The Importance of a Hero Product
Let’s pretend that your brand is a person and a good friend of yours. While we know there are many characteristics that make up a person’s personality or identity there is usually one outstanding special something about each person in your life. The interests and values of your friend are what make them who they are. This is their brand.
It is not all that different when you are building a brand, you are building a base of what you value and what those values bring to your customers - and then those things drive the products you make to monetize those values. A hero product (usually your first) should embody exactly what makes your brand unique and different from your competitors. The additional products you add to the brand should intentionally support and add to this central lynchpin product - offering items that allow you to cross-sell and upsell.
This article will dive into why it's important to build a strong hero product, what to consider when building new products, and the pitfalls to avoid.
Benefits of a Hero Product
Brand recognition
A hero product embodies your brand. You can say a whole lot about what you do and what you stand for, but it's much better to have a product that shows what it is you do and are all about. This is why your hero needs to be fully aligned with the well-defined brand values.
Some good examples of Hero products in the food and supplement industry:
Classic Coke for CocaCola
Yellow Mustard from French’s
Protein Bars for Quest Nutrition
Oreo Cookie for Nabisco
What do these all have in common? When you think of those products, you think of those brands. Hero products help to build your brand’s reputation and recognition. By gaining the trust of your consumer through one outstanding product, then your consumer will likely be open to more, high quality offerings you launch. This is why you may argue that you love Nutter Butters better than Oreo, but let’s be honest you only know about Nutter Butter likely because of the Oreo cookie.
Customer Loyalty
By building strong brand recognition through a high quality product, you are giving your consumers a reason to be loyal. Consistent quality and satisfaction with the hero product can build trust and repeat business.
It is important to note that brand loyalty is influenced by product type and consumer group. For instance, Gen Z consumers are found to be less brand loyal than other generations, with only 37% of them considered to be in the loyalist category. However this doesn’t mean that shoppers don’t want to see their values reflected in their purchases, about 68% of Gen Z and Millennials do more research and consider their purchases to be a reflection of who they are. This means your efforts to create brand loyalty will not go unnoticed, it just reflects differently on consumer behavior.
Marketing Focus
Your marketing efforts can be concentrated around the hero product, making your promotional activities more focused and effective. As you know, marketing your product can be very expensive (probably your largest expense) and this concentration on one product to optimize your efforts can lead to cost efficiencies in marketing. The learnings from these marketing efforts will also influence strategy as you upsell and cross-sell your new products with the hero.
Cross selling opportunities
A popular hero product can serve as a gateway to introduce customers to other products in your line. You are creating the focal point for a whole ecosystem of products with the new ones meant to support and complement the hero. Once customers are captivated by the hero product’s quality and unique benefits, they are inclined to explore what else the brand has to offer.
Without a solid base with your hero, it will be hard to strategically add products that build a profitable and cohesive product portfolio. With a successful hero product, your brand gains valuable insights into what works best for the target audience. Understanding the unique benefits that captivated customers in the hero product, your brand can innovate intelligently, creating products that align with customer expectations and preferences. If your brand’s hero is a protein powder, it would be a natural expansion to add additional protein-focused products. However there is some nuance with this - you want to add products that appeal to your consumer but not enter into a product category that is oversaturated, like protein bars. Your consumer may already be very brand loyal to a protein bar from another brand, so unless you have an innovative new take on a protein bar you may want to consider another route. You may find out through your sales and marketing efforts that your consumer is looking for more protein powders in better flavors - innovating through line extensions is also a great way to expand.
This focused approach ensures that new additions to the product line are purposeful and resonate with the existing customer base but aren’t so similar that you cannibalize the sales of your hero - more on this later.
Creating and Defining the Hero Product
Perhaps you are still building and are still building out your hero product - let’s break down how you create and define the hero product for your new brand.
Know you and your target consumer’s values
As mentioned earlier, your hero product should reflect the values of your brand. Sometimes when you are starting from scratch it's easier to consider what your brand DOES NOT stand for.
