Luxury brands regularly spend tremendous budgets and human resources to plan and strategize around their products or boutiques – the same way Enzo Ferrari would spend sometimes years putting one of his jewel cars on paper. Details such as the height of a boutique’s entrance step and its psychological filter come into play (the step being too high to those who don’t “stand up” to it and just low enough for those accustomed to the challenge as an invitation to come in). These aspects often elude non-experts into thinking a store – or a car jewel – was simple and pure genius. Pure genius often comes into play, but it is usually far from being simple.

When it comes to Internet products (e.g. institutional site or widget), the level of attention at a creative and technical level tend to be high too; but the “product strategy” step of the process may not always be given as much attention as it should. I always considered it the single most important element of success for any online presence. When defined properly and followed carefully, a product strategy reiterates and consolidates all key elements of the marketing mix and their applications – as well as their impact – online.

During Ferrari’s time, the main difference between one of his car and a more common vehicle was founded on his ability to put the same level of attention to details in planning as his team would put on executing the plan.

Today, the difference between a long-lasting, effective and compelling online experience and a mediocre one usually stands in the same principle. I have often seen business drivers (e.g. time or budget) overtake the product strategy step of a brand’s online venue in order to quickly, too much so, get into the development phase. As we all know, results can be disastrous.

With a solid product strategy, product development really just becomes the pragmatic execution of a crystal clear plan and a pre-existing structure. The results: far less back-and-forth due to misunderstandings; no more  strategic mistakes during execution; very rare delays or wasted human resources.

Product strategy really is a fundamental pillar of development, not only for a brand’s web presence but also for the impact it has on its entire business structure and marketing mix. For this reason, as a company, we focus as much effort on educating, collaborating with and supporting the brand in that step of its process as we do to actually implement applications.