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by Renee Fellows

October 01, 2007— Steps to Successfully Launching Your New Product
Bringing a new product to market is tricky business and not something that should be taken lightly. Some entrepreneurs believe luck had a major role in the success of their products, others tout expertise in marketing or a keen sense of understanding the customer. What truly differentiates the dazzling success story from the twenty other products that failed is a combination of all three. A new product must answer a basic need in the market, be innovative, marketed well and launch at the right time in the market place. A little luck doesn’t hurt either.

Let’s focus on the tactics that can be controlled and leave luck to the Las Vegas poker tables.

Discover a need.

Develop a rigorous process for discovering unmet customer needs. This can be as simple as asking the customer what works and doesn’t work about your current product line. Ultimately your end-user is in the best position to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly about your current products and provide you with insight into new ways to address age-old problems.

Lego Corporation did a great job of this when they began the research phase of their new MindStorm™ Robotic Legos. By giving their product to an elite pool of current Lego users and asking them to use the product they not only developed their own set of work-arounds for areas the product lacked, but developed extensions of the product that Lego had never even conceived of previously. After the initial feedback, Lego then gave the robotic toys to students and professors at MIT in Boston and asked them to take the product to the next level. This outreach not only brought back additional enhancements but buy-in from a high-tech market that appreciated the opportunity to give advice and make changes to the way the product functioned. Taking the extra effort to reach out and listen to their consumers, even when the group used the product in ways that Lego never intended, allowed for product growth that never would have occurred if they had kept their development efforts in-house.

Remember that successfully launching a product doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Take the time to research the product, the best possible ways to design, manufacture and distribute it to your target audiences. Let them play with it, use it in real life situations and provide feedback on their experiences. Once you’ve perfected the product, you’re ready to move on to marketing it.

Talk to your existing customers.

They are your best audience for introducing a new product because they are already familiar with your brand, loyal to your current products and enthusiastic about new products you may develop. Make sure to plan a special ‘preview’ offering to this customer base and even, depending on the size of the product launch, a special event to introduce them to the new product.

Give it a good name.

Like the Island of Lost Toys from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, there is a land filled with the failed attempts at product naming. Names like the Edsel, Ford Motor Company’s much maligned car from the late 1950’s. Within two years of its public launch, the Edsel plummeted from grace, taking with it into bankruptcy many of Ford’s small dealers. Named for Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, the car went through numerous name suggestions and changes before it was finally dubbed the ‘Edsel’. But the name alone wasn’t the only cause for the car’s failure. Ford had marketed the car to be the ‘E-car’ for ‘experimental’. The name set expectations among dealers and consumers that the car would be revolutionary in everything from design to its engine structure. When the car rolled out on ‘E-Day’ on September 4, 1957 , it was revealed to audiences and found to have a shared body design with many of its other car lines. Instantly, consumers were disappointed. Consumer Reports blamed poor workmanship for its failure. Business experts blamed poor internal structures, lack of corporate support, and the growing economic recession of 1958 as their leading causes of the Edsel’s demise. Marketing experts believed it to simply be ‘the wrong car at the wrong time’, meaning that Ford had missed its mark with the consumer and didn’t listen to what their customers were telling them. Ranking as one of the largest product launch and marketing failures to date, Ford invested over $400,000,000 in its development and marketing efforts and by 1960 had dropped the car from its product line offering buy-back rebates to its dealers for the remaining inventory.

Describe it.

This may sound like a ‘no-brainer’ but many companies are so entrenched in their new product that the descriptions read like a technical manual rather than a consumer-friendly features and benefits piece. Can you in one sentence accurately describe your product? If your answer is no, go back to the drawing board and continue to rewrite the marketing piece until you have a concise, short sentence that elicits an immediate picture of what the product is and does.

Visualize it.

Now that you’ve nailed down the description, it’s time to give the product some personality and pizzazz with stunning graphic design. If you are thinking of skimping on design costs here, don’t. Besides the product itself, the product’s look, feel, and packaging – its brand essence is the first impression your consumer’s will have. Enlist the services of a skilled design firm and thoughtfully walk through the design concepts. Ask that elite pool of customers their thoughts on the packaging and branding and use their feedback to hone the design.

Develop the marketing strategy.

This should be given as much thought as the product development itself. How you market is as critical to the success of your product as all the research and development that went into its design. A single ad in a magazine or a press release does not a campaign make. Launch your product into multiple channels simultaneously and more importantly, customize your message appropriately to each channel’s audience. A huge factor in the success of your marketing strategy is the program’s funding. If you are attempting to roll out a national launch for the XYZ Widget and your marketing budget is less than $100,000 then you’ve got some serious obstacles to overcome. An adequately funded marketing program is a necessity if you hope to achieve your goals. Be sure that your marketing efforts answer the following areas:

• Product details – While most customers won’t need a complete line drawing schematic of your product, you will need to provide a thorough product description. These are particularly useful for trade publication’s What’s New sections and informational product sell sheets.

• Customers / target audience descriptions – Understand the demographic and psychographic profiles of each target audience (where they live and shop, what they purchase and most importantly, why they buy the products they do).

• Needs of the market – Is your product answering a void left in the market place? Does it add convenience, safety, speed, efficiency? What need exists in the market for this product and how does your product fill that need?

• Appropriate pricing – This area can be an article topic all by itself, but be sure that you consider all the production costs to create the product, the cost to take the product to market and the cost for research and development.

What’s your distribution plan?

How you advertise your product is critical to reaching your market. Look at traditional approaches like print, radio and television and then consider the internet, mass advertising campaigns like billboards, large format transportation (busses), direct mail, and even special events and samplings. The more innovative and cutting-edge your product, the more you’ll need to step outside the box for marketing and promotions.

Track results

All of these efforts should culminate in a well tracked campaign not only by sales and profits but also by customer adoptions and marketing executions. These reports will help you determine any corrections to the product and the campaign efforts with real-life results versus expectations.

Launching a product doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It requires a concerted effort by all areas from research and development through to marketing, graphic design and advertising all working together to bring the best possible product to market. Even a large corporation like Lego utilizes outside resources and experts to ensure greater success.

Renee Fellows is the owner of ClearPoint Marketing Communications in Derry , New Hampshire . She works with small business clients to develop marketing and public relations strategies that bring business and customers closer together. She can be reached at 603-434-9433 or via email at Rfellows@oneclearpoint.com .

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