For example, your brand offers children’s supplements. You may be working to identify the focus your brand has (i.e. what problem(s) you are addressing). But you know that the products will need to appeal to parents and be safe for children. You may note that your brand values clinically studied ingredients, NON-GMO, reduced sugar content, etc. It is totally okay to start with who your brand is not or who it doesn’t serve.
If your brand is focused on omega-3 supplements for infants and children I would assume the brand values the concern over children’s fish oil deficiency, that the product is well-screened for impurities (like heavy metals), and should make the delivery system tailored to infants and children. If those values are true then the hero product should reflect those needs. While claims may be tricky around impurities, the company should internally make sure that ingredients are being tested to ensure the final product is within safety standards.
An example of a Omega-3 focused brand is Barlean’s - and they have made some thoughtful choices with their children’s line, Omega Pals. While the product is still a liquid, like the adult product - they have flavored it to be child-friendly and tout that it has a ‘sweet and creamy texture’ (important to kiddos) and they recommend mixing it with other foods should a child not want to take it from a spoon. They also promise NO fishy burps, which we know is a concern with fish oil supplements in general. They also highlight other aspects of the product that their customer base values - no sugar, artificial flavors or colors, non-GMO, etc. This may not be considered their HERO product per se but it's a good example of a brand understanding what their customer values.
Identify the problem
No matter whether the product is a hero product or a new product, it needs to address a REAL problem for the consumer. I emphasize ‘real’ here because often brands find themselves making assumptions about their consumers or assume every new trend or innovation should be adopted. Competition can be a good indicator of what the consumer wants, however you should dig a little deeper into the data available to see what your competitors may be missing.
Google Analytics is a great place to start when you want to research consumer demand. Looking at search volumes and keywords can support your need to validate ideas. It may also lead you to pivot some aspects of your product. Not only should you avoid assuming consumer’s problems/concerns/desires, but you should not assume their level of understanding in a product category. Common google questions or searches can help you understand how much consumer education your product may need.
Then there are tools like Helium10 and Jungle Scout which can help you to gather sales data from Amazon - which if you are looking to operate as an eCommerce brand is not a bad place to gauge sales demand within a category and identify your biggest competitors. Even if you do not have those tools, Amazon actually offers up lists of their top sellers by category. This higher level review is better for sparking ideas rather than product validation.
Often overlooked, if you have access to your target consumer, it doesn't hurt to survey them directly. For initial investigation of an idea, conducting interviews with your ideal consumer can help to reveal insights about pain points and behavior that will help lead your investigation in more productive paths. More data points are better to prevent bias, but you have to start somewhere.
Consider a stage-gate process to develop critically
I mentioned earlier that you should develop new products strategically - informed by the data you mine while building, marketing, and selling your hero product. It can be very helpful to use a Stage Gate process as you explore building any new product. In case you are not familiar, the Stage-Gate process is a project management technique that divides the product development process into distinct stages, with a ‘gate’ only opening to move to the next stage if certain requirements are fulfilled. At each gate, the project's progress is evaluated to ensure everything is in alignment with business objectives. Decisions should be made about whether the project should continue, be modified, or terminated. This process helps you and your team determine more objectively if the investment in this product’s future makes sense for the business.
These stages are outlined briefly below. These are more general - feel free to customize part of these phases to meet the needs of your specific business. The gates not only need to align with your business goals, but with specific requirements you uphold for the brand (i.e. ingredients or claims you would or wouldn’t utilize, as well as tactics in your marketing you would or wouldn’t use).
Stage 1: Idea Generation and Screening
We must first generate ideas that cater to a specific consumer need. You and your team should connect these ideas not only to the problems they could solve, but also critically consider the feasibility, uniqueness, and potential market demand of each concept. Once concepts are laid out, rigorous market research and analysis is required to identify gaps in existing products, ensuring that the proposed idea addresses a genuine consumer need. This process ensures that you have the best product-market match.
