Know-How Exchange : Branding

Hi Tanya,

I think you forgot about the main thing-does anybody really need your product?In what way is it better and more satisfying to customers ?Have you done any research as to customers' needs with a view to your product launch?
Only on having answered these questions can you start contemplating issues you mentioned in your question.

I hope it helps.

Adam

Tanya,
Product launches are somewhat specific to the kind of product and industry. Can you add a little more to the story?

Wayde

thanks for the responses so far,

the question i've asked is from an academic standpoint.
it is to gain a better understanding of why so many new product launches fail and what can be done to avoid it.

thanks
Tanya

Successful product launches, as Adam indicates, depend on your up front marketing. These factors are:

MARKET ANALYSIS
Who are the customers? What are their needs? What features and benefits does the product need to fill the customers’ needs?

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
What are the competitors’ strengths and weaknesses? What are your product’s strengths and weaknesses? How can you present your weaknesses as strengths and poke holes in the competitors’ strengths?

And of course, you need to have set a marketing strategy for the product, including such things as the 4Ps (Price, Promotion, Position, and Product) to meet the customers’ needs and counter your competition. All of this has to be in place before planning the launch.

For the actual launch, the launch plan happens well before the product is developed – sometimes as much as 18 months, or more, for technological advancement. The activities can be divided into four categories:

PROMOTIONS
Promotions include press releases, advertising, conferences and shows, customer specific seminars, press tours, and so forth.

SALES SUPPORT
Sales support includes product training, establishing target customers, account plans, and developing sales literature (datasheets, demos, fact sheets and FAQs, competitive comparisons and cross references, features and benefits tables), website updates

LOGISTICS SUPPORT
Make sure you have product in the supply chain to support the customers’ needs for samples and initial orders

CUSTOMER ACTIVITIES
This involves identifying the early adopters, beta site activities, customer visits ahead of launch, etc.

The launch plan is a document that defines the activities above in clear measurable objectives with responsible people for each activity and a due date, and includes a launch calendar.

Risks involved in any launch involve missing any of the activities listed above. The way to mitigate this risk is by doing your marketing homework, effective planning, and good management for the process.

Cultural aspects of a product launch – those that vary from country to country – involve the sales channel (some countries require distributors in the supply chain), product support (local support being trained and available), promotions in local language (not to mention care in translating the “slogans” and product names into the native language…remember the classic car example, Nova, which didn’t in Mexico or South America because “No va” in Spanish means “does not go”).

I hope this addresses what you need.

The most important thing to keep in mind is the end-user/consumer need that you're satisfying. If you understand your consumers/customers very well, you'll know what's important to them, what language they use, how they view the category, what they like/dislike about other products, etc., etc.

Pre-testing and market research are particularly important to making sure everything is right before launching a product. Companies that try to short-cut the system usually fail ... and never really know why.

You can do too much research, and miss the boat. After an certain point, the more research you do the more risk you add to the product.

Things like "product drift", while the product may meet the "needs" that need to be meet, it might not do it in a away in which the customer will accept.

When coming up with a product idea don't just have one concepts. Have 4 or 5 and then work them down to one product. So that if the one you are working on starts to fall a part then you can just move to the next one, instead of patching the one idea you have already come up with. This will prevent product drift.

Keep in mind that by adding your product to the market you will change the market!

I like aime's response best.

I'd expand her #3 point to include the entire marketing mix, not just the awareness-generating part. If people are aware of the product and don't purchase/repurchase, you have a more serious problem than just generating awareness.

Thank You for all the responses.
They were really helpful

gmpcc,
Check on my website. I have a page called "Product Launch" that has steps outlined and questions that need to be answered along the way.

Wayde