Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 296 | Entrepreneurship | 1

Extractive summaries of and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 296 | May 12 – 18, 2023.

8 Common Challenges Facing Every New Product or Service Offering

By Martin Zwilling | Inc Magazine | May 11, 2023

Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article

Every business owner periodically introduces new products and services to sustain growth, fight off competitors, or take advantage of new technologies. Often, despite your passion and expectation, customers don’t immediately see the value and need that you see, and you have no idea why the initiative is stuck, and what could be the real customer issue or fix.  A common set of challenges that every new initiative has to overcome for widespread adoption and the business growth you need.  Five of these are:  

1. In today’s customer data overload, marketing is essential.  Customers won’t buy what they can’t find or don’t understand. No matter how great your innovation, don’t count on word of mouth to save you. The cost of any new product these days must include education and rollout marketing, perhaps equal to or greater than the development costs. 
2. The solution may require new category development time.  Major leading-edge (also called bleeding-edge) products or technologies, such as artificial intelligence (A.I.) or the internet of things (IoT), involve new concepts, time for acceptance, and a focus on understanding value. Don’t count on these as short-term solutions to a growth problem.  These disruptive technologies also have the potential for exposing your business to new competitors, including a wealth of startups that can jeopardize your core business and redefine the marketplace. If you go this route, make sure your solution is strategic.
3. Customers need supporting approvals to fully benefit.  Often products that introduce disruptive new technologies, such as electric vehicles or health care solutions, are dependent on supportive infrastructures, and/or operational regulations before benefits can be realized. Your rollout plan needs to factor in these requirements.  The challenge here is that supporting infrastructure decisions is usually outside your control, and may be politically or emotionally driven. To win in this environment, you may need to expand your leadership in industry conferences and community activities.
4. The target audience may be limited or new because of the price.  Premium products may have high feature value but may push you to a new level of customer, and prevent mass-market appeal. This may require you to sell exclusivity, do channel development, or align with new partners. Another approach is to expand your scope geographically.
5. Even in the face of real value, customer change is hard.  Most new solutions are easier to use, more productive, more fun, or cheaper than existing alternatives. You will find that customers discount advertising, and look for user testimonials, online influencer reviews, and return-on-investment examples from industry experts.

2 key takeaways from the article

1. Every business owner periodically introduces new products and services to sustain growth, fight off competitors, or take advantage of new technologies. Often, despite your passion and expectation, customers don’t immediately see the value and need that you see, and you have no idea why the initiative is stuck, and what could be the real customer issue or fix.  
2. A common set of challenges that every new initiative has to overcome for widespread adoption and the business growth you need are: in today’s customer data overload, marketing is essential; the solution may require new category development time; customers need supporting approvals to fully benefit; the target audience may be limited or new because of the price; even in the face of real value, customer change is hard; customers fear liability potential or see risks you don’t; the new solution highlights additional functional needs; and the customer may decide to wait for the next new thing.

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Topics: Startups, Entrepreneurship, New Products, Marketing