Product engineers and service conceptualists believe all differentiation emanates from them. Marketers think they add the secret ingredient through positioning, messaging and tactics. Sales people believe its all in the pitch. In reality, differentiation has its own lifecycle. Avoiding any of the significant phases of that lifecycle can result in a failed product or service. In this article, we’ll provide a brief overview of the lifecycle and the benefits you can experience by embracing it.
Phase 1: Needs
God bless the engineers and service development gurus who have the amazing intellectual power to envision products and services before they exist, who see possibilities, who can snag the vision from the ether and bring it into physical existence. The trap, the nasty sink hole that so many fall into, is defining features before defining the need. We build it because we can. In the excitement to make it exist the diligence to determine whether there is indeed a market for the offering is left far behind. Enter assumptions. Enter development delays. Enter greater degrees of risk. Then the product gets dropped in the lap of marketers as does accountability for its success or failure. Sound familiar?
Differentiation begins at the need definition stage. If the need doesn’t exist and forecasts aren’t predicting its generation over the development cycle then differentiation becomes a mute point. It may be the most distinctive offering the world has seen but if no one wants it, you have a problem.
To oversimplify, we have to know before we go. On the marketing side, audience segmentation should be occurring as part of the needs definition process. What needs is this new offering fulfilling for what audience segments? Who are the early adopters, the influencers, and the early majority? Relating the need not only to the general evolution of market trends but also to specific segments within the market is essential.
