9 Product Category Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Own Stores and websites aren’t a mishmash of products with no discernible organization for a reason. People want a sense of direction and a positive customer experience, even when they are “just browsing.” They also want to know they are in good hands when it comes to the product category they’re exploring — whether that’s kitchen tools, breakfast cereals, or winter coats. Product category marketing helps your brand stand out among related items, so your company’s products wind up in the shopping cart — whether real or virtual. What is a product category? A product category is “a particular group of related products,” according to the Cambridge Dictionary. Your distinct offerings and customer personas should guide the organization and grouping of your product categories. For example, REI Co-Op offers a wide range of outdoor gear. To guide customers, they split their products into interest-based categories, such as running, climbing, and snow sports. For fashion retailers, it makes more sense to organize categories by product type, such as shoes, shirts, and pants. Product category marketing amplifies why a company is the best choice within that group of products. Why should customers opt for your offering rather than your direct competitors? Gaining brand recognition and appreciation across a product category means greater returns for your marketing efforts. When consumers have positive experiences with a specific product category it also builds brand trust, which often expands to other categories through the halo effect....

The Marketer's Guide to Segmentation, Targeting, & Positioning I once heard a new business owner define their target market as … wait for it … “everyone”. *cringe* While it’s nice to believe that everyone would be interested in purchasing your product or service, it’s not wise to define your target market as such. Not only does this definition (or lack thereof) create way more work for you; it also does a disservice to your actual target market — by over-widening your scope, you fail to inform and educate your audience about how your product or service can improve their lives. This is where segmentation, targeting, and positioning come into play. We developed this guide to help you understand how and why you should invest time into better understanding your audience and targeting your marketing. Let’s dive in. At its core, STP helps you to better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base. The model can also reveal niche markets, uncover new customer or market opportunities, and, ultimately, make your marketing efforts more efficient and cost-effective. STP allows you to take a large, anonymous audience and define how your different products (or different components of the same product) relate to specific consumer segments within that larger audience — thus understanding how to position your product(s) and messaging to grab the attention of each segment. Let’s unpack each part of the segmentation-targeting-positioning model. 1. Segmentation Segmentation refers to the process of dividing your audience into smaller groups...

What is Trading Up, and Why It Matters for Marketers To understand what the term "trading up" means, let's start with a scenario. You wake up early and jog to the Starbucks on the corner of your street. There, you wait in line to order a pumpkin-spiced latte, as you skim emails on your iPhone. Afterwards, you return home, put on your new Lululemon workout apparel, and hop on your Peloton for an at-home workout. In this scenario, you've "traded up" in a variety of consumer categories: including coffee, technology, clothing, and even workout gear. Why, for instance, did you feel the need to head to Starbucks and pay $6 for a drink, as opposed to making a quick pot of coffee in your Keurig? Alternatively, why not purchase workout apparel from Marshalls or Target? (No judgment on any of these decisions: I've made them, too.) Ultimately, trading up refers to a consumer's tendency to pay more for a higher-quality, more expensive product or service from a brand to which they've formed an emotional attachment, and feel a sense of loyalty. But trading up doesn't just refer to a consumer's behavior in the marketplace at-large: it also refers to a consumer's decision to upgrade their product for a newer model with additional features. As a marketer, it's critical you understand the concept "trading up" to discern how you might evoke brand loyalty in a crowded marketplace — or, how you might market a new version of your product to existing...

Understand Market Penetration and How to Create a Strategy Everyone wants their business to grow. This seems pretty intuitive considering effective and successful growth means your business is experiencing boosts in revenue, brand awareness, brand loyalty, and more — and we know this to be true by looking at the most successful and well-known companies today (e.g. Apple, Amazon, etc.). The question is: What do these highly-successful companies do to ensure they put themselves in a position for strong and consistent growth? Of course, there are a number of answers to this question based on who you ask. However, the one we’re going to focus on in this blog post is market penetration. So, what is market penetration? How to Calculate Market Penetration If you’re using market penetration as a measurement, use the following formula to discover how much a product or service is used by customers compared to its total estimated market. In other words, take the current sale volume for your product or service and divide it by the total sale volume of all similar products available in the market. (Number of Customers / Target Market Size) x 100 = Market Penetration Rate Frequently monitoring your market penetration is important in order to identify any increases or decreases in penetration. If you’re wondering how often to calculate market penetration, a good rule of thumb is to calculate it after every marketing and sales campaign you run. This will highlight any changes in penetration...

