Launching a new product does not seem easy!
The rapid innovation in the industry has led to the product development in marketing. No matter how good your product or services is, it won’t do much until it satisfies consumer behavior.
According to the recent survey:
- – Fewer than 20% of the product development succeed in the marketplace.
- – Nearly 83% of the customers demand more for innovative product development
- – 29% of the product failures occur due to input problems while 22% arises due to marketing problems.
- – 49% of the product failures occurs due to unknown competition, lack of technology and management
- – Nearly 85% of product development are in the category where they observe complete failure even after months of practice.
This figure tends to lay us nowhere!
Numerous factors can cause new products to fail, therefore here is the list of simple ideas to prevent the failure of the products.
1) Target right audience:
In 2006, Microsoft launched Zune as an alternative to Apple that provides similar features as Apple’s device. The fact is there was nothing extra in Zune that could make Apple’s device old fashioned. Zune lacked style and simplicity of Apple’s interface. Hence Zune failed as customers did not find anything reasonable to switch to Zune.
Sometimes it is hard to know how target customers will react to a product. The example proves how important is to focus on whether or not the people will use the product. You need to understand the customer values and priorities to get you excellent results. The product development is largely as a result of an audience need. Predictive product analysis can help anticipate customer reactions and refine the product to better meet their expectations. With predictive product analysis, companies can make data-driven decisions to enhance product appeal and functionality.
2) Position the product in a right way:
Incorrect product positioning results in failure of the products. Only fewer products are acceptable based on functions by the consumers.
The right positioning decides the image of the company among the customers.
Below are the features that lead to the proper product positioning.
- – Place your product in the right ‘space’.
- – Conduct a market segmentation and analysis. Conduct a SWOT analysis to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with the product.
- – Define your target market.
- – Identify the product attributes.
- – Data collection from the target market of the identified product attributes.
The company should make clear efforts on which part of the image to show to achieve maximum sales.
The correct positioning is to be done to gain long term profits.
The product positioning is the essential part of launching any product. The varied dimensions in product development vary from market profile to rapid competitive analysis at the highest level.
Related post: How to Double Up Business Productivity in 3 Months!
3) Agile Release Planning: the effective approach:
Agile release planning comes first in overall scrum methodology. It is to be done correctly to set up the new products along with its timelines. Consider agile release plan as the baseline of the product roadmap to achieve more with the committed team. Consider on few factors for agile release plan:
- – Define a Plan
- – State of team velocity
- – Prioritize the behavior of the product
- – Clarity of vision and values
- – Presence of stakeholders
- – Product backlog
- – Existing issues
- – Communication plan
The perfect product release planning can be helpful in building the right strategy. Its purpose is not to produce a well-documented plan but rather to value the planning. Be Agile.
4) Running a beta test:
The use of beta testers (actual users in real life situations) can provide the proper understanding of the product’s real world usage. You can use their feedback and work on any problems if observed.
Consider beta testing for three reasons:
- – To understand how interested users are in the product and features
- – To observe product usage and its durability in usual circumstances
- – To identify major and minor changes to increase the worth of the product.
A successful beta testing would result in a higher quality product.
Also, the reduction in production costs observes the level of customer satisfaction and improves product planning process.
5) Right marketing channels:
Conduct a constant research on what people are searching, know their feedback and their comments, support and also look for the different way online to make your product updated. The wrong kind of market research losses the time and money. Things such as social media, event marketing, YouTube Trends, extensive PR, print and digital marketing plays the important role during product launches. Outline with marketing channels in the form of site pages, videos, social posts, emails and other tactics that will drive users.
The social media platforms like facebook, twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, youtube, Pinterest, blog posting keeps you updated with the latest product launch.
For example Ford Edsel instead of spending money, they should have concentrated that if the market is ready for its new car.
6) Product testing:
Check all sides of the potential product and its flaws. Market testing is required to treat the product a perfect. Before testing, it is important for the team to answer the questions when, where, what and how the product to result. A whole lot of information is gathered ensuring the sure success of products. Make steps to mitigate the risks of failure from the development to deployment process.
Example: Battery problems are quite uncommon in new lines of mobile phones. Samsung Note 7s sold by in China using batteries remains unaffected. A new change occurs with a change in mobile batteries without further testing. The tiny problem appeared in the battery cell could result in serious injury on fires. The explode in phone’s battery has led to the global recall of new Galaxy Note 7 phone.
7) Plan your execution:
Bad design, poor implementation, bad user experience, creepy features and lack of quality control all contribute to product failure. The poor execution delays a product launch and can also hit with another cost that often goes unnoticed. The poor execution delays the revenue stream.
A winning product launch comes up with a right execution of products.
Example: Nissan includes defective signs that make it phase out of a market with heavy vibration, shuddering noises or abrupt stalling that leads to its failure. These vehicles contain a defective radiator cooler tank that ruptures the entire area.
Conclusion:
Regardless of whether you’re an early stage startup or have a huge product marketing team, the above checklist can help to give the huge benefit to product development.
Be excited and think ahead on the move.
Don’t forget to take help of advice from other entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and other individuals. The more people wear it, the more likely you are making sales.
Choose a tool like Invoicera to improve business process productivity to the next level.
Here are some of the key features that can help you take your business productivity to the next level:
- – Account Receivable and Payable Management
- – Portal for your clients/ Vendors
- – Financial Reporting and Analysis
- – Integrate with legacy CRM and ERP solutions
- – Auto billing and recurring billing
- – Time tracking and Product Management
- – Expense Management
Learn from these lessons to increase the chances for success on a new product launch!
