Introducing a new product category can be both exciting and daunting at the same time. You have this great product idea, but how do you market it as a category disruptor? Take Keurig as an example, the company created an easy-brew coffee machine utilizing its “K-Cups” which transformed consumer’s daily coffee-making habits. When launching a new category, follow these steps to educate consumers and grow your brand.
Consistency is Key
Before introducing your product to your target audience, it is important to define all facets of your brand’s identity. Identify and refine your key messaging so it makes planning campaigns around PR, marketing, and branding more consistent. Shoppers need to be in agreement about what the category is, why it’s better than the alternative, and why it matters. This will get your category to stick in consumers’ minds, shifting their mindset from new to standard.
Influencer Marketing
As consumers are becoming more aware of influencers, marketing through this channel can generate brand awareness very quickly to your target audience. For example, Care/of, a personalized vitamin subscription company, became widely known due to its influencer partnerships. To create a well-rounded influencer marketing campaign is vital to integrate all variations of influencers, from bloggers to journalists to celebrities. This will allow your brand and its category to reach all types of audiences from different outlets generating a buzz around your product.
Competition
Naturally, being a leader in a category requires competition to help legitimize the market to consumers. Without having competition, it is hard for a shopper to evaluate your brand and products without having something to compare it to. There are different ways to go about this: think of plant-based meat for example – companies like Beyond Meat challenge the entire meat industry by offering comparable taste without the environmental or health effects. So, indirectly the first few plant-based meat companies challenged the meat industry as a whole rather than each other. As it has become the norm, now the companies are honing in on their taste and nutrition compared to other plant-based meats.
Collaboration & Partnerships
A fast and efficient way to introduce your product to consumers is by collaborating with popular non-competing brands that compliment your product and category. By doing so, you can lock in their consumer base and position your category as a trustworthy source to your target audience. This can also result in a long-term collaborative partnership with brands, as well as open more opportunities for partnerships.
Through these methods alongside a detailed product launch PR campaign, you can generate good buzz about your category among consumers. Once you have that audience locked in, work towards integrating other campaigns to remain consistent, relevant, and fresh.
Captured Your Target Audience – What’s Next?
