After the seller has confirmed the target categories and products, how to differentiate the products is more important. In my previous training, this problem is also the biggest problem encountered by most sellers.
Robert Spector, a famous American retail research expert, said: “Overabundance of goods may be a gift or a curse for consumers.”
Faced with hundreds of millions of products on the Amazon platform, with the serious homogeneity of ASIN today, consumers are suffering from choice difficulties, and at the same time, it also brings fierce competition to sellers. So, how can you make your products more competitive?
1. Product iteration process
The research and development of each category and product has its own iteration cycle. From the product side, the first step is to develop new product functions. After the product functions reach the upper limit, the differentiated upgrade of the product is achieved through the upgrade of materials. However, the replacement of materials is limited by the technological revolution of mankind, which is generally long, ranging from decades to hundreds of years. Therefore, for most products, product differentiation falls on the innovation level of design. From the perspective of consumers, when they first buy a product, it can meet basic living needs – it is OK to be usable. With the improvement of living standards, people have new requirements for products – they must be comfortable to use. But sometimes, due to people’s psychology of liking new things and disliking old things, the requirements for product appearance have also begun to increase. So as a seller, we can find the entry point for product differentiation by understanding the cycle of the product and the target population.
2. Practical case sharing
Next, we will do two small tests to let everyone think about how to differentiate.
Case, clothes hook
Suppose the company assigns you a new task and needs to sell a small gadget. So, how to differentiate this ordinary clothes hook?
The company’s requirements are:
?Do not change the procurement cost;
?Do not engage in price wars;
?Conventional marketing methods.
Give you 3 minutes to think.
Okay. The time is up. I guess your differentiation suggestions are:
?Quantity set, competitor’s 1 is $9, our 5 products are $35;
?Installation method, competitor’s products punch holes, our products can be pasted without traces;
?Accessories are given, 2 screws are given when purchasing competitor’s products, 5 screws are given when purchasing our products;
?Usage scenario, competitor’s products can only hang clothes, our products can also hang mobile phones, etc.
The above differentiation ideas are good, but from the customer’s point of view, there are not many surprises. What we need to think deeply is, what can an ordinary hook bring to customers?
Next, let’s see how Jack N’Drill does it. It is exactly the same as the hook mentioned above, but the price has not been reduced, but it has become more expensive.
From the product itself, where is the differentiation magic with such a high premium and high ranking? Let’s continue to read on.
The answer is revealed: there is only a cute bear sticker included, so that customers can stick the hook on the bear’s face, which just becomes its nose, giving the hook a new meaning. In order to reduce costs, the seller made the sticker into an electronic version, which customers can scan the code to obtain, print and post by themselves. This is really a wonderful idea.
Let’s take a look at the customer’s reaction. The customer happily gave a 5-star rating. We can also feel the customer’s excitement in the comments, and this is the most contagious thing for other customers. If you can achieve this effect, you win.
For most sellers, product differentiation is the most difficult part of product selection. I hope everyone can start from the heart, spend more time, deeply explore the potential needs of consumers, and provide customers with unique value.