Launching a new product and service has undergone several changes in recent times. Unlike the good old days, it’s no longer as simple as that of setting up a press tour and publishing your press release by hiring a PR agency. Gone are those days when the news of your success used to spread with the speed of light. It might help in promoting your brand name with a few highlights, but it’s less likely to catch up well with your target audience paradoxically.
It’s more like developing your house. You’ll need to find out whether you want a van by the riverside or a home within the township or a huge mansion in the countryside. You may choose to ask a few questions to yourself, like – Which place seems to be more suitable for building your house? Are you aware of anyone who can help you in developing your house? Do you have any specific plan in your mind?
It’s a legitimate comparison although you may feel it’s inappropriate to answer a question with more questions. It’s more like breaking a broad question down to smaller fragments before attempting to address each one separately. You’ll certainly reach the goal in time when you have all smaller details, to begin with. You must adopt a few new tactics in order to achieve more popularity with your prospective viewers.
Follow the steps mentioned below if you are aiming for a successful launch:
You must find out answers for all generalities before setting the sail on launching and promoting your product after it gets designed and developed. If this isn’t meant for a brand new category, your target audience is pretty much aware of how it should perform. Through the initial five years, you’ll need to achieve is that recognition and goodwill in the target market.
Setting a Budget
The very fact that your target audience is aware of the functions and that a quality standard has already been set in the industry is likely to push you towards allocating a certain budget. You’ll need to meet every aspect with great care and invest a certain amount in product innovation so that your product doesn’t get edged out by other major players in the market. You may check out a few simple launching options that will help you to gain more control over your initial budget, like the one shared by Feras Antoon.
Doing Market Research
You don’t need to begin by spending a huge amount on primary research and innovation. You’ll need to empathize with your target audience in order to check what they’re looking for in reality. Your research team should work on the basics like doing a detailed market survey on all features that are in demand besides finding how much your prospective buyers are willing to pay for your product. For this, they will need to study the strengths of your competitors, identify your market areas and how your brand can be positioned in a better way.
Strategy Building and Positioning
Once you’ve carried out some form of market research, you’ll need to adopt a marketing strategy and set your position. How will you distinguish your product from that of your competitors? Why should your prospective buyers pick you ahead of them? Your efforts are bound to be driven by your positioning document. Depending on factors like market competition and budget, you’ll need to plan on how you may drop your anchor.
Corporate Branding
Most of the manufacturers are primarily focused on developing their products and not towards building their brand names. Using any unprofessional logo won’t do you any good in the long run. Corporate branding is much more to than creating a logo, but a logo certainly helps enhance the brand experience. Corporate branding involves various aspects of B2C interaction and is an outcome of your business strategy and positioning. At the very beginning, you’ll need to exert professionalism besides reflecting an image that gets more magnified that your current potential. Human minds are influenced by an initial impression; you may not gain out of all initial opportunities if your presentations, flyers, and logo look cheap. Even when you’re not so big, you must project a larger-than-life image on your target audience.
Product Branding & Package Designing
Product branding isn’t necessary when you have a single product or service in question. But you must conceive the right strategy for a situation when you’ll have a major presence in the market. During the initial phase, you can’t take decisions that you won’t be able to live up to in the future. You’ll need to invest a considerable portion of budget towards designing packages. Packaging is one factor that has a major influence on the success of a brand.
Make the most of “leaks” within the social space. Reach out to those who are keenly interested in knowing more about your offer. More interest is created among the masses when they’re able to view leaked pictures of your finished products. This technique has often been tested very successfully by a leading brand like Apple.
Make things easier for your prospective buyers. Provide your target audience with a few options to get acquainted with your product. You may try it by means of product videos, downloads, demos and free trials.
Don’t plan a massive launch. Planning a massive launching event might just lead through unnecessary expenses. It’s in your best interest to get your launch rolled over as your brand will gain more footage on social media. Make sure you create fresh news highlighting the benefits of your product besides addressing the areas of concern if any. Creating an interesting info-graphic, creating a product survey or developing a video might just do the trick for you.
Final Words
Launching a product isn’t exactly like developing a house. You don’t need to pick a hammer and start hitting the surface hard. Create a blueprint before you even market your latest product. It will help you allocate a budget and determine thing you can develop or afford to include in your list of must-dos. In a sharp contrast to building your house, you won’t be spending too much on it in advance. Instead, you’ll invest more towards achieving positive outcomes for each of your marketing efforts. Eventually, it will help improve your brand name and establish your brand image in the minds of your prospective buyers.
