Product Fiasco or Breakthrough?
Remember when Lululemon, the athleisure brand, launched ‘Astro Pants’? These were fitted pants that were completely see-through when users did yoga, which is what they bought them for. The product recall had cost the company $67 million of lost revenue.
We’ve seen times when the magazine Cosmopolitan tried to sell yogurt (readers just wanted more news), Colgate decided to make frozen meals (which everyone thought tasted like toothpaste), and Frito-Lay launched ‘Cheetos-flavored’ lip balms (no, seriously.)
But there was also when Wilson Greatbatch realized his heart sound recorder was actually giving out a pulse, and refined it till he had the world’s first pacemaker. And when Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes explored 400 uses for their patented wallpaper ‘with air bubbles’ until they invented ‘bubble wrap’ for packaging.
Startup founders can take anywhere between a single eureka moment to decades of innovation to arrive at a product that that truly works.
What is a Product?
Websters defines a product as “something produced.” Cambridge says it’s “something that is made to be sold.”
I like the Britannica definition more: “something that is the result of a process” (for instance, the finished product of the artist’s labor was a beautiful vase).
The Oxford definition is even better: “Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need.”
If you think you have a successful business product idea (or you just want to revisit the product you’ve been selling), it helps to run through a quick mental checklist of what really makes a product.
Ask yourself, is it relevant? Is it relatable? Is it adaptable? And is it communicated well to the target audience?
If you think about it, a product can really be anything.
We immediately tend to think of physical products (such as laundry detergent or a camera doorbell). But there are also digital products (a food delivery app), or, say, legal products (a mortgage loan).
Services (consulting, painting) can also be considered products, as are patented ideas (Tinder’s matchmaking algorithm). However, more precisely, unlike products, you cannot return services.
And there are subproducts of products (the wheels of your car, or the ink cartridges inside your pen).
A product is anything at all that will successfully fulfill a customer’s need or desire, offering them true value.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the form of a tangible type of good, a service, an event, an experience, or an idea, as long as it addresses customer expectations and enhances customer experience.
Products Come in All Shapes and Sizes…
There are several ways to categorize products.
The big ones are Consumer vs. Industrial and Tangible vs. Intangible (aka Product vs. Service).
- ‘Consumer’ products are what they sound like – they’re meant for individual consumers. We have many types of consumer products, such as:
- Convenience products (sugar, salt),
- Shopping products (furniture, iPhones),
- Specialty products (sports cars),
- and Unsought products (medical insurance).
- ‘Industry’ products serve businesses and industries (think of raw materials for energy companies or healthcare applications for hospitals).
- ‘Tangible’ products are those you can see and touch and feel. They may be returnable, and they may be perishable.
- Services and ‘intangible’ products also satisfy needs, but aren’t physical goods.
Of course, products won’t always fit into distinct categories. Some will have both tangible and intangible qualities. Your computer, for instance, is a tangible good, but the free trials, free installation, and product warranty you got with it are intangible services.
The Three Stages of Product Evolution (and why you need them all)
Like everything else that has a life of its own, your product or service isn’t a static thing.
It will evolve, and you should want it to!
Level 1: Your Core Product
Your core product is what solves a fundamental need or want. The product might be in its most basic form, but it works.
Perhaps it’s new to the market and you have discovered or created something really awesome.
Perhaps the masses don’t understand it yet, but you know you’re onto something.
You might still be a traditional solopreneur, but you’re willing to take a risk.
Rewind to 2008. No one “got” Airbnb because no one thought that strangers would want to live with strangers. In 2005, Reddit had no visitors because no one knew it existed. (Reddit founders started to use it themselves with fake discussions and forums). But the founders and investors knew there was a product. It’s just hard when no previous comparable product has existed.
Level 2: Your ‘Actual’ Product
Here’s when you iterate on your product strategy and on the product design itself. This is what customers see, touch, and experience – its features or services, quality, packaging, and branding.
You arrive at the most obvious version of a product.
If you were to see YouTube’s first version, you probably wouldn’t recognize it. Its founders had developed a video dating site for people to talk about themselves and their ideal partners. In its second iteration, YouTube was opened up to any video – and the billion-dollar website we’re now familiar with (aka the ‘Actual product’) was born.
Stage 2 of your product’s evolution is where you incorporate the information you now have to create a better version.
At the Actual product stage, you want to ask for customer and employee feedback. You want to make data-driven decisions. And you want to re-align all the moving parts towards a clear goal once again.
“How will further innovation create more value for potential customers?”
“How can the company capture a share of the value created?”
Level 3: Your Augmented Product
Time to add improvements and create an ecosystem!
An augmented product will offer additional services and benefits that enhance the actual product. Think of all the additional features and product attributes, warranties, after-sale service…
When Apple announced, “Starting today, customers who purchase any iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch or Mac can enjoy one year of Apple TV+ for free,” it was launching its augmented product.
“How do I make my product irresistible and provide an outstanding customer experience?”
“How do I make and sell more, faster?”
“Can this added value allow me to command a premium?”
Takeaways
Perhaps if Colgate had run through the product definition checklist, or Cheetos had stuck to the stages of product evolution, we’d have blockbuster goods the world didn’t end up seeing.
As human beings, we are complex and demanding consumers.
We will always have a need for something better; entrepreneurs who can keep creating products that truly serve those needs will win, and win big.
