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Let's launch the Evening Herbal Teas

4 parts, about 20 minutes. Your work saves itself in this browser.

Before you start: what you need to know

Product marketing is the bridge between the product and the people who buy it. People in this role understand who a product is for, what makes it different, what price to sell it at and how to launch it, and they check that everything said about it is true and above board.

  1. Features and benefits

    The feature says what the product is like. The benefit says what changes in the life of the person using it. People buy benefits, but benefits must rest on true features.

    For exampleAn insulated bottle: "double-wall steel" is a feature; "your coffee stays hot until evening" is the benefit.

  2. Positioning

    It's an internal sentence, not a slogan: it says who the product is for, what need it meets and why it's different from the alternatives. Good positioning names a precise audience and only says provable things.

    For example"For people who cycle to the office, the bottle that fits in the bottle cage and keeps drinks hot for 12 hours, unlike normal insulated bottles that are too wide."

  3. Price and margin

    The price is chosen by looking at three things: how much it costs to produce, how much similar competitors charge and how much value the customer perceives. The margin is what's left on each item: price minus cost.

    For exampleThe bottle costs €9 to produce, competitors sit between €20 and €30: at €24 the margin is 24 − 9 = €15.

  4. A compliant launch

    Before launching you check the label and the product page. In the EU you can't make unauthorised health claims for a food, show a discount against a price never charged, or say "green" or "zero impact" without proof.

    For exampleOn the bottle "BPA-free, certified" is fine if there's a certificate; "saves the planet" isn't, it's a vague claim.

What you'll do

  1. Tell apart the features and benefits of the Evening Herbal Teas
  2. Choose the positioning sentence
  3. Decide price, margin, channel and launch period
  4. Check what to do and what to avoid before starting
Done reading, start part 1
1

Feature or benefit?

Before you answer

For each sentence ask yourself: does it describe the object (how it's made, what it contains) or what happens to the person using it? If it's about the object it's a feature; if it's about the person and their day it's a benefit.

For exampleWater bottle: "screw cap with a seal" is a feature; "you can put it in your backpack without fear of soaking your laptop" is a benefit.

A feature says what the product is like. A benefit says what changes for the person using it. Sort each sentence.

ItemFeatureBenefit
Caffeine-free
You can drink it even at ten in the evening, without a worry
Compostable paper tea bags
It goes in the food waste: no plastic to separate
Chamomile, lemon balm and orange peel
A small ritual to switch off from the day, ready in 5 minutes

Why it matters. People buy what the product does for them, not the list of its parts. Product marketing starts from the (true) features and translates them into benefits.

2

Choose the positioning

Before you answer

Check three things: is there a precise audience (not "everyone")? Is there a real difference from the alternatives? Are there only provable claims, with no promise of a cure? Discard sentences that fail even one of these points.

For example"For everyone, the best water bottle in the world" has no audience and can't be proven.

Positioning is an internal sentence that says who the product is for and why it's different. Which do you choose?

Choose the positioning

Why it matters. Good positioning is specific (a precise audience), distinctive (what makes us different) and credible. The product page, ads and posts then grow from this sentence.

3

Price and launch

Before you answer

The price must sit sensibly against competitors: an organic product can't cost the same as a mass-market one, but nor more than the organic competitor without a reason. Calculate the margin (price − cost). For the first launch choose people who already know you and the period when the product is most needed.

For exampleInsulated bottle: launched at the end of September, when the cold returns, first to newsletter subscribers.

Look at costs and competitors on the card and prepare the launch.

Why it matters. The price must cover costs, leave a margin and make sense compared with competitors. Launching first to people who know us costs little and shows straight away whether people like the product.

4

Ready to go?

Before you answer

There can be more than one right answer. Keep the actions that make the product clear, complete and honest. Discard anything that promises health effects, invents a discount or makes environmental claims that can't be proven.

For exampleFor the water bottle: real photos and complete details, yes; "was €39, now €24" if it never cost €39, no.

Before the launch, what do you do? Choose all the right things, and only those.

Ready to go?

Why it matters. A launch is also prepared on the rules. Unauthorised health claims are banned (Reg. EC 1924/2006; for herbs many claims are still awaiting EU assessment). The "was" price of a discount must be the lowest of the last 30 days (Omnibus Directive): a new product doesn't have one. And generic, unprovable environmental claims are banned (EU Directive 2024/825).

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Your Product marketing exercise

Marta has written to you: Let's launch the Evening Herbal Teas. You'll solve it in 4 parts, in about 20 minutes.