The Concept

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein.

The difference between an Idea and a Concept lies in the perspective. Even when we're writing a concept in first person, the trick is to put ourselves in the perspective of the final consumer or costumer. The concept has to address the needs of the future consumers with a clear and simple value offer. It also has to rise credibility, and stand up as a unique proposal amongst the already existing offer from our competitors.



It is estimated that, on average, only one out of every four products that enters the development phase ever makes it to the market. And, additionally, one out of three of these projects that see the light will be a flop, despite all the efforts involved in planning and research (R.G. Cooper, "Winning ate new products").

Analyzing the causes of failure of a new product or service right after its launch is the equivalent of performing an autopsy. It may certainly help to find out the causes of the failure, but it won't change the fact that the product or service in which we have invested time and money is a dead corpse. On the other hand, spending time in writing a wining concept may spare us some unpleasant surprises after the launch phase.

The process of transforming insights into concepts means formulating questions such as:

Product name
   Do I have already a brand?
   Will the name be self-explanatory in terms of the product attributes?
   Is the name sexy enough , and easy to remember?

Competitors
   Do I have competitors in the segment were the product is targeted? Who are they?
   Which are the strengths of my competitors?

Unique benefit
   What are the needs of my costumers that I'm addressing?
   Am I offering functional or emotional benefits?
   What is new in my proposal vs the current offer?

Reason why
   What is the true reason that makes my product or service different and unique?
   In case I'm using technology, is it state of the art, or a breakthrough?
   Is my new product easy to copy?
   How am I protecting my product against imitation?

A simple stepwise process used by many marketeers when writing a concept involves asking ourselves four questions from the perspective of the final consumer:

When I use (name of the product or service): ...................................................................................
... instead of (competitor's offer): .......................................................................................................
... then I'll get (my unique product benefit): .....................................................................................
... because of (the reason why of my new offer): ...............................................................................

Spending time in writing a good concept will help us advance with confidence in the future steps of project development. If we're not satisfied enough with the answers to the questions above, or when the results of early testing of the concept with a market sample are just mediocre, we shall reconsider the true potential of our early idea, and what parts of it have to to be reworked. Realizing that an apparently good idea can't be transformed into a wining concept is not a failure. On the contrary, it spares us from a most likely post-mortem analysis of a market flop.