Feature Article
5 Considerations for Launching a New Product By Rick Grant President, RGA Public Relations
O
ne reason most businesses are more competitive today is that it’s easier to get the operational side of a business right. Before the Internet reduced the size of the world from thousands of miles to light-seconds, entrepreneurs had to make do with the resources they had close at hand. Today, we can get operational help from anywhere on the planet and have services delivered in seconds. Even product development has been compressed and made much more affordable through rapid prototyping, on demand manufacturing and just-intime product delivery. It’s easier than ever to get a good idea into production. But it’s still a chore to get it promoted.
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In fact, it’s more difficult to market a product effectively today because it’s harder than ever to get the attention of the markets you hope to serve. Today, smart innovators are considering how they’ll market their new products even before the first prototypes are available for testing. Here are five things you should consider before taking any new product to market.
1 Highlight the problem you solve One of the only reasons that most businesses make a purchase decision is to put an end to an immediate source of pain, financial or otherwise.
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Most successful innovations provide such a solution, though sometimes a new product is simply better at providing the same old solution. In either case, knowing in advance the problem you solve and exactly how important this is to your prospects is a vital first step to planning your marketing attack. When highlighting the problem you solve, be as specific as possible. The more you know about the pain you alleviate, the more likely you’ll be prepared to sell this benefit to your prospects when the product is ready to launch.
2 Focus on your difference In order to get your prospect to spend money on a new solution, they must first understand what is new about it. What’s different with this product? Answering that question well will go a long way toward helping your target market understand why your new
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offering is necessary and why they should consider it. It’s important to differentiate your new product not just from your existing line of solutions, but also from your competitors’. The market must fully understand what’s new and unique about your innovation before they will embrace it.
3 Delineate the benefits Ultimately, your prospects’ decision to invest will be based on a careful analysis of the benefits your new innovation offers for the money it will cost. The more you can do to make this calculation easy and your product the obvious answer, the better. You can accomplish this by making your product very affordable, but a better method is to pack it with benefits and make sure you make these benefits clear to your prospects. Some companies focus on the new features built into their new products,
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but this matters far less to your potential buyer than the benefits those features provide. Focus on those benefits and make the return on investment calculation easy and you’ll be more successful.
4 Complement the brand It’s often easier to sell a product with clever branding as that helps to get attention and helps prospects remember the product longer. But it can be dangerous to dilute the power of existing brands by adding new products that don’t seem to fit with the rest of the line. New innovations should complement the existing brand or be a new brand on their own. Sometimes, a truly exceptional innovation deserves to be marketed by its own company. If the new offering will become part of an existing line of products or services, spend some time to determine exactly where it will fit into existing promotional material and which of your existing customers are most likely to benefit from upgrading to the new offering.
5 Get recognition The absolute best way to launch a new product is the cheers of the crowd and the awards of the judging panel. While this is not always possible, when a new product wins award recognition, it provides ready made marketing messages to be shared with prospects. Recently, one of our clients took a new product to a major trade show and won a prestigious award for their new device. This was accomplished by seeking out a trade organization that recognized products of this type, exhibiting at the group’s annual trade show and entering their product in the competition. A good demonstration was developed and provided for the judges. Material was printed to explain the problem the new product solved, it’s difference from existing products in the marketplace and its many benefits. By putting this thought into the promotion of their new offering before ever entering it in the competition, they were well prepared to win when the judges began their deliberations.
About the author: Rick Grant is President of RGA Public Relations in Jim Thorpe, Pa., a company he founded in 2007 to provide communications services to small- to medium-sized enterprises. His company offers a range of services from traditional media relations to social media and online marketing. You can reach him at rick.grant@rga-pr.com and follow him on Twitter at @nyrickgrant.
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October 2013