What You Need to Know Before Launching a New Product

I hear people all the time saying that they have developed a new product or service that they know is going to be a hit.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone say, “It`s going to sell!  It`s going to make money!”  Well, maybe it will, but don`t make the mistake of getting tunnel vision with your own product.  You’ve developed this product and put your heart and soul into it.  This is your baby so of course you want the world to know how fantastic it is.  But before you spend even $1 of your marketing budget on promotion you need to do some research.

 

Some of the basic things you need to know before launching a new product, service or business are:

1.       Is there a market for your product?

2.       Who is most likely to purchase the product?

3.       What kinds of similar products are already on the market?

4.       Would your customers recommend the product to a friend?

5.       What do consumers like and dislike about the product?
 

Getting access to in-depth market research databases can be both time-consuming and costly.  And unless you understand how to read and analyze the information you may not be getting a true picture.  However, there are a few ways you can at least get some basic information without breaking the bank.  And at least this way you can customize your research to your specific product.

1.       Implement market surveys.  These can be done by phone, by email, through social media or in person.  Make sure the questions you ask are:

a.       relevant to your product

b.      not overly lengthy or complicated, and

c.       not skewed towards a positive outcome

2.       Hold focus groups.

3.       Do a product test launch

4.       Host a free promotional event where you let people sample your product.  Ask people for their honest opinion by giving them a short (3-5 multiple choice/yes or no questions) questionnaire.  The more feedback you get the better.

The information gathered will help you narrow down your target market, make appropriate changes to the product, and give you a starting point to developing your marketing strategy.  Now that you have a better understanding of what your customers want, you can go about giving them exactly what they want.

However, all of this research might show that there really isn’t a market for your product.  If that’s the case, find out why.  If you’re still convinced that this new product needs to be on the market, find out what concerns your potential customers have with the product.  This information will give you a better insight into what changes you can make that might make the product more marketable.  But if your research indicates that there isn’t much of a market for your product right now, that’s okay.  It just means that you will have saved a lot of money on the promotion of a new product only to have it sit on store shelves.

So, before you spend any money on promotion, be sure to allocate some money to research.  It’s just as important, if not more important than your advertising spending.  Get your head out of the clouds and really look at things from the consumer’s point of view.  It will be well worth it.