Reasons products and companies fail

This post will be dedicated to positiong, market analysis, marketing plans and bad timing. If you are afraid of failing with your start-up or product you should read through this post. This post took me a long time to write and I will continue to add information to this post during a couple of week.
 

An idea is born and you know it will be a success. You talk to your family and friends and everything indicates that the product will change your lives and make you a millionaire. Good ideas and products are created every day, in every city, in every country - but it is rare that they succeed.

There are hundreds of different reasons that businesses fail with their product launches, timing, price and misjudgments is something you usually talk about in these cases - maybe the market is not ready for your products, or your crazy invention might not even have a market .

There are also thousands of really good products that have failed to reach out and penetrate the market. Will you succeed with your uppfining or your new product? Here are some reasons why you will fail and never make it.

Working with product development is hard and doing an inadequate or poor market analysis can make you liable to launch your product at the wrong time, taking wrong decisions in marketing and sometimes it can be so wrong so that you may not even should have made a market at all. The cost for your company to develop new products make the strategic decisions are increasingly important, according to the studies done that say that more than 95% of all products launched on the market will not be successfull. But your company and your products will be a sucess!

Here is a list of causes of failure

• Poorly conducted market analysis
• Product or production problems
• Poorly excecuted marketing plan
• Strong competition in the market
• Bad timing
• Trying to reach everyone
• Price of your products to high or to low
• Wrong distribution channels

Reduce your risks - but go all in

In business, it is important that you dare to bet everything you have, but it's also wise to take their time to reduce any possible risks to betting to win in the long run. In business, it is important that you dare to bet everything you have, but it's also wise to take their time to reduce any possible risks to betting to win in the long run.

 Before you begin our production and sales, it might be good to listen to the market and create a picture of what to invest in, which customers you want to reach and how to get a product on the market - will you open a e-commerce, selling on ebay / amazon, open a shop, reach out through dealers or will you bet on everything at the same time?

Though you might not often do recommend anyone to bet on everything at the same time, I would like to encourage you to "If you can afford to invest and test all types of production, marketing and sales channels you can think about". Invest smart and only spend your money on what you belive in!

The reasons you fail launching your start-up or selling your products

Are you an entrepreneur or invest in your start-up companies, there is always the risk that you will lose all that you bet, poor business decisions are common causes that all shitting themselves - but that does not mean that you will not succeed in your venture - but to be aware of the risk and knowing you can loose it all will get you to stand on your toes and make great key decisions.

Missjudging needs and requirements

To misjudge your customers' needs and customer requirements is one of the most common mistakes that many people make, the reason for this error is usually stem from a weak product or concept. It is important that your new product or service provides a sufficiently large and signifik differe with existing products and the benefits are highlighted for your products. Think again and see that your benefits are not only objective without the customer also can experience these benefits when he uses your product.

Problems penetrating the market

It may be tempting to want to reach out to every single person on the planet, for each person is indeed a potential client and you could just sell your unique product that all the world's people need so would you help save the world. Poorly excecuted marketing plans and trying to reach everyone will drain your budget dry, if you do have bottomless wallet please try but it will probably cost a lot.

When to launch your product, it is important to ask yourself whether the market in which it competes, there are differences in the target group's attitudes and needs that can crystallize into a sufficiently large and intresserant market potential.If you have a unique concept in terms of product, price, distribution, so, then maybe you don't need to bother with the segmentation.

 If you have selected a specific target group and one is in a highly competitive industry (which all industries are today), so it is important that your audience gets a clear picture of the products or services that your company offers.When it comes to positioning and message and you will formulate this in the same way as if you were designing a plate, with a clear message that the customer can be rapidly identify and estimate your product's benefits and the characteristics that make so that he or she chooses to use of your company and your products! Another common problem is missjuding your market potential and missjudging your competitors strength.

