Entrepreneurship I - 2.07

Employ product-mix strategies to meet customer expectations.

The particular assortment of goods and services that a business offers in order to meets its market’s needs and its company’s goals.

Product mix

A particular group of customers that a business seeks to attract.

Sometimes, a business can take an existing good or service and change it so it will fulfill the needs of another target market.

Example: some products can be altered to accommodate people with certain disabilities.

Target Market

Ask the customer To compete in the marketplace, a business

must develop or find products that will fulfill its customers’ changing needs and wants.

Obtaining customer feedback is a good way for a business to evaluate how it is meeting its customers’ needs and what it needs to do to increase customer satisfaction.

How to obtain customer feedback

A feature is a physical characteristic or quality of a product.

It is something the customer can touch, feel, smell, see, or measure

It helps describe the product. A feature answers the question, “What is

it?”◦ Ex: color, style, size

What is a Feature?

A benefit is the personal satisfaction or advantage that a customer wants from a product.

It is how the feature helps a particular buyer

For customers, it answers the questions:◦ How will I benefit?◦ What’s in it for me?

What is a benefit?

Prove to customers your product has features that benefit them

Customers buy benefits-not features Compare to competition Determine what each customer is looking

for in a good or service

Feature-benefit Selling

Nike plus

Conduct a Customer Survey ◦ Are your customers happy or satisfied?◦ Do you know how your customers feel about your

products or service? ◦ Today's competitive marketplace requires every

organization to listen to the voice of its customers, which can be captured with a customer survey.

Benefits of Surveys◦ Increase customer retention◦ Performance feedback – what needs improvement◦ Customers can be the best source to derive new

innovative ideas.

Obtaining Customer Input on Benefits

Twitter Facebook Pinterest Others…..

Customer Input through Social Media

Focus groups & Interviews Gather customer data and observes

problems that need fixing. Let customers give input on new concepts. Consumer involvement in designing

products.

Customer Input through Ideation Sessions

What needs to be improved? What would make the product easier for

consumers to use? When would the consumer use the product

the most? How would the consumer use the product?

Customer Input by Observing product use

Successful entrepreneurs say there's one key ingredient in launching a new product:

Listen to your customers before going to market.

Provide room for improvement or change

Provide additional selling points Provide validation of your brand

Importance of Customer Input

Step 1: Identify Critical Needs ~ What needs does your product/service have to meet?

Step 2: Identify What is Driving this Need~ What is driving this need? Key factors to include in your product/service.

Step 3: Identify Requirements ~ identify the minimum requirements that you must satisfy for each quality need, in order to actually provide a quality product

Procedure of identifying products to meet customers’ needs

Example of using the 3 Step method