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How to successfully launch a new product or service

Written by: Peter Lawless

Article Overview: Companies decide to launch new products for a variety of reasons. If you have already decided to launch a new product or complimentary service, this article will guide you through the steps to guarantee its success. We will also explore reasons for launching a new product in the first place. The best group of people or companies to test a new product with is, your existing customers!

How to successfully launch a new product or service

Why launch a new offering from your company?
There are three principle reasons that new products are launched, they are as follows:

1. To satisfy additional customer demand.

2. Spotting an additional way of adding value to your existing portfolio, in a new or existing niche.

3. As a means of diversifying, to either grow the business, or to protect future earnings as a cash cow, reaches end of life.

If you have not already decided to add to your offering, it may be worth checking to see if any of the above criteria are applicable to your company.

So let's assume that you have decided to launch your new product or service, your first step is to examine, if the business case stands up in its own right.

This simply means that you need to write a business plan, as though you were launching a new company. The only key difference is that you will be able to factor in existing resources that you will use to make, market, sell and service your new offering. You should also look at the impact the new venture will have on your existing business.

I am assuming that you know how to write a successful business plan, if you need any help, you may wish to register for a free consultation.

The key market planning activities
Let us turn our focus on to the key marketing planning activities that you need to embark upon:

* Research your target market - You will need to gauge the size of the market, and their propensity to buy this new offering.
* Price your Product - A previous article, pricing for profit, will help you with this.
* Test your offering - This is absolutely vital, and the remainder of this article goes into detail, on how that should be done.
* Launch your Product - Your testing will have helped you create your marketing plan, and this is what you will now set into action.
* Sell and service your offering - finally you must ensure that you have capacity to meet demand. Nothing kills a new product's future success than potential customer's inability to get hold of the product.
* Testing your new Product or Service
* If possible the best group of people or companies to test a new product with is, your existing customers. If you have serviced them well in the past, they are far more likely to do you a favour, and give you honest feedback.

If the new offering is not applicable to your existing customer base, then pick a test group, as representative of your identified target market as possible. They should also if possible be conveniently located to you, so that you can respond rapidly to any teething issues that may arise.

Your test customers, not only help identify any issues, most importantly, they will provide you with testimonials, which demonstrate the following.

* Why they need or desire your offering in the first place?
* What is unique about your offering?
* What your offering enables them to do?
* How they put a value on it?
* Why they believe it is superior to doing it themselves or using a competitor?

Assuming your testing goes well and you decide to do a full blown product launch, you have now created the marketing message that you should use through the testimonial process.

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Article Tags: business case, cash cow, customer demand, earnings, existing resources, free consultation, how to write a successful business plan, key marketing, marketing plan, marketing planning, niche, offering price, principle reasons, propensity, remainder, successful business, target market



Related Forum Posts
Re: Can you outsource your product launch? - [quote="ideasuniversity":i1rccw4s]I am thinking if it is possble to outsource ones product launch to an expert if you don't know how. If it is possible who among us here are good in this aspect[/quote:i1rccw4s] If you are talking about the promotion to launch a new product or service, most definitely. I do that with authors and am working with other business people to create an online buzz to launch their products or services. If that's not what you're thinking - can you give more details? Shri
Launch of Social networking software package...Needs input - Hello Everybody, Note-Its not a launch of another SN site like the other sites, its more like a SN software package launched by RapidSoft Technologies on 7th April, 2008. I am very excited to announce that you can own a social net site for yourself as we are launching our SN software package on 7th April, wherein we will provide you with the API..which gives complete control and flexibility to make any changes as per your requirement. You can also add any third party application to this site and you can easily customize it as you feel. Our customers will have 90 days to experiment with this package integrated with all the basic features as we are releasing it in a trial mode, during this time we will be expecting lot of feedback from our customers. I am also hopeful from all the members out here to receive some suggestions and feedback on what more can be done before the launch and after the launch of this product. I will also be eager to know from all those members who has huge network and had been using social net for long time- How does it sounds to them as they have been using different SN sites for long time. Suggestions and your time is highly appreciated. As everyone out here has been using different SN sites....with the launch of this product or an opportunity to own such site with complete control, What would be the general reaction of people? Do you have some great ideas for a product launch like this?? or someone thinks their is another way to do this... I will be happy to see lot of inputs from you. You can also enroll yourself for the free trial version of this package and experiment with it. --Ashish
Re: Are You Selling Globally? - [quote="Evan":2izjaedg]Great news Trent! I'm looking forward to seeing the Trent Brownrigg product launch! What is the new product?[/quote:2izjaedg] I am actually working with Barry Sarner (another mod of this forum) to launch a "positive messages apparel" company.
Determine Your Target - Ramon - Congratulations on your new venture. First priority is to make a list of the people and businesses who are your target market. Who needs your product or service? Make a list of the things you can offer them. They need to understand the value of your service. Once you have a clear idea of who needs your product and what you have to offer, then you can begin to promote effectively to the right people. Promoting to people who have no use for your product or service or who don't have the authority to make a decision - is a waste of your time and money. One last thing - when you determine your target market - narrow down the options. For example - if you sold a product that could be used for computers, its not good enough to say your target is any computer owner. Would it be best for residential or commercial use? Is it better for teens or adults? Is it better for beginners or more experienced computer owners? Do small businesses or large businesses need your product? The more precise your answers are, the more successful your efforts will be. Shri
Re: Startup blogs - I agree with David blogging is a good way to get a feel for the market and discover whether your product is something that will be in demand or not. You can also begin to brand yourself or your product and warm your market up so that they will be more receptive when you launch. MichelleJ


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