Missjuding market potential and competitors strength

Missjuding the market potential or weakness/strength of your competition could make big problems for your company. Market potential is often calculated by the maximum number of users and their consumption. The problem for you is that you will never be able to assimilate all of the calculated potential - there are simply too many different reasons that will make you never will be able to reach all of those users. You may have weaknesses in the distribution or maybe you do not have the money to meet all your requirements to reach out to your targeted market.

Storefronts and branding

Humans are simple creatures, we likes to recognize ourselves in our environments. We like it cause it makes things more simple, it does not matter if it's in the gym, in a kitchen or in a store. By building up your business with a concept for your brick and mortar storefront you will connect with your customers on an "unconscious" level. This is something that you often see the big brands and chains do - they use the same concept on the design and in the layout of the store, they put product categories and product groups in the same place and in the same part of the stores - no matter if it is in China, Sweden or on Manhattan. This is a good choice to facilitate the shopping experience for your customers. To work with a concept layout and design is something that is particularly more attractive to men, since men have a slightly different behavior when they go around in a store.

Read more about this in previous post about "How men operate in stores".
> Did you miss to read "Storefronts for store in mall - part one"? Read it now!

Branding for brick and mortar stores

Branding is something that is important for all types of business, maybe you run a small business and you feel branding might seem like a waste of time - like it is just another thing to clear in your checklist. But if you ever would start with branding your company or store you will start to see that it is not. Branding acctually is verry important even to small business operations, it will be a good investment and give you more "bang for your buck".

Brick and mortar storefronts

Exterior and fronts for bars and restaurants

For restaurants and bar it is very important to look inviting for passersby, the storefront design should match the interior - the interior should match the exterior. Your clientel should like the atmosphere. You should invest time and money in lighting, exterior and interior. Try to make it unique.

Concept for "The Bar" a restaurant and bar front

Exterior and storefront for shoe store

The front, exterior and interior is also important for shoe stores. Mr Choe and other stores should make it simple, put time and effort in timeless storefront and make the "products" pop-out of the shopping windows.

Concept storefront for a "Mr Choe" a brick and mortar storefront

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Maybe you belive that branding by using a nice storefront isn't important?
Examples on companies who use a concept design and layout for theire stores are:

IKEA, Apple, McDonalds,  Wallmart and many more.
And they all look recognizable!!!

Invest time and money on storefronts

Are you thinking about building a new storefront for your store? Check out these examples I made.
I will add more storefronts to this post during the week.

So how could a new exterior act as a bait for the customers to visit your store?
Before creating these storefront "concepts" I searched for different types of retail stores which have and could benefit from putting even more money, time and effort in working with theire storefronts.

I choosed to try one concept which would work for any store, so I choosed a Swedish lingerie store called Evanette, the luxorius clothing brand "Dolce & Gabbana" and the brand "Berkley" which is a fishing gear brand from the US.

> Continue reading about storefronts (part 2)

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Concept storefront for a lingerie store

Lingerie stores are sexy and attractive, time putting time and effort in your exterior and your window stores will attract a large amount of customers from your street.

Example of a exterior storefront for lingerie store Evanette

Concept storefront for exclusive brand

Example on a exterior storefront made for Dolce & Gabbana

Concept storefront for retail in fishing gears and tools

Example on a exterior storefront for a fishing store - Berkley

How men think and act in a retail store

At the risk of sounding like a man who is not a feminist and with the risk of making a very big generalization, the difference between the two sexes are pretty big. This post will deal with the differences between men's and women's buying behavior in retail stores and stores in general. I have read some research on this topic and will write down some assertion about how men operate broadly when they are out walking around in stores. We will begin by reviewing the men's buying behavior in retail stores

