Launching a new product

Once a new product development project has been specified and the brief established, a large part of the marketing task will be concerned with progressing the project from design to production. Usually there will be some schedule drawn up for this programme, whether a basic Design to Production Schedule or elaborate Gant charts and other planning tools, all of which should include not just the technical activities, but also the marketing ones as well.

There are many views on how this is approached, whether as a series of sequential activities or as an integrated simultaneous engineering exercise. Some industries are further advanced in these techniques than others. But however organised there will be certain milestones which will lead towards the launch phase. 

Milestones in the R&D phase could be initial feasibility study, prototyping, type testing and may be some market testing. There are mixed views about keeping the concept completely under wraps until it is launched and in soliciting market input at formative stages in the design and development process. 

Moving into production through tooling, planning and pre-production stages is when much of the launch programme needs to be planned and produced. In today’s competitive market place the launch programme will be committed before any pre-production products roll off the line, so prototypes may have to be creatively used in the launch material. But not only are physical examples needed for such things as photography and demonstratation, but also test data is required to support the product at launch. 

It is amazing how companies still forget this essential need and launch a new product without any means to sell and support it. One useful technique is to draw up well in advance a New Product Check List to detail the activities that are required and the timings. It is also important not to launch the product if you cannot fulfill orders. Some major new product failures can be attributed to products that didn’t work, because they weren’t really ready and products that got everyone excited, but couldn’t be delivered.

Ready to launch a new product?

New products are at the heart of any integrated marketing strategy. Apple and the late Steve Jobs are masters of the new product launch. An event which presents a great opportunity to boost the brand and remind loyal customers of why they purchase your products and tempt others to buy.

But even the best executed marketing campaign will not compensate for poor products or products that the market does not want. So the first stage of any new product programme is research. Initially there may be dozens, perhaps even hundreds of ideas to sift and evaluate, but new products will most likely arise from one of three key drivers:-Technology, Market Need, or Price. Whilst market input is important, it’s not likely to result in any real progress in understanding what to develop. As one commentator remarked, ‘you don’t know, what you don’t know’. Once again Apple choose to think differently and created products that offered far more than mere functionality. Asking customers what they want is not the way to build innovative new products.The lack of imagination conditioned by the existing supply chain through to the end user, will deliver a verdict which can be summarised as ‘more of the same, plus a few ‘bells and whistles’ that the competitors offer on their product - and all delivered at a lower price’. And know what? They probably won't want a product where the design brief is guided by a lists of current wishes.

Technology, not surprisingly is a critical driver, either applied to the product itself or to the process of manufacture, or a combination of both. But basing new product development on a new technology platform can be a high-risk strategy unless relevant to the target audience. New technology for its own sake will not succeed unless it also fulfils a market need that the customers are willingly to pay for. Failure to recognise the value of new technology or adopt too late can be equally disastrous. Sometimes the technology is a good idea in search of a genuine user application. The key factor is an ability to bridge the gap between the possibilities afforded by adoption of the technology and the implementation and acceptance by the market. Good industrial design can be a great differentiator making the product not just good to see but easy and intuitive to use.

Finally price can be the driver for a successful new product, but to achieve this will generally require having a lower cost-manufacturing base than any of your competitors. This may be achieved through entry barriers to the market such as high level of investment in plant, or patent controls that are beyond the reach of your competitors and will usually also need to be accompanied by high volumes and a dominant market share. Of course dominant market share is just one strategy. There are premium price segments of the market that can actually prove more profitable  for products that can command that price point ... Apple?