Packaging is an important part of any successful marketing plan, which requires knowledge of how to make packaging design “pop.” When it does, potential customers become likely buyers of the products that improve their daily lives, and that epitomizes the importance of product-market placement within the context of packaging design.
Product-market placement
Most people make decisions about purchases at the point of purchase, and that makes it critically important to know how to make packaging design pop. When packaging design grabs people’s attention and conveys the products’ primary selling points, manufacturers stand a much better chance of reaching a new customer and closing a sale. That is a primary example of product-market placement.
Product-market placement has many elements that impact how consumers react, and packaging design is one of the biggest. Packaging design helps to seize the attention of your targeted customers. The size, shape, color, and fonts all convey information in ways that impact how a potential customer feels about a particular product.
Packaging that evokes humor, for example, can create a positive feeling within the consumer by making him or her laugh. The customer feels good about the packaging and transfers that positive effect on the product itself. Buying that product then makes the customer feel good about the purchase decision.
Packaging design with impact
Impact is a marketing term that describes the way marketing appeals make potential customers feel when they see it. The packaging of any product is a type of marketing appeal, and that requires “pop” to make people take notice and generate an emotional response. Preferably, that emotional response will be one that convinces customers they cannot live another day without buying that item, all the while solving a major problem in their everyday lives.
Package designs that convey convenience, simplicity, and quality can help to generate positive impact toward the packaged products offered for sale. Likewise, those that are bulky and less convenient, like a large, bulky bag of water softener salt, are likely to generate negative impact and convince potential customers they can live longer without a particular product.
Product -market fit
The big lesson from this is that emotion plays a large role in people’s purchase decisions. Emotions, though, are impacted by many factors. One of the greatest factors is to identify existing problems, solve them, and market that solution to the people most in need. Your product-market fit can ensure a positive impact by promoting problem-solving solutions.
Back in the 1970s, the personal computer was an expensive, bulky concept that had no traction among the general population. But in 1978, Harvard Business School student Dan Bricklin created the world’s first spreadsheet program, which completely changed the business landscape.
The spreadsheet program created marketing buzz that resonated around the world. That success is akin to the pop that marketers target by grabbing the attention of your target audience with the correct product-market fit. When the packaging conveys a solution to a long-standing problem in the lives of consumers, the consumers will be much more motivated to buy that solution.
Ideal target audience
Another important element of product-market fit is identifying your target audience and creating a product-market fit that addresses its needs. Virtually all products have a likely consumer, and those consumers often share similar purchase habits. Product-market fit requires knowing the general habits of those who are most likely to find value in the products you offer.
No matter what the product or service, there’s likely an identifiable target market you can reach through your marketing efforts. You need to research that target market, learn its demographics and buying habits, and develop a product-market fit that reaches your targeted audience and conveys the solutions to their problems.
When you can match the right product with the correct targeted audience and inform them of how the product will change their lives for the better, you have created an ideal product-market fit.
Product positioning
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of employing standardized business practices that worked well in the past. But changing market demographics, consumer demands, and other factors create moving targets of potential customers. That means the ideal product-market fit also changes, and you need to adapt to survive and remain profitable.
Marketers need to position products by focusing on the identified target market and illustrating the ways in which a product will improve the lives of potential customers. When a product is positioned properly, the target market is exposed to the product, assesses it, and determines the product-market fit is an ideal one.
Product-market fit requires the right marketing strategy and tactics to reach the likeliest purchasers. Marketing strategy involves clearly identifying your target market, learning its likes and dislikes, and developing a plan to implement the correct product-market fit. The marketing plan will include using the best tactics to communicate the best features of your product and ensure an ideal product-market fit.
Differentiate or die
You cannot create an ideal product-market fit without studying the competition and adjusting accordingly. It is important to know how your competition if positioning its products, the target market, types of marketing appeals used, and which distribution channels are used. The more you know about how your competition operates, the easier it will be to assess what does and does not work best, identify competitor weaknesses, and develop an effective plan to create an ideal product-market fit.
Your competitors, likewise, will pay close attention to how you try to establish the ideal product-market fit. That includes your choice of marketing channels, such as print media, broadcast, online, or other marketing channels. Your competitors also will consider your distribution network, the design of your packaging, and other factors to determine whether you are a serious threat to their long-term business survival.
Just as your competitors learn about your marketing efforts, you need to know about theirs, so that you can carve out a profitable niche via product-market fit, while creating “pop” among your potential customers.
Ensuring an ideal product-market fit requires assessing your competition, your likely customers, and determining how best to position your products to become more profitable. When you achieve the goal of establishing an ideal product-market fit, your products very well may seem like they sell themselves.
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