1. Understand the context, beyond entrepreneurial instinct: the stories of successful products born thanks to the intuition of knowledgeable entrepreneurs abound in our society. Although the talent of those who do business is a very important factor, when it comes to diversifying their offer without exposing themselves to too many risks, it is essential to start with a solid qualitative-quantitative analysis of the context: identify the growing and/or unmanned market niches; develop a business case that estimates necessary investments, volumes and margins; and understand competitive dynamics. These steps may sound pedantic, but all are essential.
2. Building products based on needs: a necessary condition for a product to be successful is that it understands and satisfies a need of a target audience. This guiding light must illuminate the entire product construction process (in terms of features, packaging, price, etc.) as well as its location on the market (product/market matrix and positioning maps).
3. Define a brand policy: when a company ventures outside its comfort zone, one of the most complex choices is related to the brand. Adopt the main brand for the new product? Develop a new one? Create a “child brand” of the main brand that can exploit its strength, without exposing it directly and compromising its value in case of difficulty? There is no one right solution. However, if the goal is to minimise risks on the core business, an entirely new brand or a “child brand” are probably the most suitable ways.
4. Test, and be willing to listen to the market: the only real way to understand if a product can work on the market (before launching it, of course!) is to test it with future customers. Various paths can be taken: from focus groups, testing on geographical areas or consumer groups, and A/B testing, up to the minimum viable product approach for digital products and services that involves the marketing of a version of the product that is still being processed (but with a series of minimum characteristics) to collect user feedback. Whatever the test mode, it is essential to listen carefully to the feedback collected and be willing to review the choices made.
5. Launch the product with a structured but flexible approach: defining a structured marketing plan with objectives and KPIs, in addition to ensuring that efforts to penetrate the market are efficient, allows you to evaluate the choices you made along the way. Having clarity on what is and isn’t working gives the opportunity to intervene, eliminating, if necessary, the product lines that do not achieve the expected results. Understand, plan, act: three words to define how to allow a controlled and “healthy” growth of the company’s business which doesn’t affect the value of the main brand.
