Thousands of new products are launched each year, and surprisingly, most of them fail because marketers aren’t able to get their message heard.
What is it exactly that causes marketing campaigns to fail though? Is the marketing research not good enough? Is the advertising not creative enough? Are consumers just too difficult for marketers to understand? According to a report by the Harvard Business Review, the answer to all of the above is no. They believe that the problem lies in market segmentation to get your message heard by the right target audience. In the article by Kathryn Roy on MarketingProfs, she discusses this report and provides a few tips for getting your message heard in such a crowded market.
Roy points out that many businesses are setting themselves up for failure right from the start by defining target segments by consumer types rather than consumer needs. As Harvard Business School marketing Professor Ted Levitt says, “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
Figuring out what consumers want your product to do is the first step in building brand equity. Instead of focusing on a specific consumer segment, focus on what that segment wants your product to do for them. What job do they need done, and how can your product achieve that goal? By marketing the unique job that your product supplies, you will have a better chance of standing out in such a crowded market. By addressing the specific needs of a target segment before your competitors do, you can increase company revenues and morale.
