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(LUSAKATIMES) Consumer Driven Products Vs Sales Driven Products

Consumer Driven Products Vs Sales Driven Products
By Wesley Ngwenya
Thursday, March 11, 2010, 16:37

This week I want to talk about consumer driven products and sales driven products. As a consumer of many goods and services in the country, I cannot help it but notice how much companies in the country force their products on consumers. Or using what I call the sales driven products approach. This approach focuses on sales and is designed by the company prior to the launch of the product. However, the consumer driven approach tests the market first and develops a strategy according to the demands of the consumers.

While Zambia boasts with so many local fast moving consumer products there seems to be little understanding in the marketing strategy. Little wonder why so many of these products come on the market and eventually experience a natural death. Could it be that the manufacturers of these products have little understanding of the market? Or is it that the products were probably not the best fit for the market? I think really it is a combination of these reasons.

Those companies that have developed and designed their products around the needs of their consumers have experienced a long lifespan on the market. They have constantly continued to consider the consumers. While a sales driven approach is rigid, a consumer driven approach is more flexible. Its products adapt with the market. It is dynamic because it operates with consumers who have dynamic needs and are in dynamic markets.

Sometimes all a company has to do is to change the packaging of the product. While in one market the packaging may be appropriate, in another it may not be. Recently, I have been consulting with companies that are launching new products here in Zambia. One company’s product is tea while the other is detergent powder. Both of these companies are optimistic about their products’ success here in Zambia. In order to penetrate the market the companies had to change their packaging to better meet the needs of the consumers here in Zambia especially their pockets.

It is therefore not surprising that consumer driven products fair well than sales driven products. The tea and detergent powder, for example, were very popular products in their home countries. Consumers knew these products very well and bought them in supermarkets. However, here in Zambia these products did not fair well—hence the different approach. Here in Zambia, they had to compete with some of the big brands on the market especially the detergent pastes. We therefore found that packaging the tea and detergent powder in very small packages did the magic.

Once this was done everything changed for my clients. They suddenly had a new clientele at their table—the lower end of the market. This is actually where the money is because of the numbers. Wholesalers, retailers and little tuntembas were able to order the products and sell them in numbers. The price was very attractive so were the profits. The lower end of the market in Zambia love to buy in small doses. Think about the success of the tujilijili industry in Zambia. It is all about a consumer driven product. The packaging did the magic for the hard liquor companies.

It is not only the manufacturing industry that has had to use the consumer driven approach. Mobile companies, here in Zambia, have been on top of the game in driving mobile subscriptions towards them. The companies that have not only focused on sales but have taken consumer needs into consideration continue being the leaders in the industry. Similarly, those that have focused only on sales continue lugging behind.

Consumer driven products are not necessarily easy products to design. They are time consuming because of the effort in investing in research and consumer behavior. They can be complex and costly too because of the different approaches used. Unlike sales driven products that only need smooth talking salespeople, consumer driven products need skilled salespeople. It needs personnel who better understand marketing and consumers. This means that the company has to invest in attracting good paid personnel. In turn this can raise the price of the product.

I am really looking forward to a time in our industry when companies will save their money and invest it in understanding their consumers. We seem to be having some kind of universal format of communicating to our Zambian market which should not really be the case. The Zambian market can be segmented in various forms. Understanding the ever changing consumer needs in our market is fundamental. Until next time. Adios. Wes_ngwenya *** yahoo.com

Labels: MARKETING

posted by MrK @ 3:25 PM