How To Market A Product

We all think that how to market a product efficiently is the most innovative, exciting thing known to mankind, but unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. In some cases, the customer’s demand for our products or services is driven by necessity and not by desire, and trying to get people interested in something that they only buy because they have to can be extremely difficult.

Take an example from my own industry, promotional marketing products. Companies buy these products when they need them for an event or an exhibition as a way of marketing themselves and building their brand. But they tend to be an afterthought, the last thing that marketers and event planners think about and something that is more often than not driven by price.

So if you aren’t the cheapest and you are tasked with marketing an on-demand product or service that is failing to capture the imagination, how can you grab the attention of potential customers?

How To Market Your Product Effectively

Use a Little Imagination

It is often said that B2C companies are much better than their B2B counterparts when it comes to injecting a little creativity into their marketing.

The company Sharpie demonstrated this creativity by using the famous footballer David Beckham in their advertising. What could have been a tenuous link was strengthened by their use of kids looking for autographs in their advertising, using a Sharpie pen of course. Pens are dull, getting the autograph of a world famous footballer is exciting.

What Sharpie did is a lesson to all marketers in how to inject a little creative thinking into how you to market your products? Clearly, listing the qualities that set a dull product apart from its dull contemporaries isn’t going to capture the imagination, but thinking of the most exciting use for it can massively increase its potential as an interesting item. Of course, we can’t all afford David Beckham, but this theory can be made successful without the use of A-List celebrities.

Step Away from the Product

It’s easy to get trapped into thinking about how to make your product more interesting, but you can achieve more success by stepping away from the product and thinking about the concept. What is your product used for? Who is using it? If it’s not interesting to our target audience, what do they find interesting?

By finding out what interests your target audience, you can use trends and concepts that you have in common to capture their attention. Do you sell nuts and bolts for a living? Don’t sell them on their various attributes as a nut or bolt, tap into what they can be used for. Get seen by the mountain biking fraternity, for example, and associate yourself with something that is exciting.

By doing this, you will associate your brand with something that excites your audience.

Become an Authority

This step involves almost ignoring the product completely. Who are your customers and what do they do? Are they marketing professionals? HR or recruitment specialists? If your product is used by a particular sector, then become an industry authority in that sector.

Write articles, publish white papers and undertake some research to make your brand an authoritative name in your niche and one where people will go for information. This will provide you with the perfect platform on which to gain exposure for your brand and in turn your products and services.

There are some products and services that are easier to market than others. If you are tasked with marketing something that would usually make people fall asleep, step away from what you are selling and think about the concept and how it relates to your audience. Be creative, be brave and most importantly, be interesting!

Author Bio: Alan Grainger is a marketing specialist for The Corporate Gifts Company