Now we have to develop a strategy, launch the product and monitor what happens.
To successfully launch a new product it's necessary to follow these basic steps: From idea/concept to marketing strategy and business analysis, through concept development and product testing - at which point we can do some market forecasting and then, voila! We go to market.
Product strategy involves narrowing the focus of your company to those product areas for which your expertise is most suited. At this stage many ideas are dropped.
Overseas trends, technical innovation, brainstorming, access to strategic research and so on are ways in which a new opportunity can be recognised and given the chance to be investigated more thoroughly. Some of the best ideas have popped into someone's head when they're taking a shower. Sometimes the cleaning lady might say "has anyone thought about doing this?" Ideas are everywhere.
Research, either qualitative or quantitative, depending on the circumstances, will be used to eliminate unsuitable ideas. It may also provide valuable consumer input, which might affect the future direction of the project. Again, a great number of ideas will be dropped at this stage.
Marketing strategy and business analysis
This is a fairly straightforward document and details will include:
This will almost certainly be revised from subsequent research but at this stage it will ensure that the concept will be within the declared product strategy and that it will still be viable.
This stage of the project development will involve refining the concept, developing the advertising platform, screening different brand names, experimenting with pack designs and logos. Here you'll probably use focus groups (see below) or small-scale quantitative research.
Now that we have a brand with a name, pack, price and advertising campaign, we need to establish, in broader quantitative research, the likely level of trial and repeat purchases so that we can see if the brand will achieve the volume levels required in the earlier business analysis. A simulated test market is often used for this final testing stage before launch.
The new brand must be managed as a "new" brand for the first three years of its life. You should therefore monitor the progress every three or six months to check on awareness, trial and repeat purchase levels. This will indicate if your brand is on target, or if you need to modify any of the elements.
Focus groups are popular because, for one thing, they are less expensive than large-scale research.
However, this kind of group discussion (often watched from behind a one-way mirror) has one major flaw. It often does not allow the members of the group to react as wannabe consumers but as creative or technical analysts.
Once a consumer becomes a member of a focus group they forget about their own unprompted and unrehearsed behaviour and begin theorising on matters they would not normally consider (they are not there to be "experts" in anything other than being a "consumer", after all). This means their contribution to the exercise is severely diminished.
Also, like other types of qualitative research, the reliability of any focus group relies heavily on the quality and professionalism of the group's moderator and this is dangerous.
When an advertisement is exposed to a group and gets a response such as "that vacuum cleaner looks too heavy", what does the moderator do? If he asks the question "who agrees?" and "who disagrees?" what does this really mean? The vacuum cleaner might not appeal to some because it's too heavy, but because it looks so solidly built some consumers may believe this to be a major advantage. Moderators have to probe these feelings.
That's not too bad if the moderator knows what he's doing but there's another danger with the focus group, where it runs a big risk of being dominated by an unofficial "leader" of the group and when the moderator attempts to go further he may find he's lost real control of the group and then all kinds of misinformation starts flowing.
A bit like politics, when you think about it - one bad idea piled on top of another and controlled by an idiot.
Read my blog (brewersdroop.co.za) or see what other amazing things we do at brewers.co.za
*Note that Bizcommunity staff and management do not necessarily share the views of its contributors - the opinions and statements expressed herein are solely those of the author.*