Stage 2: Market Feasibility Study
While we are considering feasibility at every stage, this is where a comprehensive market feasibility study is conducted. Critical evaluation of market trends, target demographics, and competitor analysis is crucial. By analyzing the competitive landscape, you can identify opportunities for differentiation and innovation, ensuring that the proposed product stands out in the market.
Stage 3: Product Development
During the product development stage, a prototype of the product is created. This stage may be quite long, with the need for multiple iterations and sensory testing with focus groups and experts. Critical analysis of the product's formulation, taste, texture, and nutritional value is essential. The product should be optimized to meet the desired final product, however you should keep in mind that when the product is commercialized there may be some adjustments made to the formula.
Stage 4: Testing and Validation
At this stage, the product undergoes rigorous testing for safety, efficacy, and quality - you are preparing the product to be commercialized. Critical evaluation of test results is imperative to ensure the product meets regulatory requirements and industry standards. At this stage you should also be finalizing product packaging with marketing language and claims evaluated by legal. This stage may uncover some issues with your initial positioning of the product, consider whether the product will still be successful if you cannot make the same claims or build out the planned marketing campaign.
Stage 5: Launch and Commercialization
The final stage involves launching the product in the market. A critical aspect of this stage is the development of a robust marketing and distribution strategy. Market positioning, pricing strategy, and promotional activities must be carefully planned and executed, guided by the legal feedback received at the last stage. Continuous monitoring and feedback from consumers are essential to make necessary adjustments and sustain the product's success in the market.
More products will get terminated than commercialized moving through this process. That should be considered a good thing because resources to create new products are almost always limited. These terminated products should not be seen as a failure, as much as those products that fail in the marketplace should be seen as a failure.
Most Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Avoid cannibalization
Launching new products under your own brand is an exciting venture, but it comes with the challenge of preventing cannibalization of your hero product. Cannibalization, in this context, refers to the risk of your newly introduced products overshadowing or directly competing with your flagship item. Some cannibalization is inevitable and you should plan for how much cannibalization you expect.
Positioning
Carefully consider how your new products fit into your brand's overall identity and how the consumer will utilize the new product. Define a clear positioning strategy for each item, ensuring that it complements rather than competes with your hero product. Highlight the unique aspects of your new products, making it clear how they enhance the overall brand experience without replacing your flagship item.
An example of this done well: Banza
Banza came on to the market with their high protein chickpea pasta, but they now sell a whole lot more than boxes of pasta. They knew their consumer was looking for plant-based and high protein products. They have expanded utilizing chickpea to make rice, mac n cheese, pizza, and waffles - offering all options in a vegan format. Consumers who purchase their pasta will understand the value proposition across all the products because they have done a good job developing each with the same benefits. Something notable - they now offer products that are used at different times of the day, i.e. waffles at breakfast, Pizza at lunch, Pasta at dinner, etc. They are creating an opportunity to be part of a customer's day at multiple points - which is a smart way to expand.
Consistent Brand Positioning
Ensure that your brand message remains coherent across all products. Emphasize the values, quality, and benefits that customers associate with your hero product, reinforcing the emotional connection they have with your brand. This consistency helps customers understand the relationship between your new products and the core identity of your brand. If you haven’t done this well, consumers might wonder why you are making this ‘random’ product.
An example where we see this go wrong: Frito-Lay Lemonade
You may not know that in 1998 Frito-Lay veered from their chip and snack categories to offer lemonade. While I can see their thought process, “our consumers eat our salty snacks and they get thirsty,” they failed to consider that their consumers don’t associate their brand with beverages. Not only that, but beverages are not sold near their popular chips, so their drink is sitting among other beverages that have much more brand recognition.
This brings up a good point about considering where you are going to sell a product as part of your development process. An eCommerce brand is going to design for the most efficient storage and shipping costs and a brand that wants to focus on brick and mortar retail will need to consider other variables - shelf height, slotting widths, the colors of the products your product will sit next to, how the price compares on shelf to competitors, and what category it will sit in (key - make sure your product is not so novel that the retailer doesn’t know where to sell it). There is a lot more to unpack and go deeper into on that subject, but the bottom line is that you need to keep this top of mind. Usually the plan is not one or the other (unless your product is very difficult to ship direct to consumer (DTC), you can plan to have offerings for your online store and retailer.
