As a business, you’re most likely not always going to be focusing on just one product or service. From time to time it might become necessary to introduce new products or services. Reasons for introducing new products or services are numerous some of which can be improving existing ones, adding new ones or basically widening your revenue base. The process of deciding on new products or services to introduce takes more than just a spontaneous decision. Some studies have indicated that at as high as 85% of new products or services introduced never make it. So it’s important to know some fundamental aspects of how to launch new products or services. That’s what this article is all about, so let’s get right into it.
Ascertain That The Value Proposition Is Unique And Alluring
Does the new product or service offer features or value that’s unique and attractive? Remember as a business you’re operating in an environment with competitors. So if you’re to introduce a new product or service it must be bringing something unique. So you must look into this and be absolutely sure this new offering is going to be appealing to customers. Customers are inherently wired to scramble for new products or services that wield very unique value propositions. This aspect is indispensably important so much that it’s the single factor that can show you from the onset whether or not you must introduce a new product or service. The bottom line is that if your intended new offering lacks a unique value proposition then it’s bound to fail if launched. Throughout the subsequent steps in your build-up to the launch, your value proposition will be your key weapon. It’s called a unique selling proposition – it’s what will make the new product or service sell.
Do Thorough Market Research
The aim of this is to have a sense of whether or not there is a market for the new product or service. As an existing business, you’ll have the advantage of already having a customer base. Thus you can conduct studies to get some insights on whether your proposed new product or service will be both relevant and necessary. You can even go beyond your customer base to find out from potential customers. The research methods you can employ are several e.g. focus group discussions (FGDs) or issuing out questionnaires. At the end of the day, you want to figure out how best you’ll target your market for this new offering.
Conduct Rigorous Testing
You must take your new product or service through rigorous testing before rolling it out. The most immediate people you can use for this are your employees or the team responsible for building the new offering. Econet is one example of a company I know that uses this approach. Before they rolled out Ecocash and also the recently introduced Sasai they were tested by staff members. The other approach is to use the early access approach. You can avail the new product or service to just a handful of trusted people so that they test it out and give comments and recommendations. Fresh in a Box has employed this method by including samples of products in their boxes and those received positively have birthed add-on packages. These strategies are excellent because that tiny pool of individuals is a microcosm of the macrocosm. This means that whatever insights borne from them are most likely to be an accurate representation of the broader market that you’ll ultimately avail the new offering to. After all, you’ll get to cross the Ts and dot the Is privately without public attention thus perfecting your product or service before the official launch.
Cast A Wide Marketing Net
If you’re to do a striking new product or service launch then it must come into the market like a flood. There mustn’t be any breathing space left before the new offering becomes widespread knowledge. The best way to achieve this is through marketing the new offering on multiple platforms all at once. All thanks to digital marketing (through the internet and social media) you can ignite a multi-platform marketing drive with ease. You must also leverage social media influencers to reach more prospective customers. Not forgetting other forms of print and electronic media – leave no stone unturned. Take a cue from how new music and movies are publicized prior to official launches. That’s what you must strive to do also. Trigger widespread conversation about the upcoming new offering as long as 2 months before the launch. You can even go as far as putting in place pre-sales or pre-orders frameworks.
Carefully Time Your Launch
Timing mustn’t be taken lightly because it can either mean success or dismal failure. It’s quite possible to put together a wholesome new product or service that fails all because the timing would have been wrong. There’s no one approach to ascertain when the right time is so you must be very observant of the market. As you can infer from the moment you think of introducing a new product or service up to when you want to decide on the time to launch you would have been interacting with the market. The key thing you must look out for is when the buzz and interest for the new offering is at its peak. That’ll be the best time to officially launch the new offering. Another witty approach you can use is to generate the buzz and interest yourself through various initiatives as I discussed earlier. By this strategy, you’ll literally dictate when you’ll specifically want to officially launch knowing fully well the timing would be pristine.
So the next time you’re thinking of introducing a new product or service these are 5 tips that can set you on course. Don’t work with assumptions but rather ascertain everything through empirical research initiatives. Work closely with your business team and your current and prospective customers. You’ll definitely play your cards right if you do this.
