How do I make my product compete in the market?

Hello, my name is Ian Peterman, CEO and founder of the Peterman Design Firm, and today I'd like to talk about, you know, the question that I get asked on how do I make my product competitive in the market. And one of the first things that we do when assessing a new product and its market viability and whether it's going to make it in the market is looking at the competitors, looking at, you know, what's already out there, what features are there, and seeing if there's a need for additional features. So one of the ways you can— your product can stand out is by doing something that other products don't do that are similar to yours. So, you know, you can add a specific feature, you could add something that says, okay, well, yeah, our competitor does these 3 things, but we do those 3 and we do one other thing. So that's an easy— that's kind of one of the most common ways of how do you make your product stand out in the market is, well, we do something extra. There's also the opposite where instead of, you know, maybe somebody comes out with a product that has 4 features and you go, well, We— our target market, we're going to make this so that it's not just a general tool. It's not the Swiss Army knife. It's just a knife or it's just tweezers. We then narrow down and we go, okay, well, we are— the clients that we have and customers that we're going after, they only care about 2 of the 4 features. So we're going to release a product that narrows it down and becomes more niche-focused. And so you'll see, you'll see this kind of feature ebb and flow in terms of, you know, a lot of similar products, but maybe they have less features or more features. It has to do with, well, this market, you know, these people that are purchasing it may not care about all the features. And so when you do that, you can help segment the market and go, okay, well, this is the niche that I'm focused on. They care about these 2 features. And that's all I'm going to do. I'm not going to give them stuff they don't want because it's extra cost to me and extra cost to them and kind of pointless. So doing that is going to make it really easy for you to then have your product be specific to that niche. And instead of trying to be everything for everyone, you'll be able to have really, really specific features for your customers. So that's one way of making your product stand out in the market is changing the number of features to better match your specific target market. And that's part of why we have different, different cars and different products and different things out there is because each one is aimed at a little bit different group of people. The same people that buy a Porsche probably don't buy a Toyota. Maybe there, maybe there is somebody that does, but it's unlikely that that's, that's going to be the same person making the same purchase. And it's not just about the financial. You can spend $100,000 on a large SUV at Toyota, but he's about $100,000 on a sport car. Probably not the same person. They're not, not going to be exactly the same. So they have different features, they have different body styles, you know, all those things go together. And so the other part of that, which I just mentioned, is styling. So maybe product features are perfect, but Somebody's targeting a product towards one group of people based on the styling that it's at. You know, maybe it's a really rugged version, or what's actually more common, at least recent design trends, is that you come out with a product. You know, you have an iPhone or an iPad or any other device case, right? You just have a case. It protects it. It's great. And then you have the ruggedized version. You have OtterBox, for example, that goes, yeah, well, our case, you can drive a monster truck over your phone and it'll be fine. You can drop it into the ocean however many meters and it will be totally fine. And, you know, basically they take it and they make it even more proof and they make it— they add some features a little bit, but they also— when you look at an OtterBox, it's not a sleek slim design. It's, it's a box that you put your phone inside of. So that kind of change, you know, that's going to appeal to one group of people, whereas, you know, somebody's going to look at, look at that and say, I don't like that, that is not my style, I don't want that, it's not something I'm going to— I'd be seen dead having, right? They're, they're going to look at this, some other design, and say, oh, I love that. You know, it's part of how clothing has so many different colors. You'll have one shirt and it comes in 10 colors because different people want a little bit different design, you know. And there's, you know, fashion industry, there's 15 different shirt kinds, and you can get really, really far into it. But it's because people want different designs and they want to be unique. So there's kind of this uniqueness factor as well, and that's the other place that you can differentiate yourself is Yeah, you can have a different design a little bit, but you can really step outside the box and say, well, this is a unique product. We do— you do something that is completely unusual for the segment and you stand out and you'll attract a different group. That'll be for a different group of people that really like that kind of thing. And so those are— those ways are some really good ways to do it. And, you know, are kind of common. They're the really common ones. Everybody does those. Another way that is used somewhat, and this all comes down to positioning and how do you position your brand, and we go through this exercise with clients of, okay, well, where are you on the scale of really expensive to really cheap or really durable to really single use? Right. Then there's There's different reasons to be in different categories and figuring out where's a hole between our competitors on the things that you wanna compete on and where's the gap and how to position yourself into a spot and say, okay, well, there's nobody that's doing this and we want our product to fit in there. And that positioning, that brand positioning will actually influence the product development process because it says, well, it's great, you wanna develop a product, but the market says that there's 10 companies here. Doing this exact thing, and there's like a couple over here. Maybe we should be over in this quadrant, or, you know, this whole other side of quadrant is completely empty. What about working in there? And that's where you figure out where, you know, where you— how you can be competitive is figuring out, okay, well, companies aren't developing a cheaper option. They just aren't. They're not developing a cheaper option that's more accessible to this segment of the population. Well, that's a whole product, right? There's a whole market. That'd be an untapped market potentially for your product if it, you know, solves a problem that people in that market actually have, right? You can't, you can't sell racing tires to people that only commute. They're not going to care about your racing tire because they just go to work and come back, or maybe they don't even own cars, right? If you don't own a car, you don't care about anything that has to do with a car. You don't care about oil changes or, you know, body repair or tires or buying a car. You might be someone that uses public transportation and that's what you want, that's what you're good with. Do it, that's fine. But that means you are not someone that should be targeted by any of the automotive industry, right? Differentiating yourself in the market is really important. And it's, you know, with looking at things like we just talked about brand positioning and things like that, making sure your product stands out either based on features or design. Those components will all help make sure that your product stands out, will help guide you in figuring out how your product can stand out. You start with, okay, well, these are all the ways that people are doing it now. These are the ways that I can stand out. And then these are the ways that I can stand out that actually matter to my customers. So, you know, it's all based— all of this is based on who are your customers, what do they care about. And figuring that out will help you say, okay, well, there's 50 different ways that we can stand out, but 4 of them, 4 of them are ways that we can stand out that benefit our particular customers and they would love and they will really enjoy and they will benefit from and Therefore, by benefiting them, they'll actually purchase the product. And so that's how you, how you compete. That's how you make your product compete in the market, is by figuring out what your customers want, figuring out what has already been done, and how to make a product that's even better and more specific for them. And that's through, you know, features, it's through design, it's through things like that that are going to allow your product to stand out and your customers to find it and purchase it. Hope this helps answer your question. Hey, thanks for watching. We really appreciate our viewers, and if you haven't subscribed yet, please do subscribe to our channel so you can get more great videos like this in your feed. And like the video. If you wanna learn more about the Peterman Design Firm, please check us out on our website, petermanfirm.com. You'll find link and information in the description. And of course, we're on all social media as well, so check us out there. All right, thank you. Thank you.