Launching any new product can be an anxiety-inducing time, no matter how many times you’ve gone through this process in the past. Of course, it might seem that the nervousness is reduced should you be delivering such a product for a private client of yours as supposed to the general public, but even then, the specifications you need to meet and the professional understanding of the end party can add pressure, not lessen it.
Yet while there may or may not be some issues with the product that you need to polish post-launch, it’s true to say that how you launch it and the parameters in which you generate hype for such an event can make a big difference on how people view you.
Some of the biggest examples of this come from the video gaming industry, the biggest entertainment industry on the planet. When one of the most profitable companies in Poland – CD Projekt, failed to deliver on a thoroughly longed-for product, releasing it in a state of disrepair and dysfunction, they lost a great deal from their stock value and shattered goodwill they had taken years to build.
Are there lessons to be learned here? We think so. Let’s discuss some of them.
Contents
Meeting Necessary Deadlines
While passing a deadline may not be the end of the world, it’s tremendously important for your reputation to keep them. If you need to extend a deadline, doing so with plenty of transparency and warning in advance is important.
Ultimately though, if you agree on a deliverable date, or announce a date of release, then it’s important to meet it. Some may be waiting with baited breath to see the release of your product, others might schedule their lives around it in some way. If you sell licenses to creative software, for instance, it might be that a plethora of design studios wait to update to the latest patch number on a given day, and must be treated with respect so that they can make appropriate business decisions as they upgrade their functional workflow.
As you can see, deadlines are so much more than a kept promise. They can affect your investors, your audience, and your staff. Make sure deadlines are realistic, and always keep updates to hand.
Thorough Communication
While some mystery regarding what product or service you’re launching can be worthwhile, for the most part, transparency in communication about what can be expected, the scope of your launch, and how to onboard is much better to consider.
This is especially important if you’re showing a new product that might not be too-well understood. For instance, when the activated charcoal phrase came to be a reliable element of health products, it turned out that most peopel didn’t feel like consuming such an ingredient unless they knew what is was for and why it was being added. Without such appropriate communication, it may have been dead in the water.
Essential Testing & Quality Assurance
It’s essential to make sure your quality assurance is, well, assured, ahead of time, and that the appropriate stress testing and use-case formatting has bean applied ahead of time. With services such as PCB testing for electronic devices https://miselectronics.com/pcb-testing/, you’ll find that professional and dedicated consulting eyes can look at your approach ahead of time, rather than relying on your consumers to unveil the products and flaws you ended to fix.
Without this, you’re essentially gambling on the function, utility and safety of your device ahead of time. That’s never acceptable, and may mean that you fail a number of compliance measures depending on the industry you’re in.
A Little Fanfare
Of course, there’s no shame in having a little fanfare associated with your big launch. In fact, that can be quite a nice thing to do. That said, it’s important to make sure you do it right. An online live stream event of your launch might be a good idea, or simply leading up to the launc with day counter Twitter posts can be ideal.
Some firms decide to launch their marketing approach the day before they do release a product, so that it becomes fresh, sought-after, and what people care about. Providing people the chance to order or buy now alongside your announcement is always a healthy way to generate sales. So, be that scheduling your own marketing effort or hiring a firm to guide you through, don’t be afraid to launch a little bit of fuss alongside your launch.
With this advice, we hope you can ensure a product launch reflects positively on your brand going forward.
