Wowzas. You Rocked that Product Launch.
Mar 05 2018
| Industry News
| Andrew Rice
As you are fully aware, with the nutraceuticals industry growing at rapid rates comes a larger amount of new branded products. You understand that launching a successful product is no longer about just being first to market but truly being first in class. Your mind is set, the team is in place, the company money spigot has been turned to the on position. It's time to begin creating your undeniably best in class, amazingly unique, crazy on-target, dead to rights category-correct product that leaves no customer questioning the value it brings them. I, my friend, have the utmost confidence in you - you astonishing purveyor of nutraceutical goods…you've got this.
In the Cold
You get that your product won't be successful unless you separate yourself from the competition. You deduce that creating a similar product as someone already in the marketplace is just digging your product's own grave before it sees the light of day. You realize that your customer will buy your product because it fills a void and provides that unique unicorn-like capability reaching a pain point they may not even know they have, while the rest of the competition fights over the scraps with their eerily similar products and brand messaging thereof.
Your competitive analysis skills are on point as you document the competitor’s price, target customers, marketing, and value claims. Through this process you are able to write a road map for setting yourself apart by selling your products at a premium price, reaching the unreached customer, adopting early marketing methodologies and platforms, and not just making claims on your label, but supporting them with over the top scientific studies.
Knowing full well that if your target customer personas are off, chances are your endeavors will fail. You ensure you leave no rock unturned when segmenting out the market and understanding where your customers live within that space. You gather a fully comprehensive understanding of who they are, their similar characteristics, why they need your product, feasibility of reaching the needs of the customer, any obstacles to hurdle, what sales channels they frequent, and how to relevantly message to them. Man, you are soooo good at this.
You are heads and tails above your competition already as you are allowing the data from your acquisition strategy to inform you on the direction and possible ingredients for your product formulation. You are also able to find an ingredient that will assist you in separating from the herd in your marketing and advertising efforts providing your product a more lucrative future.
You know there are a plethora of existing categories including the big ones - vitamins, weight loss, sports nutrition, meal replacement, etc. However you actually realize in order to hit your target customer, non-traditional action is required. You decide on a much less saturated emerging category to ensure your product will experience quicker growth. Growth that leads to that big fat bonus check, right? You also understand that no matter the decision at this juncture you would still need to find a way for your brand to stand apart, remain properly targeted, and is categorized for amazing results. Hey, great idea by the way, to go ahead and conduct surveys and focus groups providing more education and insight for creating that formulation recipe for success.
You know that focusing on only effective acquisition strategies will provide you with lower overhead and much higher profitability. You also know that no matter how diligent you are, you may get a few things wrong in the strategy and are ready to pivot at any time using lean business methodologies; build, measure, learn.
Getting Warmer
Ouch! You Are on Fire!
Being the connoisseur of fine acquisition strategies that you are, you realize it's essential to utilize a variety of traditional sales and marketing as well as digital omni-channel marketing efforts to provide a tasty smorgasbord of lead generation and customer acquisition. Ooh, I like where your head's at; you're thinking maybe even a dash of guerilla marketing? Go on with your bad self!
I would also congratulate you on an amazingly thorough customer persona and competitive analysis to ensure all future marketing efforts hit the mark, speaking to the proper customer in the right tone for generating interest in your product. Well done my friend. Just thought we'd also mention that as part of this acquisition strategy.
Marketing, R&D, and formulation teams are all working hand in hand with no battle of project lead ownership or who's wrong and who's right between them. And drum roll, please… You have decided on the perfect product. Congratulations, you're like a third of the way there.
Manufacturing Real Confidence
You reach out to the extremely long list of reputable, quality, and compliance-conscious manufacturers you can find. After a little professional schmoozing you have your pricing structure where you are comfortable. Being a veteran of this game, you didn't elect the cheapest manufacturer but found one you felt in tune with culture-wise, had an extensive background of the exact services you needed out of them, and at the end of the day was the best fit for your company and product business model.
As seasoned as you are, one thing you've learned is that multi-tasking your marketing strategy efforts during manufacturing discussions is essential to avoid any negative outcomes from a rushed launch. So you basically have most of your strategy complete by the time all those crazy smart formulators and science types have the manufacturing down pat.
You understand that a highly intentional omnichannel strategy (traditional marketing strategy; trade pubs, trade shows, print ads, etc. and digital strategy; website, brand videos, social and influencer marketing, etc.) is absolutely, positively, irrefutably, imperative for your product to have a successful launch in today's marketing environment. Using the data and insights from your acquisition strategy you will create a fully comprehensive omnichannel marketing strategy destined for world domination.
This Brand is on Fire!
Guiding your team through this process has been an amazing experience and the outcome of defining the exact target customers of your product will manifest itself inside of your marketing and advertising messaging in a way that speaks to them and creates astonishing engagement. Your label is clear, regulatory responsible and the package design is so refreshingly different from the rest that it literally jumps off the webpage and retail shelves.
All of which will create record sales for your company, a gigantic raise is in your future. Hip hip hooray!
Oh yeah, almost forgot, this is not your first goat rodeo so you haven't neglected to button-down all of those legal hatches by discussing with your experienced business attorney so you're not rewarded in the middle of a successful launch with a nice profit draining lawsuit.
Being the savvy product commercialization exec you are (some might even call a Guru of sorts), before launching your product online or on the shelves you have thoroughly crafted an amazing fulfillment plan that will guide your product’s distribution and allow for more effortless order fulfillment. Whether you are working with your manufacturer to assist with these efforts or flying solo, take a very thorough look at all of your options in order to save those hard-earned dollars and provide the best customer service possible. Alrighty then, it's now time to sell to those eager customers chomping at the bit to get ahold of a bottle of that good stuff. (This hunger for your product is coming from all of your digital and social pre-launch marketing and advertising efforts, am I right?!)
Carpe Diem
Ok, that was a breeze. Everything is set, you are ready to start selling oodles of your new product to all of these recent digitally engaged brand tribe members and start creating new ones. With a few confidence-building emails to your leadership team passed down to the rest of your amazing employees, a couple of Starbucks sessions, and a completely non-hostile last-minute launch meeting, your traditional, online, influencer, and social strategies blast off.
Chi-ching, chi-ching, chi-ching! Sounds of products being sold and revenue being generated into this new money-making machine that is your amazingly branded and heavily strategy-backed nutraceutical product powerhouse. I guess a congratulation is in order…if you would like to share this amazing experience or chat with me personally about it, I'm all ears.
