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Support Your Product Differentiation Strategy with PIM
DynamicWeb
Align your product differentiation strategy across online and offline channels with a Product Information Management (PIM) solution.
Since you clicked this title, you are probably working with product data - most likely with the use of a Product Information Management system (PIM). When running a product-centric business, it is crucial to have a strong product differentiation strategy.
Let's start with the general definition: Product differentiation is how you distinguish your products from the other options on the market. It is one of the key factors that compels a customer to choose you over a competitor.
Your product differentiation strategy can be categorized into three different types: Differentiation can occur horizontally, vertically, or according to a mixed strategy:
Horizontal product differentiation involves similar products, offered at comparable price points, and only distinguished by unique customer preference for particular features.
Vertical product differentiation describes distinct variations in price and quality that strongly impact customer choices.
Mixed product differentiation is sometimes referred to as simple differentiation and involves combinations of multiple factors.
Maximizing horizontal product differentiation is how many companies experience the most explosive growth, but horizontal product differentiation is tricky. Optimizing horizontal product differentiation requires a robust product differentiation strategy supported by advanced Product Information Management solutions.
What does a product differentiation strategy mean?
It is important to both identify and communicate the significant qualities of your product to distinguish those features from other companies’ products. This is akin to building a meaningful value proposition and advertising appropriately to the target audience. To accomplish these goals in a rapidly changing market, a product differentiation strategy involves product design, packaging, marketing, pricing, influencing, and measuring. The goal is to embody and communicate exclusive benefits to gain a competitive advantage.
What is Product Information Management (PIM)?
Product Information Management (PIM) is a centralized solution to store, enrich and distribute product data to your selling channels, like your website, product catalog, and third-party marketplaces. Without PIM, business operators and team members get tangled in Excel spreadsheet mazes, while customers miss out on key features and product specs based on which channel they're engaged with.
PIM reduces the headaches experienced by businesses managing multiple products and selling channels, and ensures product accuracy and consistency across those channels. Within PIM, product information can be collected, managed, enriched, validated, and distributed. Product information can include technical data like measurements, specifications, and ingredients. Usage data like recipes, descriptions, and guides are also included in the product information. Additionally, emotional data like descriptions and stories along with media like images, pdfs, and videos are also considered a part of product information. It is important to keep all of this information organized and defined so that the information can be enhanced for business growth and distributed as needed. A way to streamline the processes handling product data is to invest in a PIM system.
If you are curious about exploring your PIM business case, you can use the DynamicWeb PIM ROI calculator to get an instant ROI estimate.
How PIM supports product differentiation
Attracting the attention of customers, facilitating satisfying eCommerce experiences, and maintaining customer loyalty is imperative for businesses today. Not only must you deliver an omnichannel experience, but the product experience itself must also be authentic, rich, accurate - and of course easy to buy. Using a PIM system as your single source of truth ensures easy accessibility and management of your product data, making the enrichment process smooth, with the result being rich and accurate product information.
PIM supports product differentiation by combining all the product and consumer data in one place so that pivotal insights can be gathered and by maintaining data consistency. Today's customers connect with products through multiple channels and it’s important that all of the data is consistent and that customers always have all of the information they need to finalize purchases. Manual information management opens up countless opportunities for errors and higher product return rates.
Read the DynamicWeb PIM solution highlights
How to choose the best PIM system for your Business
Your business deserves the best PIM system - one that’s integrated with your digital channels, fast and affordable to implement, and easy to maintain. The DynamicWeb Product Information Management (PIM) solution collects all your product information in one single place and enables you to efficiently plan, manage and adapt your product catalogs and visual assets to create engaging product experiences. Connect and distribute to all your webstores, portals, marketplaces and other sales channels and offer seamless product experiences.
Contact us to learn more or download our free whitepaper: