Also, in reality, there are many competitors in the product ideas that have been successfully introduced in the market. The market is expanding from this early point of success, but it is necessary to fight with the commutation, commodification that begins at the same time.
In order to maintain the most important uniqueness linked to benefits, how to avoid commodification with "Communication Ideas" while upgrading "Product Ideas" and how to strengthen "Product Ideas" for follow-up products and services ... The marketer will play the role of .... Broadly speaking, understanding and empathy for "product ideas" is what creates the brand. It is not about creating a brand with "communication ideas".
If you have a large capital and sales force, if you can find a large existing market, you may be able to win with only basic benefits, even if you are weak. Even if the product is close to a commodity, it is a way to create a "communication idea" that allows customers to feel uniqueness and benefits, create a large media investment, and a place to experience and buy and win. Even if it is an originality that is difficult to recognize, it is possible to cultivate a brand by promoting 360-degree communication on a large scale by suppressing the shape and design of the package, naming, TV commercials, PR, digital measures, and retail stores.
However, in reality, most companies and ventures do not have such large-scale resources, and I think that it is difficult to apply such a quantity strategy. Also, it is not easy to develop strong communication ideas. As a marketer, you will need some experience of trial and error, and it is very difficult to develop human resources for that. Even if you hire mid-career, it is a reality that there are not many people who meet your needs.
If you ask an advertising agency, the difficulty remains the same. In the first place, for products with weak product ideas, devise good communication, and if you are throwing it to an advertising agency, there is no way it will lead to sales growth.
Even in the market environment, products and services with weak uniqueness are becoming less and less usable. In the 80's, 90's, and 2000's, it was easy to get a lot of attention from the media and to talk about it on a daily basis, simply by appointing famous talents. When EC was in its early days and distribution was limited to stores, information distribution was also limited to four mass media, and the amount of information itself was small, so a slight difference (weak uniqueness) served as news to many customers Arrived.
The smartphone spreads with the launch of the iPhone in 2007 as one opportunity, the volume of information distribution will increase dramatically, the route of information acquisition will also spread, and it will not be noticed in the "idea" there and will be buried in no time It became like this.
A variety of new communication methods have been proposed focusing on the digital field, such as social marketing, influencer marketing, and buzz marketing, but without strong "product ideas", products and services will be widely disseminated in this way there is no. If you invest, the number of impressions and the number of plays will certainly increase and the information itself will seem to spread, but it will not lead to a big cognitive formation and purchasing. Even with 20 million impressions and 3 million views of the video, as far as I know, there aren't many cases that resulted in significant sales.
These techniques are not a problem. However, just appealing the comparative advantage of products that are only relative value means that the era has become insufficient as a strategy. It was a time when the idea itself of benefits with uniqueness was questioned.
I explained "product ideas" and "communication ideas" that are important in marketing, but there is one more important thing to success in marketing. It is early cognitive formation.
Even if a product idea with strong uniqueness and strong benefits can be developed, it is often the case that the imitating followers lose the position and become a niche similar brand. Mercalli is also a late-on fleas app, and "skin lab" was also a late-on as a hyaluronic acid based lotion, but it gained early cognitive formation and became category No. 1.
On the contrary, Smart News, Japan's first news app, debuted in the world with strong uniqueness and benefits and was accepted, followed by the recognition of the competition that appeared later, and stagnated as a niche brand in danger By the way.
In various categories, many of the top brands are, in fact, generic products for their "product ideas". This fact illustrates the importance of cognitive formation speed.
In many cases, you may not be able to sell because you can not make enough recognition, but you can often stop investment just because the apparent increase in sales has stopped. If you do not calmly decide whether the "product idea" itself has a problem or lack of cognition, it will mean picking up growth opportunities on your own.
As an example of making a breakthrough by making use of the speed of cognitive formation, “Time Machine Management”, which Softbank has been doing, is famous. We will quickly identify strong "product ideas" that are emerging all over the world, develop them as our own service in Japan, and create recognition of that category before the main family enters Japan.
In fact, we can see the same strategy in China. Although China, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter have not yet entered China, but Chinese companies such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have developed similar services to monopolize China and their overwhelming profitability To acquire overseas companies and make inroads into the world. This is a result of the Chinese government's policy, "Because we can not enter internet services from abroad for defense reasons", and enable "time machine management" for Chinese companies. For Chinese people, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter, all of which you see overseas, are nothing more than services you have seen in China.
There are many similar cases other than digital ones. In the carbonated beverages market, Coca-Cola is the world's No. 1 in the world, but in the Middle East and in some Asian countries where the expansion was delayed, Pepsi Cola, which advanced early, formed recognition first, and it was long for No. 1 Has maintained its position. The overwhelming No. 1 McDonald's in the hamburger chain has similar experience in each country. In England, where the market has been delayed, a local hamburger chain called Wimpy has been overwhelmingly no. It was one. In England at the time, Wimpy is a delicious fast-food hamburger, and McDonald's was the weak second best of the product idea at the time of its expansion. McDonald's gradually took the lead with the subsequent massive investment and Wimpy's missteps, but the delay in the early hamburger chain's cognitive formation required a lot of investment and time.
In other words, in addition to strong product ideas and communication ideas, it can be said that "early recognition formation with target customers" is the three elements of success (Figure 4). Also, from the viewpoint of followers, if you have products or services that are lagging behind in their recognition, while having excellent product ideas, develop products in-house and get recognition at once, take away categories. Is possible. From the point of view of the customer, regardless of whether it is a home marketer or not, the competitor who quickly formed recognition will dominate the category as a real thing, unless there is a special entry barrier such as patent technology or government regulation.