What Is Product Classification, and Why It Matters for Your Marketing Efforts The other day, I roamed the aisles of CVS and picked up the same Crest toothpaste I've been buying for years. I didn't think twice about it. I made the purchase on auto-pilot. I didn't consider testing out a different brand, or purchasing one from another retailer. Toothpaste, as it turns out, is known as a "convenience good", which matches my buying behavior. Understanding product classification can help you understand your consumers' general buying behaviors, which will help you market your product more effectively. There are four types of product classification. Let's dive into each type, so you can determine where your product falls in the list. Consumer Product Classification There are four types of product classification — convenience goods, shopping goods, specialty products, and unsought goods. Let's dive into each one in more detail. 1. Convenience Goods Like the Crest toothpaste example, convenience goods are products that consumers' purchase repeatedly and without much thought. Once consumers choose their convenience goods' brand-of-choice, they typically stick to it unless they see a reason to switch — such as an interesting advertisement that compels them to try it, or mere convenience at the checkout aisle. These products include toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, milk, and other necessities that people buy over and over again. To market a convenience good, you want to consider that most people will impulse buy these products. Placing your products near the checkout line at...

Do AR Product Previews Actually Lead to Purchases According to a recent Retail Dive survey, 55% of consumers still prefer to shop in stores because they like to see or test out products before they buy them. But, if consumers could see or try products virtually from home, would they still need to go to the store before making a purchase? This question has been asked by companies like Amazon, Warby Parker, and IKEA which have embraced AR product reviews. With these previews, ecommerce visitors can see an item of clothing on a photo of their body, preview what furniture will look like in their bedroom, and even size themselves to ensure they're buying a product with the best fit. But is this virtual experience really as effective as a traditional store or fitting room at getting people to buy? Skeptics might say no. With AR being costly to implement and product viewings only requiring a physical store location, many marketers think that this technology isn't worth the fuss. However, as the world grows more and more digital, each new generation is making even more online purchases. They're also embracing technologies like AR/VR for entertainment or retail purposes. Not to mention, while holidays like Black Friday cause a burst in foot-traffic, retail businesses are finding it more challenging to keep people coming into stores throughout the rest of the year. While AR might have been inaccessible to retail marketers in the past, could it be a revenue-generating...

19 Impressive Product Demo Videos You'll Want to Copy In marketing these days, you can’t swing an enthusiastic micro-influencer without hitting someone who’s talking about video content. And it’s not without merit. A recent HubSpot study revealed 54% of consumers want to see more video content from brands and businesses they support. With video marketers earning 66% more qualified leads per year and a 54% increase in brand awareness, it’s clear video marketing is the future and product demo videos are a lucrative path forward. In fact, 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service. There are many different types of product demo videos, so I’m sharing a few of my favorites below, along with tips on how to get started on your own product demo video. Want to skip straight to the videos? Click here. 1. Identify the goal Purchases? Subscriptions? Education? Brand awareness? Decide what your video is trying to achieve and what you want the viewer to walk away with. What action do you hope the viewer takes after watching your video, and what business need does it fulfill? For example, “After watching our product demo video, we hope the viewer submits a demo request form.” 2. Determine your audience Has the audience for this video purchased with you before? Are you introducing a new product or feature to them? Or is this video reaching people who have never heard of you? What will this audience be concerned with?...

6 Stats that Prove the Importance of Product Videos for Ecommerce Producing quality videos for your ecommerce site is hard, we know. Equipment is expensive, and specialists who know how to use that equipment cost even more. For that very reason, many ecommerce businesses will settle for photos and graphics just to get the job done. These video marketing statistics show that video might just be an investment worth making. Sure, you’ll have to dig a little deeper into those pockets at first, but the results will return more than you dreamed. Product Video Stats Marketers Need to Know 1. Video is the #1 content type used by marketers to sell products and services. In our Not Another State of Marketing Report, marketers surveyed said that video is the top content type being produced in their content marketing programs, passing blog posts for the first time ever.  2. More than half of marketers invest in some sort of product-related video. Also in the HubSpot report noted above, we found that nearly one quarter of marketers invested in product promotion videos, while nearly one fifth invested in product demos.   3. 73% more visitors who watch product videos will make a purchase.  Did you know that your products are more likely to sell if you create videos for them? There are quite a few reasons for this, which we’ll cover in the next points. The most important thing to note, however, is simply that videos for your products do prompt more...

Product Strategy: Defining a Product's Purpose and Plan Say I'm in the process of developing a new waffle iron. It's going to be capable of perfectly detecting when a waffle is golden brown no matter the volume or thickness of the batter. We're talking about next-level waffle technology. It could be an absolute game-changer, but in this scenario, something goes horribly wrong.  The product is rushed through development without any real guidance or objectives. And when it's sent to the manufacturer, there's no picture of what kind of audience will gravitate to it, how it stacks up to other waffle irons, what it's going to do for the business, or other crucial factors that might give this waffle iron an identity in the marketplace. If that were the case, then this once-in-a-generation feat of waffle engineering would go to waste — all because it didn't have a solid product strategy to guide its development. A sound product strategy can be the difference between a product being able to carve a permanent place in its market and being an absolute afterthought. It can put weight and sensibility behind a product to help it resonate with consumers as effectively as possible. It's the foundation for a successful product lifecycle, so if you're interested in developing a product at any point in the future, it's a concept worth having a picture of. Here, we'll get an understanding of what a product strategy is, the framework that structures it, the key elements...