go to market
Launching a new product can be a daunting task.
There are so many things to think about when planning to launch a new product and the natural inclination is to focus on those things which you are most comfortable with.
We can help you understand the breadth of things that have to be done, from legal agreements and intellectual property protection through to pricing and public relations.
Then we can help you by taking those tasks that you are least familiar with off your shoulders, either by finding and briefing the right professionals, or by doing the work ourselves.
An effectivus view on seven pricing strategies
A friend and client was kind enough to point out a deficiency in my web site the other day.
“What about pricing, Chris? I can’t find anything about it on your site.”
Sigh.
All of us wise students of marketing know that Price is just one of the 4P’s (or 7P’s, or 47peas in a pod), and that it is the offering that our customers buy into. We know that the whole product is so much more than just the price, but we also have to set a price. At some point, we have to pin our colours to the mast and give a price; no vagueness, not a variable, but a definitive number. That is tough.
I thought I had better refer to one of the “great men” of modern management theory: Michael Porter. I duly looked up “price” in the index of Competitive Strategy and found a section entitled “Correct Pricing”. Only a “great man” could simplify the topic to the binary opinion that there is “correct” and “incorrect” pricing. Pah!
Your average management books (and maybe the less than average ones too) cover pricing with a number of different strategies. It is telling that you find it covered in Economics, Marketing, Strategy, Finance. Each approach tells us something about your Product Management and Marketing team.
So, for the first, and probably last time, here is the Effectivus guide to pricing strategies…
By Chris | January 25, 2010
The first ‘most stupid’ product award of 2010 goes to…
What were they thinking about? What can possibly have got into the Samsung engineers’ minds, let alone the marketing guys, to make them think that the Tic Toc was a good idea?
Announced at CES, the Tic Toc is an incredibly small MP3 player which has but one button. You control it by turning this way or that, or shaking it quickly or slowly. As the power says: “Easily shift through a choice of four play modes with a simple shake of the wrist”…”through the force of gravity”.
You can just imagine the thought process:
- We could make an MP3 player much smaller if it did not have to have buttons or a screen on it (a bit like saying a car could be much more efficient if only it did not have to carry passengers).
- I know, we play the Wii by shaking the controller, we could do the same with our MP3 player.
- Oh, wow, now we’d need to watsit, a thingy and a 9v power supply…
Meanwhile in the marketing department… “an MP3 player with no buttons, no one has ever done that before, we’ve got to show it at CES”.
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A software product that solves real problems comes to market ready and proven.
Redboard is a proprietary workflow for 3D animation particularly suited to the rigours of television series. Effectivus have been working with its creators at Hibbert Ralph Animation since early 2008.
Jerry Hibbert, a 30 year veteran of the animation industry, has directed many animation series and television advertisements. Recognising the need to reduce costs incurred by errors in interpreting storyboards, HRA have developed a CGI workflow which gives directors and commissioning producers the confidence that final media would match approved storyboards. This combines traditional storyboarding techniques with the benefits a true 3D environment and allows exact camera and object positioning to be communicated to the remote rendering company along with the artistic expressions and actions that will bring the animation to life. This increased confidence has allowed the storyboard artists to be more adventurous in their work, knowing that the practical issues of communicating their vision have been resolved. The workflow has enabled considerable savings in the production and reduced both errors and overruns on the latest series of 52, 10 minute, episodes of Fireman Sam.
(more…)
Also posted in projects | Tagged projects, Redboard, users |
By Chris | March 31, 2009
Why clear product manuals are so important and need to be planned for from the beginning.
Posted in go to market | Tagged fun, lifecycle |
By Chris | February 5, 2009
Is your new product name an ace or a dog?
Posted in go to market | Tagged ideas, product |
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