A Product is More Than Your "Product"
by Bobette Kyle

I had a wonderful Thai dish for lunch today. I'll likely never return to the restaurant, however. Although the dish itself - the "product" - was delicious, the entire "Product" was a disaster. The restaurant owner failed to understand that there's more to his Product than the dish itself and that when it comes to Product marketing, the customer's perception is reality.

I'd been prepared for a tasty Thai/American buffet. A couple of weeks ago Tim and I noticed a lit "Eastern Buffet" sign in a strip mall and stopped in for dinner. Whoops! The owner informed us "We open February 1st. We'll have a buffet with Thai and other Eastern foods, along with some American choices."

This sounded good, so I returned for lunch February 6. As I walked in, vinyl banners and door signs proclaimed. "The Buffet Now Open!" and "The buffet is now open for business!"

The greeter, however, had a different message. "Just to let you know, we are no longer a buffet." Turns out the buffet hadn't been "cost effective" and they were now a sit-down Thai restaurant. After less than a week, the business model had changed completely, but the marketing message still promised the old Product.

I decided to stay for lunch anyway (many who walked in later did not). The temperature in the restaurant was frigid, so I ordered hot tea. I was presented with a single cup of barely warm water, tea bag floating on top. The free egg drop soup contained raw vegetables.

The dish itself was scrumptious, but every other aspect of the Product was a disaster. The buffet owner (errr...make that Thai restaurant owner) failed to understand three basic marketing and management principals: (1) A Product is much more than the core item, (2) to a customer, client or prospect, perception is reality and (3) a major new business or product requires an initial start-up period to succeed.

What Exactly is the "Product?"

When you purchase an item, you are purchasing much more than the item itself. The entire Product is a bundle of attributes that go beyond the tangible item. For example, service aspects (such as warranties, a person to bring you food, delivery, or customer support, etc.) or prestige / image elements (the "image" involved with purchasing an Infinity rather than a Maxima, for example) often come into play.

As a side note, a Product doesn't have to have a physical item at its core. Products can be service-based, a business, a brand, or an idea. Really, your Product could be anything that can benefit from marketing.

Entrepreneurs often start small businesses because they have a viable core product (or service, idea, etc.), then forget that the Product is much broader than the core product. Yes, a superb/unique core Product is necessary for success, but other elements are critical to success as well. The core products here (menu items themselves) are very marketable. The broader Product in the form I experienced will fail.

Perception Reigns

Phillip Kotler defines perception as "The process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world." (i) Each individual will form an impression of your Product based on the attributes they find most relevant or noticeable. If you "put your best foot forward," so to speak, you'll increase the number of people who form a positive impression. In the case of the new restaurant, that "best foot" was buried behind multiple hurdles, creating a disastrous first impression and negative perception.

Marketing Makes it Happen

I was floored to hear that after less than one week the restaurant owner had deemed the buffet format a failure. As far as I could tell, he had done nothing to really analyze why he was losing money on the buffet or to fix the underlying problems. There were also no apparent efforts to bring people into the restaurant for trial.

New products require people to try them in order to build a following. This requires marketing effort. Some ideas the owner could have tried before deeming the buffet a failure (think about how you can adapt these to your own situation and give your own Product a boost):

• Have a little faith in the business model. Give the strategy a chance. Very little in business works perfectly at first. The buffet made sense a week ago. Why doesn't it seem to make sense now? Is too much food being prepared? Are there too many dishes? Are there not enough customers? Are some dishes being passed over? The answer will probably be a combination of the above.
  
  Improving the product helps attract more business. Give it a chance by changing the buffet to address some of the underlying downfalls and doing things to highlight key outstanding features.
   
• Live up to promises. This is not hard if you make the right promises. A marketing message often forms the first and most critical impression of a Product. The buffet was no longer a buffet, yet signs blurted "buffet" every step of the way. Pay attention to the marketing message and change it when the Product changes. In this case, it would have been a very simple fix to cover or take down the signs! Even better, change the marketing message to promote the delicious Thai cuisine.
  
  The marketing message attracts people who are interested in and want the benefits or attributes you communicate. Do what you can to make the product deliver.
   
• Create some hoopla. This buffet was stuck in the corner of an L-shaped strip mall, with no apparent advertising or promotion to bring people in. The owner could have done a "preview" night for employees, families and key guests; given free samples to local businesses; distributed coupons by mail; gone door-to-door to nearby neighborhoods with menus; or several other things to generate initial interest and trial.

For your own business, brainstorm ways to grab the attention of people and generate initial trial. It's one of the ways you'll open the door for you to showcase the strengths of your Product.

No business can be perfect and no business can project a positive image 100% of the time (there are always people who cannot or will not be pleased), but keep these basic principals in mind and you'll be a winner.

About the Author

Bobette Kyle draws upon 15+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, online marketing experience, and a marketing MBA as inspiration for her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network (http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com). She is also author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business." You can search all articles on the network through the marketing directory by going here: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/directory