Why is this so? Most importantly, it allows you to quickly develop a new product without being constrained by how much money or time you’re willing to invest in order to bring it to market. There are two primary ways that manufacturers source their components. You could become an affiliate for a manufacturer, and the two of you could both drive your product to market together.
Or, you could get your hands on an original product. For instance, if you owned the rights to a Microsoft Surface Pro, you could take that Surface Pro and purchase some original components, as well as accessories, such as battery chargers. Once you have the product in your possession, you can then market it on eBay, Amazon, Facebook, MySpace, and other venues. While the process of sourcing the components may have been relatively straightforward, you would need to market your new product the same way that you would have if you had sourced the components directly from Microsoft itself.
That is why it is important to make sure that you do your research before you start to source a new product. What price point do you intend to sell the product for? What is your target customer demographic? Where will you promote your new product? Do you have the resources in-house to properly launch your new product? Think about how you can bring your new product to market without reinventing the wheel.
In many ways, there are two different ways to approach the question of how to bring a new product to market without re-inventing the wheel. The first approach is to simply create a new product from scratch. In other words, you will simply take the components that you have and incorporate them into your new product. While this method will allow you to leverage off the design expertise that you already possess, it will also force you to adopt new strategies for marketing and promotion of your product. As you can imagine, this can be a challenging but exciting approach to building a product.
The second way to go about this process is to build upon the design capabilities that you already possess. For instance, you may have an impressive portfolio of designs that you can use to launch your new product. Rather than starting from scratch, you can simply add one or more of those designs to your existing product and then define those components as the basis of your new product. This approach frees you up to develop and market the new component(s) in accordance with your business needs and goals rather than simply being forced to “reinvent the wheel.”
Of course, it is important to realize that reinventing the wheel is often necessary in order to bring a new product to market. Even in situations where a company possesses a robust portfolio of design expertise and components, it may be necessary to replace or upgrade some elements to make your product more competitive and compelling. Therefore, it is important to consider whether or not you need to “reinvent the wheel” for this particular situation. Only you can determine whether it is worth the time and expense to apply this approach when it can potentially increase your potential sales and revenue.
When you are designing and building your product, you should always keep in mind that your marketing strategy should also be flexible enough to adapt to changes in your product’s components or technologies. For instance, if your product features wireless capabilities, your marketing strategy may need to include wireless technology integration. Similarly, your marketing communications strategy will need to take into consideration any new media requirements your product might be required to carry out.
Finally, it is critical that you carefully consider how your product and its components impact your target market. You should evaluate whether or not your product and its components have the attributes that attract the type of customers you are looking for. By considering these various components and determining whether they negatively impact your marketing mix, you can effectively bring a new product to market.
