The pool and spa market is a unique one — these are typically high-value investments that customers cannot see entirely in person until they are in place. Even if they do, imagining and going for a test run isn’t easy.
Effective product marketing in the pool and spa industry is critical! Product marketing helps bring the new product to the customer and get sales professionals up-to-date on the product's value.
What Is Product Marketing?
Product marketing involves bringing a product to market — it is the process and steps necessary to help consumers learn about a product before purchasing. It includes:
- The product’s positioning in the marketplace
- It’s messaging
- Launching the product
- Educating salespeople
- Teaching customers about it
Effective product marketing helps to drive demand for the product. It’s a critical process as it often defines just how successful a product becomes.
Role of Retailers & Sales in Product Marketing
Product marketing can be highly effective if retailers and sales professionals in the marketing space are part of the process. They need more than just to learn about the availability of a product. In the pool and spa industry, they also need to learn about the product’s features and what makes it stand out from others. They need to be immersed further, too, including:
- Diving deep into positioning the product for sale
- Meeting the needs of the target customer base
- Driving desire within their local region for it
Product Marketing in Pool & Spa
In the pool and spa industry, product marketing is one of the most commonly used methods for reaching an audience. The problem is that this is not always a simplistic process. Product marketing often involves creating a campaign that attracts people to the product, enhancing their interest in it through engagement tools, and then capturing the sale by showing them its benefits.
While the pool and spa industry typically focuses on reaching luxury amenity buyers, there is also the need to focus on understanding all customers and what these people need to decide to buy.
Defining the Target Customer
Defining the target customer and their primary reason for purchasing is essential. Define the buyer persona for the product:
- Who is the specific audience for this product?
- Where are they going to look for products like this?
- What type of information are they considering when making a buying decision?
- Are they looking for high-end and luxury investments?
- What kind of lifestyle or features are they looking for when they dive into this market?
Identifying the specific demographics of these customers and why they are in the market to buy a pool or spa can ensure that every other component of the marketing campaign goes well.
5 Steps of Product Marketing in the Pool & Spa Industry
There are several critical steps involved in the process:
- Product research: Products are tested and developed to meet the specific needs of a customer.
- Product story: This is when researchers begin to look at the reason to bring this product to market. What problem does it solve in the marketplace? Who is facing this problem? How does this product better the competitors already out there?
- Content development: The next step is to create content about the product. That includes all marketing copy that will educate the sales professionals and the customers about the product.
- Launch plan: A launch plan is created to spell out the specific marketing process and who is responsible for each point of it.
- Sales enablement: There is also the need to focus on sales team education. A sales strategy is developed, and the marketing team works to ensure the sales team fully understands their role in the process.
It is critically important that product research is done to ensure that a product is fully understood and that sales teams understand its opportunities. Everything from the materials it is made of to the chemicals required needs to be something the sales team is ready to discuss with customers. There may be some cross-selling opportunities as well.
Product Marketing Doesn’t End After Launch
The product marketing process does not stop once the product has gone to market. Instead, it continues with some ability to flex to meet changes and challenges in the marketplace. It is critical to reach out to people using the spa or pool and gather feedback from customers to implement the marketing plan further.
A good product marketing plan keeps a product in the eyes of the customer and adapts to trends and consumer behavior over time.
