So there you are: the item manager for a boring product. How frequently have you caught yourself gazing longingly at one of those iPhones, Kindles, or several other such highly desirable product and though to yourself “Now why couldn’t I be the Product Manager for an awesome product like that?” I’ve one message for you personally – get over it. As it happens that there are other product manager that are in charge of products that are even less cool than yours and they’re doing some pretty amazing things to create their products successful…
How One Goes About Buying Bullets
I’m sure that there are a few of you on the market which have quite strong feelings about guns and such 30-30 ammo for sale. Let’s put those feelings aside for some minutes and have a closer consider the dilemma of, what else, bullets. If you’re not an enthusiastic survivalist or hunter, you probably haven’t purchased bullets before.
As it happens that folks really worry about what gun they buy. However, bullets are almost an afterthought purchase. Sorry about that bullet product managers. Rob Walker at the New York Times got enthusiastic about the product conundrum when he researched an organization called Alliant Techsystems (ATK)Building The Better Bullet (Brand)
Another line of bullets that ATK introduced was called Fusion. With the product line the item managers at ATK were targeting (sorry!) the 25-35-year-old deer hunters. To be able to catch their eye, the organization created a brand new “aggressive” box design and even went as far as to include a foil label. They basically pimped the box.
These two products gave the ATK product managers the ability that they needed in order to gain the confidence that they needed in order to do their biggest product launch to date. They recently rolled out a brand new line of bullets for duck hunters called Black Cloud. This time around they’re showing that they know what must be achieved to show a commodity product into a must-have product.
ATK has partnered with a favorite TV personality (in duck hunting circles): Phil Robertson who is called the “Duck Commander” ;.They’ve also gone ahead and made a few “viral videos” in order to build some buzz around their new ammo. Just to show that bullets also may play a role in the 21st Century, they’ve gone as far as to generate their individual social networking site called StormChasersNetwork.
Merely to top things off, they’ve also ensure that the box for the Black Cloud product virtually jumps from the shelf. They dressed it up in a brilliant color scheme that was created to catch a hunter’s attention and remind him of the very first light of day (which is the better time and energy to be hunting ducks).
What All Of This Means For You
I can’t say for many what type of product you are in charge of managing. However, I could bet that it’s probably a bit more interesting when compared to a commodity product like a bullet. Actually, no matter how boring you could find it, it’s probably a whole lot more interesting when compared to a bullet.
With a little luck this story about how precisely the item managers at ATK were able to see beyond the easy undeniable fact that these were charged with selling more of a commodity product that one other bullet makers should inspire you. What the ATK product managers did was to step into their customer’s shoes and identify how they begin to see the world. After they knew this, it became clear about what they needed seriously to do.
Take some time considering not what your product does, but instead what your customers will do together with your product. This may point just how forward for ways to turn your boring commodity-like product into something that will take off like a (what else?) bullet.