Fundamental ways to keep your product strong and viable

Here are some fundamental ways  to keep your product strong and viable.

1. Develop new uses. Give your product or service a new function that the other guy hasn't thought of yet. It makes the buyer feel smart, like he's getting something for nothing. Be a hero for solving two problems for the cost of one. It's a great way to preempt a category. The WD 40 company has built its whole product line (which consists solely of WD 40) around new uses for the product. If a new computer scanner can function as a copy machine and a fax machine-and save money-the buyer will be delighted.

2. Make a minor cosmetic change. There are a zillion computers on the market, but Acer did something special: They made theirs black. It's high-tech, and also fits nicely into home decorating schemes. Frank Purdue created a frenzy in the chicken business when he capitalized on the fact that his chickens had a brand name and yellow skin. This convinced consumers that Purdue chickens were healthier, prime chickens. It reassured them that they were buying the best for their families and it gave them a point of comparison when they put their yellow-branded Purdue chicken next to pale chickens.

3. Develop a new name. Choose a name that buyers can remember. Stay away from neutral names that no one really loves or hates. Snuggles is a great name for a fabric softener, especially when it's positioned for kids clothes. Gobblestix, a name for a turkey jerky product targeted to moms and kids may sound simplistic at first to us marketing mavens... but not to moms and kids.

4. Make it more convenient. But don't make it too easy. Your package should allow consumers to rationalize the added expense. When Colgate introduced its first pump back in the fifties it was considered frivolous and didn't sell. But in the eighties the company learned that consumers would rationalize the added expense of the pump as being easier and less messy for kids to use. The Internet offered the greatest information retrieval system known to man, but it was the user friendliness and easy-to-use graphics of the World Wide Web and America Online that really sparked interest.

5. Put in a new performance cue. Then tie it into a product benefit that stirs emotions. A wall and floor cleaner without a strong. Or even obnoxious residual scent is considered ineffective by consumers because it fails to reinforce the fact that the user has done her job.

6. Make the product fun. Don't be afraid of a little whimsy. My computer keyboard is black, yellow and purple. Why did I buy it? Because it caught my eye. Even a product as simple as basic household sponges can be fun when we cut them into shapes like little animals.