In the Building Better Developers podcast, in the season Building Better Businesses, hosts Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche dive deep into one of the most important yet often overlooked aspects of building a successful business—product placement strategy. This episode explores how intentional product and service placement can shape your brand, attract the right customers, and set you up for long-term success.
What Is Product Placement Strategy?
Rob opens the conversation by highlighting the critical role of placement when launching or scaling a business. Whether you’re selling a product or providing a service, knowing where your offering fits in the market will influence your business model, pricing, and customer relationships.
He compares two well-known brands—Apple and McDonald’s—as examples of different placement strategies. Apple positions itself as a high-end, premium brand, while McDonald’s focuses on affordability and speed. Both are successful but have varying expectations of customer and business demands.
🎯 Takeaway: Your product placement strategy will define how your customers perceive you and what they expect from you.
Product Placement in the Digital World
One key difference in today’s marketplace is the rise of digital products and services. Rob notes that digital offerings don’t wear out over time, unlike physical products. Instead, the challenge is maintaining, scaling, and enhancing them.
He encourages business owners to decide early on:
- Do you want to offer a standalone product?
- Should your product integrate into a larger ecosystem?
- Are you building a premium, high-touch solution or a low-cost, high-volume product?
These decisions will impact your development and support processes and how customers interact with and value your product.
Service-Based Business Placement
Michael Meloche extends the discussion by looking at service providers, such as software consultants and developers. In the service industry, your product is you and your expertise.
He shares an important insight: Service providers often face the challenge of explaining their value to customers who may not understand the technical effort behind the service. Therefore, placement is about how you pitch yourself, how you differentiate, and what market you’re targeting.
💡 Pro Tip: Know whether you want to serve everyone—or your ideal customers. Niche placement often leads to stronger relationships and better profits.
Common Pitfalls in Product Placement
Rob and Michael also warn against a few common mistakes:
- Entering highly competitive markets without a unique value proposition.
- Pricing is too low to attract customers but is losing money or time.
- Failing to identify the ideal audience for your product or service.
Michael highlights how website development, for instance, has become a commodity market with intense competition. You need a distinctive approach or a boutique experience that adds more value than your competitors to succeed.
Building Your Product Placement Strategy
To wrap up, Rob offers a practical challenge to the audience:
Identify and document your product or service placement strategy.
Ask yourself:
- What is my product or service?
- Who is my ideal customer?
- Am I positioned as premium, affordable, boutique, or mass-market?
- How will my placement strategy influence my pricing and customer experience?
Understanding your placement will shape everything from your sales approach to scaling your business.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are selling software, providing consulting services, or building a product-based business, your product placement strategy is crucial. It’s not just about what you’re offering—it’s about how you position yourself in the market and how customers perceive your value.
For more insights and practical business tips, check out the full episode of Building Better Developers on your favorite podcast platform.