Launching a New Product Effectively: A Practical Sequence

A launch competes for attention in a crowded day. Many ads fail because people glance without really looking and listen without really hearing, so a message that is merely present is not enough. It has to be relevant to whoever receives it, clear at a glance and tied to something that person wants. That takes careful research, planning and measurement, and some of it has to happen before development is finished.

The steps below follow roughly the order in which the work happens.

Begin with a hard look at your competitors. Even if you believe your product or service is entirely new, picture what your prospects would buy in its place. Once you know who the competitors are, compare how your offering stacks up against theirs, where you will do better and which rival offerings threaten you most. Also check that the market shares your vision. A product that excites you but not your intended audience has a problem no launch campaign can fix.

Concentrate on the prospects most likely to buy. Know their demographic profile, why they need what you offer, who influences their decisions and which media they use. The most promising prospects feel a need for what you sell, can afford it and have shown they will buy things like it. Filling an existing need is easier than creating one. If this step feels uncertain, the article on defining an audience covers the research.

Decide what you must offer to stand apart, and who will want it. The product or service has to meet the needs and wishes of your ideal customers and supply a reason for choosing it over the alternatives. That reason is also the center of your brand. A launch makes a promise to customers, shaped by your identity, your aims and the reputation you already have, and no business can be everything to everyone. What you stand for should follow from what your intended customers want and need from you. If you are shaping that identity from scratch, brand management is the discipline to look at.

With your audience defined, choose the sales and marketing channels that will reach it. People meet a brand in several places before they buy, so most launches use more than one channel and keep the message consistent across all of them. Broadcast and outdoor advertising can introduce a new name to many people at once, which is where media buying comes in, while social platforms and email give interested people a way to answer and pass it along. Pick the mix by asking where your ideal customer already pays attention, not by which channel is fashionable. The larger plan behind these choices is the subject of marketing strategy development.

Do some testing before the public sees anything. Examine the product or service, the marketing message and the materials, and put them in front of members of your target audience through online research, focus groups or simple conversations. Ask what they understood, what they would do next and what confused them. Make changes while changes are cheap, then move on to the final version of the product, the wording and the materials.

A launch is a sequence, not a single day. Quiet groundwork comes first: the research, the message testing and the readiness work described here. Then comes a build-up, in which you share useful information and hint at what is coming so interest has time to form. The announcement follows, and after it comes a longer stretch of follow-through, when answers to common questions, customer stories and reminders keep the product in view.

Fit that sequence to your own capacity and calendar. Think about when your customers are most likely to be paying attention, what else is competing for their time and when you will be able to serve new demand without strain. A modest launch that you can deliver on beats an ambitious one that leaves early customers waiting.

Marketing can carry a launch only so far. Before the first announcement, make sure your own house is in order: the product or service is ready to deliver, staff know what to say, the web pages exist and work, and someone is responsible for answering questions the day they arrive. Work out beforehand how you will track response, whether through a dedicated web page, a routine question to each new buyer on how they found you, or a simple log of where inquiries come from. A launch that creates interest you cannot serve does more harm than a quiet one.

Public relations usually plays a part. Depending on the product, that can mean working with the press, social media, local coverage or a launch event. Whichever you choose, be completely ready before it starts, because if the publicity works, people will want to buy right away. Then watch the response from every channel to learn which are working hardest for you, and shift your effort to match.

• Launching to everyone. A message written for a broad crowd rarely lands with the specific people most likely to buy.
• Testing too late. Feedback is cheap before production and expensive after it.
• Naming no response. If nobody can state the action you hope people will take, the campaign has no way of showing whether it worked.
• Treating launch day as the finish line. Your first customers are an especially useful source of feedback, and what they say should flow back into the message.

Kirk Donovan’s working life started in radio, as an announcer and sales representative. That start taught him early that ratings and cute copy are not what retail advertising is for; it has to make people respond. The idea makes a useful test for any launch: decide which response you want, whether that means walking into your shop, picking up the phone, signing up or placing an order, and judge each step by whether it moves people toward it. The about page tells more of Kirk’s background, and you will find related reading among the strategy posts on this blog.