Your product is more than just the widgets sitting on your warehouse shelves. Your "product" also includes things such as product availability, training, support, kitting and more.
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In the latest Executive Briefing webcast, Jonathan Bein of Real Results Marketing (who wrote Part 1 and Part 2 of The Distributor Marketing Imperative in May) talks about Distributor Best Practices in Marketing. Bein says that distributors must be careful when positioning their brand in the market. Because, after all, competing distributors usually carry the same product unless they have brand exclusivity.
So what do you claim about your product? Bein says that distributors all too often make the same claims as their competitors and that those claims aren't always meaningful to their customers. "So many of the claims that distributors make right now are what we would call 'me too' claims," he says.
For example, many companies will highlight how long they've been in business as part of their positioning. While that may be important information, it should "not make headline status as often as it does," Bein says.
Many companies also claim they carry "a kajillion products." But what does this mean to the customer? If you carry enough that the customer can do one-stop shopping, then that should be the message.
It’s critical to explain how or why these statements matter, Bein says.
It depends on the customer as to what's important to them. Post-sales support may matter to a smaller customer but may be irrelevant to a large customer. Fast shipping may be a quality that some customers are willing to pay for, but others just want the product fast and cheap.
"At the end of the day the requirement depends on the customer segment," he says. "Simple market research can reveal what customers want and need."
This is all part of understanding your customer base better and understanding where you want to fit in the market.
Listen to more of Bein's presentation on Segmentation in the video below. Hear Part 1 of his presentation at the MDM Executive Briefing homepage.
