Marcus Richards
Whether you’re looking to innovate a product for the launch of your startup or continue to grow and develop the business, it can be a very difficult process. After all, they say that some 95 per cent of product ideas fail either in the meeting room or on store shelves. Those ideas that do end up making it through the research and development phases to become a new innovative product can then suffer from a lack of confidence or ideas as to marketing the new releases.
Companies are spending millions on R&D and see many projects go bust. As a startup, you can’t afford for that to happen. Major businesses need to become more adept at selling innovative products, and in equal measure, startups need to focus on projects that they can trust will push the company forward. Here, we’re exploring some examples of working product innovation, how to identify what to target, and building up innovative products in an organic way.
Building and expanding on top products
Startups get noticed for extreme innovation and rapid growth, and while they can be momentous traits early on in a launch, afterwards, startups need to find sometimes more subtle ways to keep moving forward. To achieve this, many grind away trying to find brand new goods or services to offer that’ll have a similar impact, but there is a simpler approach that keeps startups within their realm of expertise and would appear to be much less risky in the market.
Rather than spending your R&D time and money on new ideas, see how far you can draw your most popular or core products. Expanding on a specific product can open up your target audience, be more cost-effective as you’ve already developed a working line, and even bring back existing customers. You can see this in play in online slots. New slots are developed by the many feeding platforms, but those that tend to stick are the new takes on the classics, like Thunderstruck Stormchaser. This is a modern take on the 2010 sequel classic – that continues to do well in its own right – with the new tech of Multi-Chase infused.
In another line of entertainment media, you can see this similar angle being used to an even more blatant degree. Hollywood, again, is obsessed with sequels and remakes. You’ll never struggle to find a contingent of moviegoers who despise the practice and think it lazy, but that doesn’t stop the box office from hauling in millions. For production companies, remakes and remasters are safe bets. There’s already an audience for the title, making it much easier and cheaper to pitch, develop, and market. The same can be said of improving or adding additions to existing products that work for your startup.
Trust the numbers, not your gut
Somewhere that many startups go wrong is that they trust that their vision is what’s needed by the market and that if they can force the idea out there, it’ll stick and perhaps even change the face of the market. Ultimately, however, the customers decide whether your product is allowed to make waves or not, and while digital marketing agencies can get creative to bolster your reach when it comes to further product innovation, it’s best to go with what the market says is the best.
You need to utilise your past and present successes as a guide through the market. Perhaps people simply aren’t ready for your big idea, or you haven’t yet worked out how to crack the market. So, put it on the back burner and keep the business moving forward by sticking with what customers demand. The longevity of Head & Shoulders, for example, has come from a fixation on anti-dandruff shampoo. After it started to sell well, instead of pivoting greatly into new lines of hair care, Proctor & Gamble doubled down and expanded into new scents of the core product.
Working from feedback and generating organic interest
Sales figures can be your first port of call for working out where to innovate and expand your products, but you’ll also want to bring in more qualitative data. You can test your product ideas and prototypes with design teams and potential users, but throughout this, it’s key to get and analyse the feedback of all sorts, from hard numbers to quotes on experiences and preferences. A modern way to get this kind of feedback and potentially open up to a larger initial audience is by sending influencers free samples.
They can then test and review the products to their following and perhaps say how others can get involved in this process to get free samples and send you invaluable data. Dior achieved this with its 67 Shades campaign, which connected with 67 influencers whose skin tones matched each new product to test how well they worked and also advertise to others what shade they would need. To further spread awareness, it’s worth investing in a website that offers additional value, such as your own blog. Writing a blog can help to make you an authority on a topic as well as highlight problems that are solved by your upcoming products.
By identifying and expanding on your top products and then getting true feedback to develop from through modern means, you can attempt to undergo a more stable innovation process for your product range.
