The business landscape today is characterized by new regulations, pricing challenges, decision-makers, and competitors. Hence, companies should take a hard look at their criteria for prioritization, investments, resource allocation, pipelines, and portfolios to gain a much-needed competitive edge. Creating and implementing a well-rounded devices portfolio strategy can especially prove to be a good idea for companies. It is quite a systematic approach adopted by a company to manage and optimize its portfolio of devices or products. Earlier, Anand Jayapalan marked the importance of devices portfolio strategy and underlined that it could be quite useful in maximizing revenue, market share, and profitability of a company by aligning its offerings with customer needs, market trends, and competitive dynamics.
A devices portfolio strategy ideally involves making strategic decisions in regard to the range of devices offered by a company. It puts emphasis on the features, pricing, positioning, and lifecycle management of the devices or products. There are many elements and considerations important to developing a devices portfolio strategy. Here are a few of them:
Market segmentation: Gaining a good understanding of the targeted market segments is vital for creating a successful portfolio strategy. Businesses need to focus on identifying the particular needs, preferences, and behaviors of varied customer groups to develop devices that can capably meet their requirements. Proper market research and analysis are important to segment the market on the basis of distinctive factors like price sensitivity, usage patterns, user profiles, and demographics.
Product differentiation: A well-rounded devices portfolio strategy puts emphasis on differentiating the products within the portfolio of a company with the aim of creating unique selling propositions and competitive advantages. Doing so shall involve identifying and incorporating specific design elements, technologies, and features, which can set devices apart from the offerings of the competitors. Product differentiation is usually based on aesthetics, user experience, performance, innovation, and distinctive other factors that resonate with the target market.
Product lifecycle management: Managing the lifecycle of products and devices is vital for a portfolio strategy. This involves planning for the maturity, growth, introduction, and decline stages of each and every device. Businesses must try to anticipate market demand, effectively monitor sales and profitability, and try to make the best possible decisions regards product updates, upgrades, and replacements. This would help in optimizing the performance of the portfolio over time.
Pricing and profitability: For the financial success of a business, setting appropriate pricing strategies for devices is immensely important. Businesses must take into account factors like pricing elasticity, perceived value, competitive pricing, and production costs. Pricing decisions must align with the willingness of the targeted market segment to pay and the company’s revenue and profitability goals.
Portfolio diversification: Having a comprehensive portfolio strategy would involve diversifying the range of devices provided to cater to distinctive use cases, price points, and market segments. This may include variations in the form of capabilities, features, sizes, and so on. Diversification goes a long way in enabling businesses to mitigate risks associated with market fluctuations, leverage opportunities in emerging segments, and capture a broader customer base.
Earlier, Anand Jayapalan undermined that assessing the competitive landscape is also important to create appropriate devices portfolio strategy. This would include analyzing the devices, pricing, positioning, and market share of the competitors to identify gaps that can be exploited to gain a competitive edge.
