Defining your Product/Service

It sounds like common sense that you should be able to describe the product(s)/service(s) that your business is providing, but it's surprising how many times a proper description is lacking in entrepreneurial organizations! Defining your product or service involves explaining not just what you plan to offer, but also who you plan to offer it to. Defining your customers is a part of describing your product or service.

• Describe your product and service in terms of the type of people to whom you will be selling, what they want, and why they want it.
  
  
• Provide physical and functional descriptions of your product/service, focusing on what makes it/them unique. Use as much detail as possible.
  
  
• List features and benefits and different options. For instance, if you are planning on selling a new type of electronic product, you should be able to list what colours it will come in, and why you chose those colours, what features make it user-friendly, and what you can do to improve it.
  
  
• If you are providing a service, such as personal coaching, think about what approach you will take with clients, and how you will be different (and better) from those already providing the service.
  
  

Visioning clearly and in detail will contribute to the success of the product/service, and will help identify considerations that you may not have thought of. A good exercise for clearly defining your product or service is designing a marketing brochure, which will get you thinking about how to define your product/service to potential customers. It should also get you excited about actually putting that product/service on the market!

Designing a Brochure Case Study - Defining your Product: Ripple Effects Ltd.