How To Create A Successful Product Launch

Launching your first product can be incredibly exciting, but also pretty nerve-racking. These days, every market is saturated with products and services that serve similar purposes. That's why it is so important to ensure that your product stands out from the rest.

Businesses either fail or prosper at the initial hurdle of introducing their product or service into the market. That's why it is vital that you start on the right foot when introducing your product into the market to ensure a steady product development process. This is where a product launch strategy comes into play.

At PicStudio, we understand that initiating a product launch can be overwhelming, especially if you are a newbie to marketing. That's why we have created this detailed article, to guide you toward fortifying a product launch plan that will help you establish a comfortable position within your given market and draw in prospective customers. 

What Does Product Launch Mean?

A product launch is the initial phase of introducing a new product into the market. This usually happens after several months of extensive market research conducted by your company's marketing team, product team, and sales team.

A successful product launch involves various pre-launch elements, such as market research, and various promotional efforts to build awareness and anticipation of your unreleased product, so that your target audience gains interest and makes a purchase on your launch date.

The key to an effective launch is ensuring that your product lives up to the anticipation it manifests prior to launching. Many organisations will hype up their product before its release, but won't conduct enough market research in order to understand customers' wants and needs.

This is a common cause for failure, as the released product will most probably be anti-climactic and uninteresting. This also risks harming the reputation of a business, as a failed product will create a poor impression on target customers.

Types Of Product Launch

The launch type you settle upon will most likely be dependent on how far-reaching you want your product to be. Here are the 3 main types of product launch that you can use as a basic template when entering the market:

Soft/Beta Launch

A soft launch involves little exposure and minimal outreach, making your product significantly exclusive. It often requires basic product marketing efforts, such as an email campaign. You will most likely decide to go through with a soft launch if your primary aim is releasing your new product to a limited audience, such as stakeholders.

Full-scale Launch

A full-scale launch (also recognised as a 'hard launch' and an 'official release') involves debuting a product to an entire audience, ensuring full exposure. You should opt for this launch type if your primary goal is to create a considerable impact on the market.

In the weeks leading up to the launch date, your marketing team will prepare and distribute various forms of marketing collateral, such as social media posts, a product launch event, promotional videos, and so forth. This will create awareness and excitement amongst prospective customers, which will help to promote sales.

Minimal Viable Product Launch (MVP)

This type of launch is solely focused on your target audience and avoids mass-marketing efforts. Companies will employ an MVP launch in order to test their product among their primary customers, making this launch method dependent upon customer feedback.

An MVP launch is useful if you are looking to test out and improve your product because it will allow your product management team to identify any flaws, so they can effectively fine-tune your product to achieve your proposed goals in the future.

Why Is A Good Product Launch So Important?

No matter what you are selling, or what market your product falls under, the launch plan you create is make or break for your brand's success. There are many components within a successful product launch plan that can impact the prosperity of your business.

5 Advantages of a Successful Product Launch

We have pinpointed 5 major advantages that a solid product launch can offer, so you can fully understand what makes this strategic process so important.

1. Optimised Launch Potential

During the pre-launch process, your internal teams will work cohesively to promote your product to build recognition of your brand and increase customer interest. This will significantly boost your product's launch potential, in turn, elevating the likelihood of your product succeeding within the market.

2. Positive Exposure For Your Business and Product

A successful product launch will positively influence the perceptions that audiences and stakeholders have of your company, improving your brand's overall reputation.

This will subsequently encourage people to speak highly of your product, which will likely facilitate word-of-mouth marketing to occur naturally, strengthening both product and brand awareness.

3. Raised Revenue and Increased Market Share

Because a product launch requires marketing campaigns in order to ensure product success, you will automatically begin to attract more potential customers, which will expand your market share and promote a sustainable flow of revenue.

4. Provides New Opportunities

Setting off to a flying start with your product is a good indicator that your brand knows what it's doing. This can generate interest within your given market and attract new stakeholders. This can help your brand create new partnerships, gain investments, and receive exciting new business offers that will help your company grow.

5. Motivates Your Internal Teams

A successful product launch can motivate your internal team of employees as it will show them that their efforts have paid off and helped your company grow. This can inspire your team to continue their great work and continue developing with your business. 