How men operate in your store

• Men do not normally like to shop.
• Men don't like to ask where things are located at in your store
• A man goes straight through the store directly to the product he must have, he picks it up and goes directly to the checkout.
• Men wants it to go fast in the store, they want quick service and make fast decisions. Therefore, as you probably know, it is difficult for a to be a good companion while out shopping.
• Men plan their shopping, this could make it difficult for your staff to get them to look or buy something other than they already planned to buy.
• If you sell clothing, You should put the fitting room next to the mens department, because if a man can not find it quickly when he should try on the clothes - it's a great risk that he does not bother to shop and leave the store.
• If you do get into a man in a fitting room, it is only if the size does not fit that stops him from purchasing.
• Men are happy to receive suggestions from staff once they find themselves in a situation where they try clothes. So your staff should be attentive to the clothes the men tries, if it doesnt fit you should be fast in proposing clothers that can replace what he tried.
• If you have a shop for women so it is important that you also appeals to men. Make sure that the men have no place in your store where they can wait, please see that you have some sport magazines or technology magazine near his place.
• If you have a store that sells products for both men and women, or if you have products specific for women, it is important to take advantage of situations where men are in the store. Make sure you come with suggestions on gifts for their wives. Suggest everything from specific products to gift cards, but suggest a maximum of 3 - because we know that men do not like to choose from too much.

So what do you think about men's buying behavior, do you have something to add?

Please comment below.

Are you going to start with signs and/or signage

This post is for you who seek information, tips and tricks for making signs and signage.

Using signs and billboards to communicate and market messages and products to increase awareness and capture the attention from your customers could be a good investment. To increase the awareness of your store you could either turn to good signs hanging in your stores windows. Either you do it your self or you turn to a professional in making signs and signage. The larger and more exclusive you want your signs to be the more likely it is that you should turn to a professional signage-maker.

Important to think about if you are to do your own signs

Ok, so you've Decided to Be Part of a project to do your own Signs and signage. Here is What You Should Keep in Mind During The Project. Making a professional sign doesnt need to be expensive. By creating a basic template it does not need to be hard or take up much of your time to make changes on your signage. You can spend more time in the beginning on the template and making simple changes to it once in a while.

• Do not over do your signs. Some billboards are full of small pictures, quotes, sale price, product information and other characters that make it difficult for the viewer to read and process diplsays fast enough.
When you do it do it simple - Use one image, use one headline and a bulleted list - that is everything you need for a good and informative sign.
• A sign that you put up in a store window must be even more simpler. The reason for this is that the message must be perceived in a shorter time and that is should create buying signal at even shorter period of time.
• Use few and striking headlines, such as "Sales", "BUY ONE FOR TWO" or any other card that tells you what's happening in your store. The simple rule that you can stick to is that the more time a customer is exposed to the sign, the more information you can fill the plate with.
• Stick to two to three colors. Choose a background color, text color and one color for important keywords
• Make sure that color contrast in the signage is good. Use dark text with light backgrounds for example. The combinations that often are used are white and black, yellow and black, green and white, red and white, white and blue.
• If you are to use your signs in a longer time period, make sure you use a good quality sign. If you are to use the sign on the outside it needs to be in even higher quality
• When you are done with the layout of your sig make sure the placement is perfectly placed, make sure the passerby sees the sign from the angle he comes from.

Getting ideas for signage

If you are not used to making signs and you don't know where to start i recommend you either go look at your competition for som good ideas on how to make you signs, buy some interior design magazines or go visit blogs, Tumblr and Google to look for good exampel on signage.

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"Please don't use these signs"

Have you ever visited a restaurant with a sign hanging over the toilet "Only for paying customers", a fancy store with a "no food or beverages in store" or a retail store selling chairs or beds with a "don't try" sign?

It is important that your signs calls for purchase, putting up negative signs, or signs that affect your customers' buying mood negatively shall not be in your store. Have they already up so you just have to take them down. Your job as a shop owner is not to tell customers what they should do or not do.I understand that many store owners get nervous when little children come in with ice cream or that staff become irritated by people who build mountains with goods they are testing, raises garments from packaging. But the message that you send to other customers is that you do not trust them. If you still, after all, want to make use of these kinds of signs - make sure that you write a gentle, nice text and have a good layout/design on the sign.