Home » Differentiating Yourself Part 2: Introduction Phase Overview

Differentiating Yourself Part 2: Introduction Phase Overview

Posted: Tuesday, January 20, 2009

by JJ Kennedy
Evil Genius Interactive

Now that we have covered the basics of the industry and product life-cycle, we can start jumping into the specifics strategies and tactics to stand out in each phase Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline. I had originally planned this to be just a 5 part series, but as I write, I am realizing that we will have to go in to a bit more depth to achieve a decent understanding. With that in mind, this article is all about the goals of marketing in the introduction stage, and we will then spend an article on each of the sub-goals within this phase and some strategies and tactics to achieve them.

In short, that means this series is going to be about 20 articles. The plus side is that it allows us a bit more space to discuss each topic, and it breaks each phase into bite-sized chunks. The downside is that it's going take a bit of time to get through the whole series. I hope we both have the patience for it to pay off. We'll see So here is how I am going to handle rolling out the concepts.

Part 1 Lifecycles

Part 2 Introduction Phase Overview

Part 2.a Introduce and Intrigue
Part 2.b PR
Part 2.c Research and Target Market
Part 2.d Metrics and Flexibility

Part 3 Growth Phase Overview

Part 3.a Blah
Etc.

So on to the content:

You've got a great new product in a new industry (or a new niche within an existing industry more likely) so now what? Let's first review some of the characteristics of this phase.

Customers aren't aware of your product, and probably not even aware they have a need/desire for your product.
You have few if any competitors.
You are probably a bit short on cash
There are no defined process and systems in place
Your manufacturing costs are probably pretty high
We don't know out market yet
Branding established now will carry over into later phases

Ok, that gives us a pretty good framework. From that we know:

We need to educate the market and need to put the on the marketing continuum of the 5 I's - Introduce, Intrigue, Involve, Inform, Influence
Since our first goals will be introduce and intrigue, we need to create a name, persona, and story for the product
PR will play a heavy part of the mix
Target market will be innovators, early adopters, and influencers but we still need to figure out who
Since we don't know our market, we need a clear system of metrics to see what works and what doesn't. Just as important, there needs to be a process in place to adapt to changes quickly.

Now that get's us a some clear goals to achieve, the next articles will take these one by one and see how to do it. Stay Tuned.

Evil Genius TV: Marketing, Humor, and Observations - from a Fancy Dude.

JJ Kennedy is founder and CEO of Evil Genius Interactive and Evil Genius TV. He holds an MBA and is the former VP of Internet Marketing and eCommerce at Pitney Bowes, a Fortune 500 company with over $7 Billion in yearly sales.

Prior to starting EGI, JJ was VP of Marketing and a Principal of the investment division of Action Real Estate and one of the most successful producers in Gainesville history with over $35 Million in single year sales.

Also See: http://www.evilgeniusinteractive.com

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