Product Launch Checklist

We have made product launching easy and created this checklist to help you understand what goes into a successful product launch strategy.

Determine Your Target Audience

Before you begin planning how you are going to launch your product, you need to identify who you are launching it for. For instance, if you own a skincare brand and are launching an anti-ageing cream, your primary target audience will most likely be women aged 30+.

By knowing this information, you can sufficiently structure your marketing campaigns to target your intended demographic, so that you effectively attract customers. Always be sure to conduct thorough research on your target customers before launching, so you can confidently tailor your marketing efforts.

Familiarise With Your Competition

By familiarising with your greatest competitors, you can analyse what their product does well and what it is lacking. This will allow you to identify a unique selling point (USP) for your product that you can utilise throughout your marketing efforts, in order to differentiate from like-items within your market.

Provide your Internal Team With In-Depth Training

It is incredibly important to ensure that your entire organisation is onboard with all pre-launch activities taking place. By communicating clearly and delegating specific tasks to appropriate parties, you will be sufficiently preparing your internal team, ensuring a smooth-sailing product launch.

Here are a few suggestions for how you can get your internal team ready:

• Product & Marketing Team: Distinctly outline the key messages you want throughout the marketing materials with your product marketing manager and product team.

• Customer Support Team: Your customer support department should have extensive training so that they can appropriately handle any customer enquiries regarding your new product.

• Sales Team: Informing your sales team of your plans to launch a new product is essential to ensure you accurately determine potential sales/costs and create a feasible marketing budget.

Set A Realistic Product Launch Date

Establishing a realistic date to launch your product will help you to prepare all the essential pre-launch components in a timely and ordered manner. This will provide your team with enough time to prepare, and an end goal to work towards, offering structure and an efficacious workflow.

Trial & Revise Your Product

By trialing your product with selected participants, you can identify whether it solves any customer pain points. Attaining this data will help you to adapt your product before releasing it to a wider audience, providing your business with a higher chance of a successful launch.

Launch Your Final Product

Now that everything is in place, and your product is finalised, it's time to make some noise and release it to the public! Making use of various promotional channels (such as video advertisements, mailing lists and social media) will increase exposure and attract the right attention. 

Examples Of Successful Product Launches

By now, you are probably beginning to realise that a lot of effort and time goes into a product launch. This may leave you feeling overwhelmed or disheartened, but don't worry! Everyone has to start somewhere, and the results of a successful product launch are remarkably rewarding.

Once you get into the swing of launching your products, you will begin seeing amazing results and soon become a pro! To inspire your marketing efforts, we have rounded up some fabulous examples of successful product launches:

L’Oréal

In 2020, L’Oréal Paris released their virtual makeup tool, which remains to be one of the most innovative product releases to date. By intelligently marrying modern technology with their line of signature products, they were able to attract their target audience and provide customers with a 'try-before-you-buy' service at the convenience of their smart device.

Fabletics

Fabletics is a great example of how celebrity and influencer endorsements can help launch a product into a pool of success. Demi Lovato teamed up with Fabletics back in 2020 to launch a collaborative line.

This method of product launch works well because it instantly draws in new customers, who are fans or followers of the individual at the forefront of the launch, in this case, it is Demi Lovato.

Fenty Beauty

Although Fenty Beauty already has a significant advantage, given that it is owned by Rihanna, this cosmetic brand has demonstrated some impressive marketing tactics since initially surfacing. 

In line with previous Covid restrictions, Fenty Beauty decided to host a virtual launch party to introduce their new range of skincare, Fenty Skin. The launch party was in conjunction with various endorsements from models and influencers, creating a brilliantly engaging and diverse product launch.

Did You Find This Article Helpful?

Hopefully, by now, you fully understand what a product launch is, and how you can go out and successfully launch your own product.

If you found this article helpful, and are in search of some marketing assistance for your brand, discover PicStudio today. We are a boutique marketing agency based in Sydney, Australia, that offers a range of bespoke services tailored to beauty, lifestyle and fashion brands. If you have any questions, we warmly invite you to get in touch with us today.