Measuring a product launch campaign: what businesses need to know

As the economy grows, people are spending more and more, driving demand to become both more diverse and more demanding. Many businesses have recognised these requirements and set about developing new products to meet them. However, many businesses let the market alone determine whether those products succeed, without investing in measuring their campaigns thoroughly — which leads to failure even after promising early results. This article therefore sets out the pitfalls to watch out for when launching a new product.

Why businesses develop new products

Developing new products helps meet a wider range of market needs

One of the most common strategies for expanding a business's market and scale is to launch a new product. Even so, the share of new products that miss their targets at launch is very high — published studies report different figures, depending on how failure is defined and which product categories are surveyed. This can be a significant psychological barrier for businesses that intend to enter multiple segments or diversify their product range.

That said, if failure rates alone were enough to hold businesses back, the world would never have seen achievements such as the smartphone, the electric vehicle or the self-driving car. So it is not only revenue or growth that matters: ideals such as serving people, improving performance and easing burdens are also what drive businesses to step up their R&D efforts.

Why new product development campaigns fail

Such a high failure rate raises the question: where does it come from? Broadly speaking, there are three main causes:

Market research that lacks clarity

Market demand for goods and services is vast, but identifying that demand and determining whether a business can profit from it is rather vague and uncertain. Verifying it demands considerable research effort to produce results, and sometimes those results take so long to arrive that the business regrettably misses its window of opportunity. On top of that, a business's methods for gathering information may have become outdated and no longer effective today, leaving the research process burdened with unnecessary steps and short of suitable, modern campaign measurement tools.

In other cases, a business's market research staff have framed the objectives and direction of the research incorrectly, leaving leadership with decisions they cannot be confident in. When research is not given due attention, managers and project leads end up driven by gut feeling, rushing to develop a new product on the basis of unreliable findings.

Over-the-top marketing and quality claims exaggerated beyond reality

Quality, from the customer's point of view, is about how their actual experience unfolds — whether it matches what they were told or what they researched. Customers typically seek out a product when they want a solution to a problem, and businesses supply that solution based on descriptions of the customer's difficulties and desires. A business can shape the customer's perception by promoting features that don't really exist or that are exaggerated, all to draw attention to its product and speed up the purchase decision. This is precisely what leaves customers feeling deceived once they start using the product, and they go on to share their disappointment with other customers — causing sales of the new product to drop sharply.

False advertising creates a gap between customer expectations and actual experience, leading to disappointment

After-sales service that fails to satisfy customers

Next, selling is not confined to the process of the customer paying and receiving the product or service; it also includes everything that happens immediately afterward. During use, customers need guidance on warranty options, repairs, replacements, or service support when problems arise. This is entirely normal and fairly likely to happen, since new products and services need time to mature.

The real question, however, is how the business responds in those situations. Denying responsibility or providing poor-quality support erodes customer confidence in the brand's future products, while the customer relationship with the business is destabilized and market share can easily be captured by competitors.

Key points businesses need to keep in mind

Before the launch campaign

As analyzed above, one of the reasons behind the high failure rate is that businesses fail to grasp real market demand and don't invest adequately in research. Managers setting the direction for a new product therefore need a clear understanding of whether their product addresses an existing need, an emerging need, or creates an entirely new need in the market. Measuring the campaign at this stage means gathering statistics on economic conditions as well as applying the SWOT framework.

A concrete example is the first iPhone that Steve Jobs introduced to the world. The need to communicate by phone already existed at the time; what had not yet taken shape was removing the physical keypad and expanding the screen — these were emerging needs and entirely new needs. Success in understanding users is what keeps the iPhone in such high demand today.

Researching competitors helps businesses avoid the mistakes they have made

On the other hand, before launching a new product development campaign, it is essential to benchmark against competitors. Information about rivals helps a business avoid the mistakes they have made in the past and gauge their capabilities. From there, the business can develop a product with differentiated value that competitors cannot copy, gaining an advantage in the market.

During implementation

The implementation process plays a critical role because it demonstrates a business's production capacity and supply capability. With strong production capacity, a business can limit its reliance on outside suppliers and better protect new features or technologies from competitors. Campaign measurement at this stage does not focus heavily on the market but shifts inward to the organization itself — work performance, costs, energy consumption, the time required to move goods, and so on. In addition, the distribution system is another factor worth noting, since a new product needs high visibility in order to maximize potential sales.

After the sales campaign

Finally, the sales stage can be considered the stage with the greatest number of metrics that need to be tracked. When a new product enters the market, it will have its first customers, and they will share how they feel about its features, design, colors, and whether the materials match the description. Businesses should treat this as a major contribution to refining the product and should gather as much of it as possible. Customers typically evaluate their service experience during or after the purchase on social media platforms. At this point, a business's priority should be to take in constructive feedback and apply it to subsequent production plans in order to meet market demand more effectively.

Post-purchase reviews help businesses gain a deeper understanding of the market

Businesses should also measure the number of complaints submitted about the new product or service, the number of complaints resolved, and the comments appearing across media channels, all of which help them gain deeper Insight into what customers are thinking. This information becomes the foundation and the source of ideas for long-term campaigns, not just for the life cycle of this one new product. One effective way to carry out this stage is to apply a Social Listening tool to campaign measurement in subsequent new projects.

Conclusion

The discussion above has laid out the reasons and the considerations for businesses developing new products in order to grow in scale or market share. Managers and marketers should invest more in campaign measurement in order to deliver strong revenue results. We hope this article proves useful for your business's upcoming development plans!

Read more >>> Measuring campaigns effectively