Breakthrough products are driven by a complex combination of value attributes that connect with people’s lifestyles. If you are conceiving a new product, you must conduct a value opportunity analysis that evaluates the current state of products against seven major attributes of value, in the market where the new product requires significant improvement. This is an essential step in any new product development. Failure to thoroughly and thoughtfully complete this phase will have a negative impact down the line.
During the period of mass marketing, good value was based on the lowest cost-maximum features combination. The goal was to keep cost low, profits moderate, and sell in mass quantities (like Big Bazaar, K-mart etc). Value in its true sense, however, is lifestyle-driven, not cost-driven. So a product is valuable if it is useful, usable, and desirable. While cost is still an issue in the times of market segmentation, the more powerful factor is the consumer’s need to connect their product purchases with their own personal values. The higher a product’s perceived value, the more people will pay for it.
The seven attributes that adds value to any product are,
1. Aesthetics that builds a positive association with the product.
- Visual appeal
- Products must be tactile
- Elimination of all undesired sounds from the product
- Agreeable smell
2. Emotion that a consumer experiences with the product. There can be several emotions that a product can bring about, and they key ones are,
- The product promotes excitement and adventure
- Freedom from constraints
- Feeling of safety and stability
- Luxurious experience
- User’s self assurance about handling the product
- Feeling of supremacy
3. Ergonomics of your product that chiefly focuses on ‘ease of use’, ‘safety’, and ‘comfort’ of your target customers.
4. Impact of your product through phases of development to end use. You should target your product for improving the social well-being of the stakeholders. Take care of negative environmental effect that your product might create, through green-design that focuses on minimizing negative impacts on the environment due to manufacturing, resource use and recycling.
5. Product Identity that also supports your brand identity. Your product should have the ability to fit among yet differentiate itself from its direct competition. Your product should also have a connection with the rest of the products produced by your start-up. Your product must be designed to fit into the context of use.
6. Quality in the precision and accuracy of manufacturing process, material composition, and methods of attachment. Your product should be made with sufficient tolerances to meet performance expectations over time, and must hold up to the expected life of the product.
7. Technology alone is not enough, but technology is essential. Your core technology must be appropriately advanced to provide sufficient features to your product. Remember, consumers expect technology in products to work consistently and at high level of performance over time.
Keep in mind while working on a new product that it should be aimed at fulfilling a fantasy by facilitating a more enjoyable way of doing something.