Launching and promoting a new product (whether a good or a service) is the key challenge for any entrepreneurial project, whether it be a startup or an established company seeking to explore new markets and business opportunities.
Launching a product in the market is a great challenge and requires a serious and conscious strategic approach. But the real starting point is not just about creating an effective and engaging campaign: to make your offer known and stand out, it is essential to gain full awareness of the many variables that govern ‘the game’, so as to initiate the launch process, product positioning, and commercialization with the right tools and in a context of real opportunity.
Launching a product in the market:
the ideal guide (with case study)
In the context of a successful advertising strategy, one of the most important activities involves a deep understanding of the target market. It is essential for a brand that aims to position itself in the market with clarity and impact to fully recognize the real commercial opportunities.
Here are some questions that every entrepreneur or manager aiming to run a successful operation should ask:
- Is there room in the market, or is it already saturated and well manned by well-known brands?
- Does my product represent a novelty that the market will need to understand? Or does it fit among goods well understood by the target audience?
- Or does it fit among goods already familiar to the target audience?
- Is the trend emerging or already established?
- Who are the players operating in the sector? What are their names, their products, their characteristics, and their prices?
- What communication strategies characterize the promotion of competitor brands?
- How much do existing market players invest in advertising, and with what strategies?
- What kind of business can realistically be generated from the sale of the products (or services) my company intends to commercialize?
These are some of the questions that deserve careful indagine previsionale, senza la quale sarà pressoché impossibile governare la commercializzazione of your product with full awareness. The real challenge, therefore, is to predict if and how the market will respond to my offer.
However, one of the most frequent habits (or rather “mistakes”) is skipping this crucial step and moving directly to the next phase, which is launching a product on the market through a promotional campaign.
VERIFY AND TEST THE BUSINESS IDEA
A good idea doesn't always guarantee success
It is easy to understand that launching an advertising campaign based on ‘feeling’ (or rather on unconditional trust in one’s business idea) cannot find a mathematically positive response. This is perhaps, instead, one of the main causes of failure for most startups or operations intending to launch a product in the market: unconditional trust in one’s idea without careful evaluation of the many variables underlying the competition.
For this purpose, some useful activities to verify the validity of the business idea are:
- Market research
- Competitor and competitiveness analysis: existing goods, their characteristics, positioning, and allocated investments
- Perception Based Analysis (PBA): observing the market’s real perception of existing goods and the product we intend to launch
- Pre-launch on the market with the allocation of a pilot budget
- Market testing: assessing the potential response to a preliminary launch
The calculation of the right marketing budget
Another frequent cause of failure concerns the incorrect calculation of the marketing budget and its inappropriate allocation. If SMEs tend to refer to big international players as a source of inspiration and guidance, almost always the data related to the budgets these entities have the capacity to allocate to advertising campaigns is not appropriately considered (often significantly large, as they are usually leading and well-positioned companies in the market): believing that “just as Apple, Nike, and Coca Cola made it, it will be equally possible to break through, surprise, and convince the market” is a big misunderstanding: creativity, analysis, and budget are aspects of marketing that walk hand in hand.
Building the right marketing budget is an operation that requires several key steps:
- Calculating the actual investment required to meet business expectations (revenue to be generated)
- Defining the actual investment that can be allocated based on financial availability
- Defining potential third-party participation in the business project through the transfer of shares in exchange for acquiring financial capital, material resources, or operational skills (sweat equity)
- Defining a Business Plan: a clear projection of the revenues to be generated and the time needed to reach the break-even point (BEP) and profits
- Projecting the investment over the short, medium, and long term
Creativity and strategy go hand-in-hand
It is therefore important to internalize the assumption that good creativity finds it difficult to break through without a clear understanding of the ‘competitive context’ (especially in a hyper-competitive market like the current one) and without an adequate investment to support it. Similarly, a data-driven strategy will be less effective if not conducted on original, distinctive, differentiating, and convincing communication concepts and formulas.
Based on these considerations, it is natural to understand why fatal errors are often made that compromise many commercial initiatives from the start. Here is a list of the main errors that determine the failure of a product launch operation in the market.
LAUNCHING A PRODUCT ON THE MARKET
MAIN RISKS AND MISTAKES
Choosing a less prosperous market
Will the market we are targeting respond positively? Will our product or service be liked? How long will it take for the consumer to lean towards the new brand?
To manage the many variables related to the market and the specific industry, it is essential to take careful and informed first steps and avoid navigating blindly.
As we have seen, the product positioning process requires times closely linked to a set of factors that must be controlled with great awareness. On one hand, it is detrimental to invest in an idea that has no chance of success, while on the other hand, it is a shame to withdraw a business idea prematurely because the market introduction times are misaligned with incorrect expectations.
