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When You Take a Look at Winning Products, You'll Find They Have a Lot in Common.
By Ken Tarlow
PART ONE
What makes a product successful? You can never narrow it down to a single factor. Instead, products that do well share many common traits. Let's take a look at them.
1. The Unique Feature is Patentable and Exciting--There are thousands of products out there competing for the consumer's dollar. Your product needs to be unique and exciting. It should elicit the response, "Gee whiz, that's really neat, I've got to have one...etc."2. It Fills a Real Need--Even a whimsical product fills a need--Which is the need to have laughter and fun in our lives. Think carefully about what need you're filling and make sure you fill it in the best way you know how.
3. It's Manufacturable, With No Major Mysteries to Solve--One of my clients came in with the idea of a cordless lamp that would light up a room and work by remote control. Well, the remote control part is easy enough, but the cordless part is tough. Lamps need quite a bit of electricity, which means you would need a huge rechargeable battery. These are quite costly and make the manufacturing of this product unfeasible to produce at a reasonable price.
4. People Love the Way it Looks--The product should have sex appeal. Someone should be proud to order it and display it--not embarrassed by it.
5. People Love the Way it Works--The physical use of the product should be safe and easy. People should not be frustrated while using the product.
6. It Fills a Psychological Need--There should be a feeling of satisfaction when using the product and there should be a strong justification factor when the consumer is considering the purchase of your product. There should be a definite way that this product will improve the consumer's life.
7. It's Easy to Understand--A person should be able to look at the product and, at the most, read one short sentence about the product to know exactly what the product is and what it does. If it takes 10 minutes to explain how the product performs, you'll probably need a huge marketing budget to educate the public on the benefits of your product.
NEXT ISSUE: More on Successful Products
The above article was excerpted from Ken Tarlow's MIND TO MONEY, a cassette tape/workbook package that can help you develop a new product from the idea stage to the marketplace. MIND TO MONEY may be ordered from the Dream Merchant at $59.95 plus $4.95 CA sales tax and$5 shipping and handling ($69.90 total). Send orders to the Dream Merchant, 2309 Torrance Blvd., Suite 104, Torrance, CA 90501.
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