In today’s competitive market, launching a new product or service can be tricky. Many companies release great products but fail to meet sales expectations or are completely rejected by the market. If this is happening with one or more of your products/services, it may be time to start from scratch with a fresh approach.
5 Reasons Your Product May Be Failing
Bad timing
Rushing a product launch without doing adequate preparation is one reason it may be failing. Prior to launching, you should spend several months collecting consumer data through research, surveys and analytics, testing your product, and planning your marketing and advertising. On the other hand, if too much time passes between identifying a gap in the market and launching your product, customer needs may have changed, your competitors may have found a potential solution, or the market itself may have shifted.
Poor pricing structure
Pricing is one of the most important elements of a product. If it’s priced too high, your launch is bound to fail if consumers can get the same thing for a lower price from other competitors. If you’ve priced it too low, your business may lose out on potential additional income. It’s important for your business to understand the value of your product compared to market competitors to determine pricing that’s sustainable for that value.
New category requires too much education
Many companies try to differentiate themselves by creating a new market category. This requires consumers to have considerable education before the product can be sold. If there’s not sufficient education or there’s no argument to support your new category, consumers will continue to stick with companies they’re already familiar with.
Fails to deliver value
Despite having an amazing product or service, your business may be failing to make your customer aware of its value proposition as well as identifying their needs and pain points. If the product does not provide a solution to the customer’s need, along with failing, it may damage your company’s reputation and add risk to the success of any future product launches.
Targeting the wrong market
Many products fail because companies focus on the wrong market. If you don’t invest in marketing research and getting to know your target audience, you’ll be unable to identify your ideal customer, which is crucial to the success of your product launch. Learning key details about your customers can help you develop buyer personas that your team can focus on serving.
Things To Do Before Reintroducing Your Product
Talk to your audience
First, you want to engage with your audience to find out what they disliked about the failed product. Leveraging your email list is the best way to reach out and survey your audience that tried the product. Below are some questions you could ask:
- What did you dislike about “Name of Product”?
- How would you improve “Name of Product”?
- What “Name of Product” features did you like?
- What value was provided with “Name of Product”?
- What need was met with “Name of Product”?
Another option is reaching out to your audience on social media by running polls and asking for feedback via Facebook and Instagram.
Make all necessary changes
With the data you gathered from your audience, consider making changes to your product. These changes depend on the type of product you’re offering, but here’s some examples of aspects that may need changed:
- Name
- Features
- Packaging
- Function
- Design
- Placement
- Price
Identify your target market
Work to identify the target customer who represents the user that will most likely benefit from your product. Use market segments to define your ideal customer, and develop buyer personas for those customers, so your team will clearly understand who it’s building toward.
Start by defining specifically who your customer is:
- What are their goals?
- How do they define success?
- What are the pain points and challenges that they face every day?
- Are they willing to pay for solutions that could solve these pain points and challenges?
Answering these questions will help you understand much more clearly how your product fits in, the value that it provides and how it will improve your customers’ lives.
Assemble your go-to-market strategy
This is the strategy you will use to relaunch and promote your product. This can include pricing recommendations, market research, competitive analysis, and any other relevant information you might need.
Create updated promotional content
After planning out your new go-to-market strategy, start producing content that supports and aligns with the relaunch of your product. This can include a “new and improved” blog post related to the changes you’ve made to the product, demos and tutorials, landing pages, etc. Make sure your landing page includes a detailed description of the product, and images that convey the product in a way that’s appealing to customers.
Need Some Help with Your Relaunch?
Relaunching a product requires a lot of planning and strategy. But, with the right approach, a successful relaunch can generate new customers and profit. If you need help launching a new product/service, or revamping an existing one, message us!