When you’re thinking about launching a new product, you have to be aware of the risks as well as the potential advantages. If it goes well, you have the chance generate new customers, more revenue from existing customers and a lasting higher profile for your brand, as the press, comment and review associated with a big event for your business spreads the word of who you are and what you do.
The risks counterbalance the advantages and make it really important to plan how you approach designing and launching a new product. If the end result of your process proves unpopular or conflicts with what customers understand the character of your business to be, it can undermine the reputation you’ve established. Even if your other products are popular and were well received, a calamitous new product launch can make loyal customers reassess your brand as a whole.
Today we’re looking at some of the ways your new products can go wrong to help you avoid common mistakes!
A Failure to Understand
One of the worst mistakes you can make is launching a product that your customers simply cannot grasp. If they can’t see the value in what you’ve created, your marketing has an uphill struggle to convey what advantage it confers and ultimately why it is worth paying for.
The key here is to make concept testing a key part of your new product development process. Before you commit to developing a product, test the very concepts you are working with on real customers. It might help to partner with a market research organisation to ensure you are getting good data and interpreting it accurately.
This means that as you continue development and ready for launch day, you can feel confident that you’re preparing product customers will grasp and see a need for.
Timing Launch Day Badly
There are two key concerns to balance when you need to launch a new product: when your customers will be looking for solutions like the new one you have to offer, and when your rivals will be launching their own efforts to capture this market.
Launching at a time when people are at their most receptive to products in the niche you’re working in gives you an advantage: people are actively looking for the new product that you’re launching. Whether it’s a student bank account in September, novelty gifts in the run-up to Christmas or shades in the summer, matching your launch window to your customers needs gives you a boost.
Getting some competitor research from a market research company can help you find a launch date where your products have a chance to enjoy the limelight without forcing your customers to pick between you and rival brand. Even if you win a direct confrontation like that, you’re still denying yourself a chance to secure the largest possible share of the market, so it’s well worth trying to schedule around competitors!