You’re tasked with creating a brand strategy for a new product. What are the first steps you take?

The first step is essentially understanding the product. To be experimental and critical in understanding what purpose does it really solve? Identifying how is it different from other products or what is its differentiating factor. Try to identify what audience it caters to, as communicating the product to the right audience is key. Once that seems certain, run trials of communicating and interacting with the target audience, collect honest feedback and do a thorough research on competitor models. Have an entire swot ready and try to chalk out plan of action based on that. Don’t directly rush into creating something that you feel is right. Determine if it’s actually solving an issue or not, and if it is- then to what extent, and for whom?

Begin by thoroughly understanding the new product, including its features, benefits, unique selling points, and target audience. Gain insights into the product's value proposition, intended use cases, and how it fulfills customer needs or solves pain points. Collaborate with product development teams, conduct product demonstrations, and gather relevant documentation to ensure a comprehensive understanding.

Initiate the brand strategy for a new product by thoroughly understanding its unique value proposition, target audience, and market context. Conduct comprehensive market research, analyze competitor landscapes, and identify the product's key differentiators. This foundational understanding forms the basis for crafting a distinctive and effective brand strategy that resonates with the target market.

Conduct extensive market research to assess the current landscape, trends, and opportunities within the industry or market segment where the new product will compete. Identify market size, growth potential, key demographics, consumer preferences, and emerging trends that may impact the success of the product. Utilize market research methodologies such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and secondary data analysis to gather relevant insights.

Understanding your competition is like deciphering a chessboard. Identify rivals' moves, strengths, and strategies. Uncover the subtleties of their brand chess pieces to position yourself strategically, seizing a unique advantage on the board of consumer perception.

Analyze competitors operating within the same market space to understand their strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and positioning relative to the new product. Conduct competitive analysis to identify competitor products, pricing strategies, distribution channels, marketing tactics, and customer feedback. Identify gaps, unmet needs, or areas of differentiation that the new product can leverage to gain a competitive advantage in the market.

One of the most important things to consider when you're launching a new product is where you want it to sit within your brand architecture. Is this a simple extension to the products you currently offer? If so, it likely can exist in the current structure. However, if you're entering into new markets and producing a product that doesn't fit with your current offerings you need to consider if it could DAMAGE your brand. If this damage is a possibility you might want to launch the product under a different brand to ensure that the customers don't see this as a strange addition to your current offerings. Which can spell doom.

I will ask if I can get hold of the product to use it and understand what it does. If not possible, create a small sample - Ideal customer for that product and take their inputs to understand what makes it tick or fail. The strategy will be to solve and position those challenges. Later, this strategy will involve stages of customer insights to craft messaging.