Product Outranks Positioning and Packaging According to Leading Marketers

Written By Ted Grigg

Robert Boyar, CMO of LW Brand design conducted a “quickie ranking” of six important marketing variables among a select group of marketing professionals. The 42 survey respondents came from a networking group of marketing executives who are MENG members comprised of select group of 1,800 senior marketing executives.

The majority of respondents -- over 60% -- voted the product as the most important marketing tool. Ranked in order, next came positioning then product, packaging, advertising, promotion and finally price.

The table below shows a summary of the responses.

Though admittedly an incomplete list based on only 42 responses, many of the respondents are presently marketing leaders in their organizations.

My view: this shows that without a good product or service no amount of branding, promotion or low pricing will make it a success. So make sure your product fulfills a human need and then match it to those individuals who will get the most out of it. If those two things are in balance, then you are on your way to a successful marketing effort.

This seems so basic, yet I see this violated  by marketers every day. Even Apple created a dud with the cube computer. What about Microsoft's first iteration of Zune? Even the latest version is floundering. Most American cars never managed to catch up to the quality of Japanese, German or even South Korean cars. All of these products received millions of dollars of marketing support. Yet they failed.

The story here is not that new products fail. But rather that skilled marketing is no cure for a fundamentally weak product.

What other examples come to mind for you? Have you seen great products succeed in spite of the product positioning or bad advertising?

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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