Introduction
There is no doubt that the preferences of the global audience have a significant effect on the success of companies trying to propel their activity in the market to the next level with the help of new goods and services that meet with the ready market sale. Making a decision related to investments in new products, it is critical to review the profile of the target audience to identify a few types of target customers. Therefore, an organization will be able to develop a few parallel strategies to be used simultaneously, which would help to attract as much attention as possible.
Choosing the Product: Consider the Latest Trends
Any organization needs to conduct a thorough analysis of tendencies that define the purchase behavior of people in the countries where the product or service will be sold. In order to prepare for launching a new product, a company is expected to identify a range of customers who will be likely to buy the product.
Young people and adults constitute the age group which can be easily accessed with the help of modern social media; moreover, there is no doubt that young people who already work and have their own money are more likely to purchase products that do not belong to the number of articles of prune necessities. In fact, many individuals belonging to this age group tend to buy products that not only can be used for certain purposes but also possess unique product designs, and they allow people to experience positive emotions and demonstrate their personalities.
Prior to choosing the particular product to be invested in, a few important tendencies that are peculiar to the values and preferences of young people from the middle class in the majority of countries with developed economies were identified.
To begin with, even though junk food and soft drinks are still extremely popular among people of all ages in the United States and other developed countries as they present a cheap and accessible alternative to set meals (especially for those who do not have a lot of free time), many people from the middle class are attracted by healthy lifestyle trend.
Considering that the society of the twenty-first century considers the surface beauty to be one of the primary values despite all the objections, a lot of people with medium and high incomes start going to the gym to meet the requirements that are imposed on a successful person. The readiness to change their habits and start living a healthy lifestyle is the factor that improves the self-esteem of many people and makes them feel stronger. Considering this tendency, there is a high demand for sports goods.
Apart from that, when the basic needs of people are accommodated, they start paying more attention to self-expression, and this is why the goods with the individualized design remain extremely popular. Specifically, such goods attract younger people who are ready to spend money on items that help them to demonstrate their individuality.
In the end, the important tendency that is becoming extremely popular is the use of eco-friendly materials to produce goods. Understanding that everyday activity of humanity is detrimental to the ecosystem of the Earth, many people tend to choose goods whose negative influence on the environment is minimized (Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink, 2016). Therefore, the use of eco-friendly materials that are not very expensive would be beneficial for many companies.
Based on the reviewed tendencies, it can be supposed that a product that reflects all of them would be a good choice for the company. The chosen product is a personalized sports bottle made of eco-friendly materials. The product to be invested in presents a good alternative for goods that can be used only for a limited number of purposes (such as sportswear) because the sports bottle can be bought even by those people who do not visit the gym.
The Target Audience
The product to be invested in is targeted at a large age group, including teenagers, young adults, and adults. In reference to the differences between these three groups of target customers, it needs to be noted that they are primarily connected to the design of the products they buy. In the case of teenagers, they tend to prefer bright colors and unique designs, and this is why they may like sports bottles with pictures or other elements attracting a lot of attention. Taking into account the fact that the majority of teenagers do not have their own money, the product targeted at this age category should be cheaper.
As for young adults, this group of customers can be supposed to prefer designs that are simple and bright simultaneously, whereas adult customers appreciate simple designs and the use of high-quality materials. Considering these differences between the audiences, it would be necessary to provide customers in each age group with an opportunity to choose the design they would like the most. More than that, various types of sports bottles need to be advertised in different ways; for instance, trying to approach younger customers, it would be extremely important to put stress on the unique design of products that would help them to stand out of the herd.
At the same time, when trying to kindle the interest of the older audience, it would be necessary to highlight that the product is made from high-quality materials that are not dangerous for the environment of the planet and that it can be used for a wide range of purposes. Therefore, approaching customers with the help of social media, which are popular among English-speaking users of the Internet, the organization selling the sports bottles needs to develop at least two strategies aimed at younger and older prospective customers.
Credibility
Establishing credibility remains an extremely important step to be taken by any company launching a new product. First, to earn confidence, a company is required to establish a well-developed customer service system and hire experienced and attentive specialists who would be ready to solve clients’ problems immediately and give refunds to customers in case of inappropriate quality of products (Jahanshani, Hajizadeh, Mirdhamadi, Nawaser, & Khaksar, 2014).
Apart from that, to establish credibility with customers, a company is supposed to conduct a thorough analysis before making a promise. For instance, the reputation of a company will be damaged if it claims that the products are sold at the best price, and customers provide the evidence that the same items are available at a lower price. Therefore, credibility cannot be established if a company uses poor awareness of prospective customers for its own purposes.
Taking into consideration the critical importance of proper customer service, it would be necessary to pay focused attention to personnel training and provide them with the comprehensive information related to the ways to leave a customer satisfied in spite of certain problems.
The Channel
To deliver a message that would be effective and attractive for the identified target audience, a company is expected to choose the appropriate channel based on the key characteristics of the target audience.
In the discussed case, the target audience includes teenagers, younger adults, and adults with medium and high income. There is a range of channels that can be used in order to approach the discussed audience, but, considering the fact that all three subcategories of prospective buyers are active users of social media, it was decided to choose Facebook as the primary channel for delivering the message. This particular channel has been chosen due to the fact that it remains one of the most popular social networks in the world, and the majority of people who use this website can be included in the target audience for the discussed product.
Creating a business page on Facebook, a company will have an opportunity to contact prospective buyers without the use of additional means of communication (Torr, 2017). Moreover, companies creating business pages on the website can customize special settings to ensure that their advertisements are shown only to their target audience. For instance, if a company delivers its messages with the help of TV channels, it is more difficult to ensure that their target audience is approached because TV-advertising is widely accepted as manipulative (Spiteri Cornish, 2014).
Another important detail related to the channel is that creation of the business page allows a company to place blog posts in addition to advertisements and this method of approaching the target audience can be called extremely effective because people do not really like combative advertising and writing posts helps companies to provide customers with interesting information and advertise the product indirectly. Therefore, Facebook is considered to be an effective channel to advertise the chosen product.
References
Fahrenkamp-Uppenbrink, J. (2016). How to advertise eco-friendly products. Science, 352(6292), 1422-1423.
Jahanshani, A. A., Hajizadeh, G. M. A., Mirdhamadi, S. A., Nawaser, K., & Khaksar, S. M. S. (2014). Study the effects of customer service and product quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1(7), 253-260.
Spiteri Cornish, L. (2014). ‘Mum, can I play on the internet?’ Parents’ understanding, perception and responses to online advertising designed for children. International Journal of Advertising, 33(3), 437-473.
Torr, D. (2017). How to advertise on Facebook. Web.