Setting an incorrect price
The price is one of the most important elements as it can determine the public’s favor or disfavor. It must be set appropriately with reference to a careful analysis of the overall costs that the business project, and consequently the individual product, must absorb, but it is also linked to the perceived value it can generate in the consumer’s mind. If a price that is too high can be unacceptable, it is also possible that the product (good or service) has, on paper, a potential retail price higher than what is actually expected: this is where the brand’s ability to adequately enhance its offer through a communication campaign capable of determining the right appreciation, endowing the product with the value it deserves. It will then be possible to set a price consistent with what the market is actually willing to accept, and this is linked not only to the mathematical value of the product (deducible from a mathematical analysis of costs and revenues), but also to the perception of value that the product can assume in the minds of consumers.
Introducing a product lacking distinguishing elements
What are the distinctive traits of the brands already present?
Can my offer stand out for some particular element that can be unequivocally associatedwith it, making it immediately recognizable and appreciable? Sometimes it takes little to determine a distinctive product positioning: a particular design, a color, elements that concern the essence of the brand.
Neglecting the design of an original brand rhetoric
Every product (good or service) is compared by consumers with many existing goods. For this reason, my brand must have the ability to create an empathetic connection with the audience. What is the experience that my brand promises to offer to those who purchase it? Consequently, will my brand be able to evoke an emotional reaction in the audience capable of engaging them, intriguing them, creating complicity with them?
The real challenge is to change the choices consumers have already made, undermine their beliefs and redirect them from the old to the new. This is no trivial task, as it is often miscalculated: psychologically, there is nothing more difficult than disrupting a habit and a sense of security. For this reason, the core concept that will govern communication with the audience is crucial, as well as the particular tone and style with which the brand presents itself to the market will be decisive in conveying a particular promise that can surprise and entice the consumer.
In addition to the tangible factors related to the market (such as the shares that can be acquired, the product price, distribution logic), it is equally important to understand the intangible factors, which must be investigated and well understood: what are the real needs of consumers? What are their deepest expectations? What concrete problem can we help solve? Only in this way will it be possible to develop a product that provides full response to the latent needs of the market, eliciting a response through a incisive and valuable rhetoric.
THE CASE
Notorious x Ingenio technology
Ingenio technology co. ltd. is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) company based in Hong Kong. It has chosen Notorious to coordinate and manage the launch and promotion of some new product lines internationally.
The operation required careful management of the many variables discussed earlier in this article.
The operation involved triangulation with specialised players in several key areas: we therefore set up a veritable ‘task force’ for this purpose, to take care of each phase of the strategic planning with the utmost professionalism and attention:
Creative Agency
Market Surveys
Lead Product Development
Market research
The research aimed to answer some crucial client questions:
- How are the existing players moving in the market?
- Will the product I intend to commercialize find space in the market?
- Internationally, in which countries does it make sense to manage the operation for launching and promoting the product in the market?
- What are the needs and expectations of consumers?
- Do the existing products meet their expectations?
The research was conducted along two main areas:
Asset_1
MARKET ANALYSIS
- Identifying the competing players present in the international market, with complete information on their profile: brand name, address, headquarters, financial data
- Studying the existing products in the market: product types, main characteristics, distribution, and price
Asset_2
SECTOR ANALYSIS
Objective 1.
Understanding the opportunities in the relevant sectors: outdoor tourism and camping.
- Market size
- Researching the best regions for outdoor activities and camping (for example, based on tourism, popular campsites, national parks)
- Number of regular and occasional campers
- Number of campsites
- New trends in outdoor tourism and camping
Objective 2.
Defining the target groups and understanding the audience for advertising campaigns:
- Media usage
- Vacation preferences
- Income
- Age/Gender
NEXT STEPS...
Product management
Il team incaricato prevede la partecipazione di esperti di product development che hanno ora la possibilità di verificare i prodotti concepiti dall’azienda e studiarne gli opportuni perfezionamenti, in termini di features e design, utili ad intercettare i bisogni e le aspettative che l’indagine ha evidenziato. The assigned team includes product development experts who now have the opportunity to evaluate the products conceived by the company and study the necessary improvements in terms of features and design, aimed at meeting the needs and expectations highlighted by the research.
Brand management Advertising campaign
Based on the research conducted, it is now possible to develop an effective communication strategy and an original, focused brand communication. This starts from identity aspects (name, logo, brand environment) to the definition of the brand’s rhetorical structure and its creative interpretations, which will take concrete form in advertising campaigns and unfold across the various media involved in the promotional strategy.
Updates on this exciting international project will come soon!
