Developing product range

Identification of gaps in product range, developing products for online promotion.

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This service is for product manufacturers, suppliers and fabricators.

As a manufacturer or supplier you may be able to say that you can fabricate “almost anything” to meet your customer’s needs. This is a great offer however it is important to illustrate this in ways that can be found and seen.

However broad your potential offer may be Search Engines will be unable to interpret this online or associate your claims to people’s search terms.

Although architects and interior designers are talented, creative people they are time-poor and it is a good move to minimise time spent creating variations by presenting those actual, or very similar, products online. The more product genres and product variations that a supplier can present online the more likely it is that a creative specifier will find them and be able to quickly assimilate their suitability for the design scheme.

Extending, or creating, a product range is particularly important for a fabricator who predominantly makes bespoke items. Bespoke, often unique, items may be moved through the workshop process at some speed to meet deadlines. This often means there is no time to professionally photograph the product whilst still on the factory floor and often no opportunity to do so when the items are installed on site. The result is that a lot of beautiful work is never shown online and is a source of frustration for the fabricator or manufacturer that it is not seen by a potential customer.

TIDB will take an overview of your product range and advise where this can be supplemented with either variations on an existing product or with potential new products.

Drawing on TIDB’s experience as creative specifiers we advise on the type of products and variations that will be wanted by interior designers and architects. TIDB liaises closely with with you, the manufacturer, on product ideas to ensure that they are both cost-effective and within manufacturing capability. Prototypes can then be fabricated, photographed and promoted online to generate enquiries.

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Example of product range development – bespoke fabricator

To illustrate this process, TIDB’s client, John Desmond Ltd., is an architectural metalwork fabricator with a long history of fabricating high quality bespoke metalwork. However online they struggled to show exactly what they did.

TIDB worked with the Managing Director of John Desmond to establish a range of products that were often requested including laser-cut screens, architectural mesh, architraves and profiles. Creating, photographing and presenting these online in high quality images provided a bank of products that could be found online. The products created visual reference points which generate enquiries for bespoke work. The images were created in formats suitable for different social media platforms and, as they are high quality, were reposted and shared.

Showing a greater range of products can be done through variations on existing models also to gain traction online and demonstrate to the prospective customer the options available.

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Example of product range development – manufacturer

TIDB worked with a manufacturer of light fittings, Arcform, who wished to transition away from retail customers to achieve more sales via the interior design route to market. Arcform has wide scope in their fabrication process but although they were stating this offer on their website, as well as that of their bespoke service, they were not illustrating this. TIDB advised Arcform on a range of variations, based on materials and finishes within their capacity, to be able to show a wider range of options. Adding variations expanded the original product range from a handful of designs to a gallery of options which are demonstrated online and shared via social media.