Myth 1 – Great products sell themselves
If a great product is created in an office and nobody is there to market it, does it make a sound? Absolutely not.
The idea that once you have a unique and useful product that you’ve struck gold is false. Great ideas have failed over and over again, but why? Having a great product is obviously important and pivotal to success, but even more important is how you market that product. To truly reach customers you need many more aspects other than the product.
So many mistakes can be made throughout the 4 stages of a product lifecycle. The first stage of the product lifecycle is the introduction stage. This is arguably the most important stage and can make or break a product. When you introduce a product, you have to take into consideration simple yet pivotal factors such as making sure you know whom your target audience is. You could have a great adult diaper product, but if you create television commercials with new age music and a kid skateboarding, it doesn’t matter if you have the Michael Jordan of adult diapers; you’re going to fail.
Another important aspect of marketing a great product happens during the beginning of a product lifespan; creating and communicating a value proposition. A value proposition is showing the customer what the product does for them, and ultimately how it improves their quality of life. It doesn’t matter how spectacular a product really is unless the consumer knows why it is important to them, and how it differs from similar products.
These are a few of many reasons why simply having a genius product gets you nowhere without proper knowledge on how to market the product.
Myth 2 – My older customers are not on Social Media
Come on people. This is 2015. Everybody and their mother uses some form of social media and hiding behind this excuse has run its course.
From a study by Pew Research Center in January of 2014, 74% of online adults use social media and this number is increasing every day. To use the excuse that a business does not need to market via social media because their target market doesn’t use social media is bogus. Even 49% of adults 65+ use social media as of January 2014.
When a business identifies their target market as elderly adults, it is important to look at these increasing social media trends. If it turns out that elderly adults are your target market, one way is to change the way you market over social media. One way to truly capture the attention of elderly people is the use of nostalgic ads. This is because bringing up similar memories from the past is a good way for elderly people to remember the “good old days” and in turn remember your brand.
While it is crucial to change the format of your social media market strategy to accommodate older people, it would be ludicrous to think that marketing towards older people over social media is ineffective.
At Transformation Marketing in Lincoln, Nebraska, we can help you to bust through these myths and more when it comes to your marketing campaign. We’ve done extensive research in our field to find the best ways to market your products and services to your target market.