There are traditional reasons to hire an industrial design company, and if you’ve gone through the process of product creation before, you probably know what they are. Industrial design companies exist so that if the creation process for one of your new products falters, they can be there to lend an assist. They are primarily concerned with listening to your ideas, creating realistic blueprints from them, conceiving of a working prototype, and then devising a method of mass-production that is cost-effective.
There’s something else that an industrial design company can do for you as well, though, if you let them. They can give you some advice as to whether a product is likely to find success when it hits the market, and in doing so, they can conceivably save you a ton of money.
Industrial design companies, assuming they’ve been around for a while, have probably seen some products launch successfully, and they’ve seen others crash and burn. Because of that, they’ll know what mistakes you need to avoid. We spoke to a product design company, and here are the top reasons they gave us as to why products fail to produce the desired sales results.
Poor Execution
Poor execution, according to industrial design companies, is a killer for new products, even if the idea behind them is exciting and innovative. Bad UX, lack of quality control, or sloppy implementation of sound ideas can all lead to a shoddy product that immediately gets negative reviews.
At a time when services and products are reviewed and scrutinized more than ever via internet forums and various websites, you can’t afford to mass-produce a product that didn’t get every bit of your effort and attention. You have to micromanage when you have a new product coming out, or chances are it’s going to fail.
Delayed Market Entry
Many product concepts are very of-the-moment. You might be coming out with a service or product that meets a need that consumers have, but it has to come out within a specific time frame. If you’re tied up in development for too long, then someone else might come out with a product that does the job, and then yours will be viewed as a pale imitation. You need to come out with new products promptly, or they might not see the success that you’d like.
Poor Support Network
According to the industrial design company to which we spoke, you can come out with a great product, but if you don’t have an excellent support team with which consumers can interact, then that can lead to some negative feedback for your brand.
In such an instance, it’s not so much the product that’s the problem. If you don’t have a responsive team handling your social media and your website, then questions or issues that your customers have might be ignored. There’s no quicker way to anger consumers, and that negative press might mean that consumers will abandon your company in droves.
The good news is that an industrial design company can solve any of these problems. Since these companies have seen what doesn’t work as well as what does, they can offer you some sage advice as your product comes closer to its launch date. If you avoid these problems, then you should be fine. It’s a smart move to get an industrial design company to help you, though. Without one, you might make an easily avoidable mistake that dooms your best-laid plans.