SMART PRODUCT LAUNCHES FOR ENGINEERS
A Guided Process to Position Your Product for Success
Introduction
When it comes to total number of video game consoles ever sold, Nintendo is the reigning champion by leaps and bounds.
Nobody – not Sony, not Microsoft – even comes close.
Yet even this seemingly untouchable company with more than 100 years of experience has failed spectacularly when it comes to product launches. Ever heard of the Wii U of 2012? Following the footsteps of the wildly successful Wii game console, the Wii U managed to sell a paltry 13.5 million units compared to its predecessor’s 100 million units. What made the Wii U such a spectacular flop? Bad product launch. Let’s take a closer look:
The #1 reason why the Wii U bombed was because most people mistakenly thought the Wii U was an expansion or add-on accessory to the Wii, not a brand new console. The Wii U looked the same as the Wii, used the same Wii controllers, and even had the same name. Nintendo neglected to properly educate consumers about the true significance of the Wii U and its new tablet-like GamePad controller.
Shigeru Miyamoto, Representative Director of Nintendo, later said, “I feel like people never really understood the concept behind Wii U and what we were trying to do.”
Five years later, the company got another chance to prove itself once again with the launch of the Nintendo Switch in 2017. New name and new concept (not trying to copy its predecessor), a killer launch title, and tons of ads and trailers demonstrating its differentiation.
"We worked hard for the Nintendo Switch to make it crystal clear what the proposition is. It's a home system that you can take on the go, play anywhere with anyone, and that's resonating," said Reggie Fils-Aimé, the president of Nintendo America.
It looks like their hard work paid off – the Switch sold more units in its first year of release than the Wii U sold in its entire lifetime.
Avoid Becoming a Product Launch Cautionary Tale
No one wants to repeat the story of the Wii U, so how do you launch a Switch instead? Unfortunately, though marketing tactics and channels have evolved, the success rate of new product introductions has improved little over the past 20 years. According to Booz & Company, 66% of new products fail within two years. The Doblin Group goes even further by saying that 96 % of all innovations fail to return their cost of capital.
Successful product launches often look easy in retrospect when they actually require a phenomenal amount of effort and planning — and you usually don't read about the many failures.”
– Rob Adams in If You Build It Will They Come: Three Steps to Test and Validate Any Market Opportunity
This guide is written specifically for the business owner, product manager, and marketing leader preparing to launch a product targeted to technical audiences in the B2B space. It describes the steps for a successful B2B product launch.
First, we’ll take you through the critical planning and positioning phase in which you’ll create your launch plan by identifying your target audiences and defining your goals for the launch.
Then, we’ll review the process of how to position your product in the marketplace, ensuring it is clearly differentiated from your competitors.
In the final section of this guide, we’ll help you define the mix of marketing tools that will best help you meet your objectives and example timelines to achieve them. We’ll offer some examples of clients we have worked with and how their diverse goals and mix of marketing activities effectively helped them achieve success.
Phase III
Determine the Marketing Mix
In the planning section, we talked about the importance of prioritizing goals and setting measurable objectives to ensure you get the greatest return and have a successful product launch without overspending dollars or wasting time. To support these prioritized goals and quantifiable objectives, you’ll need to determine what marketing activities you will use. Determining the marketing mix to support your product launch will be a collaborative process, and will take several iterations. Here are some important considerations during this phase:
- Resources (budget and people)
- Timeframe
- Size of addressable market
- Existing content and marketing infrastructure
- Competitive marketing presence
- Partner co-marketing opportunities
By defining your budget, resources, and critical needs and opportunities from this list above, you will have the information you need to begin prioritizing your marketing launch activities.
Your first priority will be to identify and create most, if not all, of the key foundational elements you’ll use during the product launch. These include:
- Web presence: a place to direct all traffic from other media channels
- Datasheet: key technical overview and resource
- Customer quote or case study: real-world examples that build credibility
- Overview video: a combination of the collateral, customer examples, and demo in video format
- Product demo: a demonstration for prospects who want to see how it works (optional – can come later if resources are limited)
Once these fundamental content elements are in place, you are ready to determine the best mix of marketing channels to drive awareness and generate demand for your product.
These channels may include:
Strategically Target Different Stages of the Marketing Funnel
In the planning section, we introduced the importance of setting goals and objectives before deciding which marketing channels to use. At TREW, we believe the best way to approach this is not to do what you’ve always done (e.g., go to the same trade show, run a new ad in the same magazine, email your database, update your paid-search ad campaigns). This tactic is tempting because it’s easy and familiar. While your typical approach may be full of viable activities, you have a much better chance of using your limited dollars and resources in the best possible way for the greatest return if you look at the marketing channels with an open mind, and select the channels that will help you best achieve your objectives and, in turn, your goals for the product launch.
To strategically select the best marketing channels for your product, let’s consider the marketing funnel, or lead conversion funnel. This concept is a simple visualization of how prospects or leads interact with your company, converting from an unknown website visitor to a new, first-time customer. Technical audiences at the top of the funnel are in the “awareness” stage and generally know nothing about your business or product offerings. Whereas leads at the bottom of the funnel have already done a lot of research and are at the “ready-to-purchase” stage but just need that final push to say yes.
So, if your goal is primarily to generate awareness and drive new visitors to your site, you’ll want to focus on “top of the funnel” activities, such as PR, search advertising, SEO and content marketing… and yes, maybe that trade show or ad campaign you’ve always done. In contrast, if your goal is cross-selling a new product to your existing customer base, you will be better served with “middle/bottom of the funnel” activities, such as direct email marketing and webcasts.
Download the complete guide to see three real life examples of how the marketing mix can vary by company.