Focus on Complementary Products
While extending your hero product line to include other flavors or an organic version is a totally acceptable way to innovate, you should expect that this will cannibalize your hero product to some degree. The consumer may love the new and existing flavors but maybe their budget doesn’t allow them to purchase more variations of the same product.
To avoid this problem, focus on developing complementary products. Identify gaps in your product line where new offerings can enhance the overall customer experience. By introducing products that fulfill different needs within your target market, you can expand your brand's appeal with a lower risk of cannibalization.
We can again look at Banza for a good example of this. As mentioned earlier they expanded from pasta to rice, pizza, and waffles - generally people don’t replace their pasta purchase with pizza or waffles.
Cross-Selling and Bundles
You can encourage customers to try your new products by cross-selling with your existing product. Bundle your hero product with the new items, offering attractive discounts or promotions. This approach introduces customers to the new products while reinforcing the value of your hero product. By creating bundled packages, you incentivize customers to try multiple products within your brand ecosystem.
Should the new product become successful, keeping a bundled option or upselling at checkout with your hero product helps to drive average cart values up. If the product is a direct add-on, like a shaker bottle for protein powder, consider using a post-purchase discount to bundle this further.
When is the goal cannibalization?
In certain situations, you may intentionally introduce new products that cannibalize the existing hero product when transitioning from one version to the next to accommodate new market trends or consumer preferences. This deliberate cannibalization allows for a smoother transition from an older product to a newer, improved version, maintaining its competitive edge.
Cannibalization can also serve as a defensive strategy, preventing competitors from gaining a foothold in the market by offering a similar product. In such cases, cannibalization becomes a calculated risk, paving the way for long-term growth and sustained relevance in the ever-changing landscape of the food and supplement industry.
Don’t Stop Innovating
While this should be your biggest revenue generator, your competitors will continue to improve their products, and so you will need to too.
Food and beverage examples:
Ingredient bans
New ingredient news - good or bad
Nutrition trends
Flavor trends
Health trends
Beyond making changes to keep up with trends and regulations there are other ways to continue to offer more value with the same product base - consider format or pack size. At this point in the product life cycle you probably have some great insights into consumer usage. Would your customer base appreciate a single serve or on the go option? Or do they love it so much that a 2-pack might be a better option?
Packaging innovation doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, just relevant - like when ketchup began to be offered in a plastic, squeezable bottle (instead of glass that you had to smack to get product) or twist off tops on beers so you don’t need a bottle opener. In the world of supplements, some brands have begun to offer what you need in a single serve packet. Innovation like that also serves the brand - better compliance taking the product, more frequently the customer needs to re-order.
Don’t be a One-Trick Pony
Along the lines of innovation, we not only need to ensure that the hero product is continually improved, but that you have left room to add new products. Rarely is there a long standing successful brand that ONLY sells one product (unless you sell a commodity of course; that said even milk and flour brands are innovating and expanding these days).
Adjacent to the food and supplement world, we can see this happening in kitchen appliances. For example, the Instant Pot took the world by storm! And now everyone has one, no real compelling reason to buy a new version if you have bought one in the previous few years (they are well made), and accessories are limited. They have added an Air Fryer to their offerings, but there are alot of other prestigious brands who got there first. They have also decided to get into the coffee machine game - I wonder how that’s going for them? Not questioning the quality of these products, but the viability in terms of Lifetime Value (LTV) and competition in the space.
There are other good examples of brands that accidentally created a hero product so unique that there wasn’t any way to expand in a meaningful way - like GoPro, FitBit, Dropbox.
Is your Hero product optimized for success? Discover the power of a Hero Product – the game-changer that defines your brand and captivates your audience. Book a free audit of your brand today with the SmarterSlice team.
