My ‘Avoid Stupidity’ Checklist for New Product Launches
Over the years, i have developed a simple checklist to minimize failure rates on new product launches.
Here are some of them from a consumer products perspective.
- Secure marketing $$ commitment for the first 2-3 years. New products need intense marketing and distribution support at launch and up to 2-3 years later. Lack of which is the number 1 reason for failure.
- In the ocean of metrics, optimize for – Awareness, Trials, and Repeats (purchases)
Understand the specific role each one of the marketing mix plays.
3. Product – Key function is to drive the repeats (No, advertising doesn’t generate repeats for a new product!). If a product cannot get repeats, you have a big problem on hand that advertising or distribution cannot solve.
4. Advertising/PR – Role is to drive awareness and trials. And it does that through articulating functional superiority clearly, in a way relevant to the consumer. Brand building and positioning come much later when the brand has a good base of repeat users.
5. Distribution – Drives awareness and trials through visibility and availability. The default response from the trade, to a new product is resistance (for good reasons). Distribution needs $$ support and is a make or break factor for success.
6. Price – plays the role of signaling the brand position and quality versus incumbents when entering an existing category- for example, launching another ketchup brand or variant.
But when trying to disrupt an existing category, price plays the role of enabler or a barrier to trial.
So leave money on the table for trade (distribution) and consumers to get those trials.