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Understanding Audio Visual Performances

3 Ways To Ensure Product Launch Success

2 September 2018

Alyssa Gutierrez

No matter how much effort a company puts into developing a new product or service or how great it is, if it isn't going to meet a need, doesn't deliver, and doesn't entertain during launch, there's a good chance it's not going to be successful. Here are three things a business must keep in mind if they don't want a flop on their books.

1. Do Your Market Evaluation Before You Start—Or Stop—Production

For a product to be successful, you need people who want what you have to offer. You can think your idea is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if it doesn't appeal to buyers for whatever reason, it's not going to work.

Identify your market. Analyze their demographics. How big is this market? What price would this market be willing to pay for your product? Why do they need your product? Who, if anyone, is your competition? What makes your product better? These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself before moving forward.

Larger businesses that have already tasted success sometimes forget to do the legwork. A classic example is the Coca-Cola Company's 1985 marketing blunder, New Coke. In their effort to continue the edge over Pepsi Co.'s sweeter cola, which was gaining ground by appealing to the younger generation with celebrity spokesmen like Michael Jackson, Coca-Cola decided to discontinue the secret formula that had proven successful for almost 100 years.

Coca-Cola had conducted product taste tests of New Coke with young people, and it had a favorable response, but what they didn't consider is a successful test market doesn't necessarily mean the entire market will feel the same. When New Coke launched, only 13 percent of those polled liked it. They also underestimated their brand and product loyalty and were met with an angry customer base. After just 77 days, Coca-Cola admitted they messed up and brought back the original formula in its new incarnation, Classic Coke. 

2. Deliver What You Promise

Ford Motor Company's automobile, the Edsel, is perhaps the most famous marketing flop. They started out alright, with their first advertisement simply saying, "The Edsel is Coming," with no vehicle in sight. This got people excited and interested in seeing what new innovative automobile was coming. The ad campaign progressed, showing a glimpse of the vehicle in silhouette or its hood ornament, building anticipation. The year was 1957, the start of the Space Age and the year Sputnik was launched, and only a year after the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," a movie about an alien invasion, came out. The country was enamored with all things outer space and from the future.

When the vehicle was finally unveiled on Sept. 4, 1957, it failed to live up to the hype that had been hinted at for months. It wasn't a car from the future, it was just another car that looked no different than all the others. It didn't matter it had a few novel features, such as a confusing push-button transmission. It was small consolation to a nation who thought they were going to get something really innovative. It was also poorly made and a gas-guzzler at a time when Volkswagen was beginning to grab a share of the market with their compact, well made, now-iconic Beetle. The Edsel was produced for only three years.

3. Create Buzzworthy Events

Ford Motor Company's Edsel may have failed, but they had the right idea by generating excitement for their product. They also involved every dealership owner in the product launch and got people talking.

Your product launch needs to be just as well-executed. In addition to your advertising and social media campaign, you need an event production campaign, executed by a top-notch event production service skilled at providing the best audio-video and lighting technology money can buy. This will guarantee you overshadow the competition at trade shows and impress customers and the press at gala events. When large companies, such as Sony or Apple, launch a new product, they throw a party with dazzling displays that get people talking. Spreading product knowledge may be the primary goal in a product launch, but in today's market, you need an event production service to make sure it is entertaining, too.   

For more information, contact your local event production services.

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