Your product launch is only as good as your product creation. When a product launch is bad, it can negatively impact your product’s impact on the market. This is why leading brands around the world invest so much time and resources into executing a good product launch. Studies have shown that more than 30,000 brands experience product launch failures each year.
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Therefore, a product launch requires the right strategy to have the right impact on the market. Leading brand strategists believe that product launches should be loud enough to grab the attention of your audience as well as the general market. In this article, I discuss the nine crucial phases of a successful product launch.
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Understand The Existing Gaps
To ensure a successful product launch, the product itself must be worth the buzz. Launching is about announcing something new and innovative to the public. Therefore, to create something new and innovative, you need to ensure that you meet the needs of marketing by bridging the existing gap. One of the reasons product launches fail is that you’re not bringing something else to the public. Therefore, to achieve a successful product launch, your product brings something different to the public.
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Study Your Competitor’s Products
To achieve a successful product launch, you need to study your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses so that you can improve on what they have done. The implication is that this sets you apart from them, drawing all the attention to yourself. For example, Tesla’s competitors still produce cars that run on fuel and gas, while its products are powered by electricity, which is cheaper compared to others. As a result, Tesla Motors carved out a niche for itself and attracted all the attention, gaining a larger percentage of the market share.
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Design And Test Prototype
This is a very important stage that business leaders and product developers should consider in order to achieve a successful launch. A prototype of a product must be built with the necessary specifications to meet the needs of the market. For example, Elon Musk tasted his electric car at his factory for more than a decade before making it public.
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Get Feedback From In-house Testers
Once you start testing your product and get feedback from testers, friends, family, colleagues, and anyone who can help iron out the kinks, it’s imperative to adjust accordingly. Making subtle changes here and there can make a world of difference in the quality of the product. Some of your friends may ask about a feature you never considered adding, or point out that something isn’t quite working that you can remove. Ultimately, your product should spark “joy” and interest; it should be something consumers not only need but want.
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Create Anticipation Through A Pre-Launch Campaign
During your product launch journey, your marketing department needs to be operational. The marketing team should be fully included in the launch process. Their job description during this process is to be a precursor to your product. They are meant to prepare the minds of your audience by raising awareness and creating a campaign. This will help drive more sales. Below is the best format for creating a pre-launch campaign:
- Develop a landing page about the new product on your website
- Create an email campaign that encourages signups to discover more about the product with a CTA
- Contact bloggers, journalists and industry influencers who can help create content that will generate excitement about the product
- Contact PR agencies to prepare an embargoed press release that will get all the media talking about your product at the exact time of the launch
- Based on the available budget, you should advertise in as many relevant places as possible that generate enough traffic to generate interest
- Generate the content early so that you have perfected the ad text and images to use when your product is ready to be launched.
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Build A Credible Supply Chain
Another reason why product launches fail is due to a poor supply chain. Therefore, business people need to inventory their products and make sure they have enough to meet demand. The best way to do this is by organizing a credible supply chain. For your product launch to be successful, it is essential to work closely with your dealers and sellers who can act as recipients and points of sale where customers can get the product after launch.
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Launch At The Right Time!
This stage is when you launch. Make sure the time and seasons are right for your launch. In your pre-launch campaigns, you should have the launch date published, make sure it’s the right time to launch and stick to the date. For example, to determine the right time, many brands prefer to launch their products during the Christmas season. The main thing is to study the mood of your audience.
Again, determine the type of launching arrangement you want. It can be online or offline or both. However, studies have shown that launching online and offline produces an effective result. Therefore, make sure that all factors – weather, online streaming locations and offline locations – are in the right place at the right time. Don’t hold back, make sure you grab the attention of the public on every available platform. And if necessary, repost and share memories in the days after launch.
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Engage In Post-Launch Press Release
After a successful product launch, contact the PR agencies that covered your story during the pre-launch period to collect great reviews and positive feedback. Take your audience on a journey from product conception, to production, to marketing. People love to hear about the beginnings of a great product, especially if it started as an accident.
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Assess Public Feedback Post-launch
Now that the product is in the public domain, prepare for customer reviews. Yelp, Google, and other sites built for customer feedback are modern consumer reports. The biggest truth about product launches is that you can’t say you had a successful product launch without customer reviews. It can be good, bad and ugly. Public perception is very important. So don’t give too much or too little. If you encounter negative reviews, apply empathy and respond with a positive outlook and offer a short-term solution to address the consumer’s immediate concerns.
Nevertheless, you must provide a long-term solution to ensure that future customers do not experience the same problems. Addressing reviews and feedback wherever possible shows how invested you are in your product and your customer’s happiness, which will ultimately result in increased loyalty and commitment to your brand.
Featured Image Source: Morning Workplace
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