your questions are, the more seriously the factory will believe you. Also, if you’re going to a trade show, take your prototype with you.
Author: Sir Wei, public account: GANI Business
This article is originally published by @GANI Business in the Nuggets community, without the author’s permission, reprint is prohibited