Product Launch Definitions
Simply defined, launch is the portion of the new product development process when your specific product or service is presented to your target market for initial sale. From another perspective, PDMA's definition is:
Launch: The process by which a new product is introduced into the market for initial sale.
Development is a big portion of the preparation for launch. It includes the engineering, market analysis, and the development of a communication strategy. Development is an expense. Launch is the opportunity for revenue.
Launch: The short period of time when the market decides if you were successful in implementing your solution. Launch validates the decisions made during the front end of innovation and all of the development activities. Pre-launch activities such as planning, prototyping, and publicizing are put to significant tests. Typically, the most significant test is something such as "Have a significant percentage of customers exchanged their money for what you have to offer?"
The start of launch is the time when the earliest customers can start the purchase process.
Often, the start of launch is preceded by a product announcement that may be in the form of a press release or a special event.
However, some product announcements are premature and the development team knows that the product will not be ready for sale for many months or years. In these situations the product may be termed vaporware.
Some developers may end their involvement with a project when they complete their primary tasks and finalize their project documentation but this is not the end of launch. The end of launch is the time when a particular launch milestone is reached. The milestone may coincide with a specific a sales metric that confirms that a sufficient number of customers are buying and recommending your product. The end of launch implies that all members of the development team (including representatives from engineering, marketing, and QA) are released to work on other projects. Often, the end of launch implies a transfer of responsibilities from the NPD team to the product delivery organization - the organization that handles legacy products and provides sales, marketing, and support services for numerous products.
A product launch can be characterized from many perspectives. A launch that is part of a project that requires a substantial development effort is likely to be characterized as a high profile launch. High profile activities may include new brochures, special training sessions, and special presentations. In contrast, a low profile launch may only need an announcement in your newsletter and a price list adjustment. The choice of launch activities is influenced by characteristics of the industry, market, company, team, and product.
Market launch definitions
There are cases when the word launch is qualified by another word or phrase. For example:
- "North American Launch" specifies product sales in a geographic location. The implication is that other geographies will be added after appropriate activities (such as language localization or compliance resolution) are complete.
- "Automotive Launch" specifies a target industry. The implication is that other industries will be added after appropriate activities (such as market specialization) are complete.
- "Soft Launch" implies activities that are limited to a small segment of a defined market. For example, product availability and advertising may be confined to a few cities before the product is available to the entire county.
- "Re-launch" implies another presentation to a previously targeted geography or industry segment. A re-launch may imply that previous efforts were unsatisfactory and that the causes for poor performance were identified and corrected. Often, changes in pricing or value proposition are featured in re-formulated launch messages.
- "Commercial-launch" implies that commercialization components (refer to the definition below) are ready and part of the launch. Contrast commercialization with a launch that only makes the core product available.
The Product Development & Management Association's NPD glossary contains the following definition.
Commercialization: The process of taking a new product from development to market. It generally includes production launch and ramp-up, marketing materials and program development, supply chain development, sales channel development, training development, training, and service and support development.
Usually, these targeted launches are done to minimize risks while testing assumptions. These launches provide an opportunity to correct or to improve launch plans and deliverables before implementing subsequent launches.
Often, multiple launches are planned to effectively manage development, manufacturing, communications, sales, and distribution resources. Sometime the term 'rollout' is used to describe a sequence of launches (such as the North American launch followed 60 days later with the European launch followed by ...) to commercialize the product in all markets and geographies.
The phrase "market launch" may reveal a certain new product development style. Some organizations consider that their products are 'completely' developed by one group of experts and then transferred to another group for marketing and sales activities. Often, this style is characteristic of mature, undifferentiated categories of 'new' products.
Other perceptions of launch
In some cases, the term launch evokes the thoughts of a NASA-like launch experience - a high profile event to put a single rocket into orbit. Prior to the launch, a diverse team devotes years to develop and test the components. Everything has to be right, including the weather, for the launch to be successful.
In other cases, the word "launch" is part of news headline such as name_of_company launch new_product. Sometimes, these stories are only product announcements that specify a future date when customers will have the first opportunity to purchase the product.
Often, the term launch is associated with a set of activities implemented by sales, marketing, advertising, and public relations specialists after development is "completed" by a different group of development specialists. Although, specific individuals developed the physical product and other individuals developed a promotional strategy, both groups contribute to launch success.
In some cases, the term commercialization is used synonymously with launch.
Launch is a time of testing. Are sales abundant for the product that you have developed? There is not a "one size fits all" or "template" for a launch design that is likely to produce great results. Context should be considered before adopting "best practices." Application of the wrong "formulas" will result in missed opportunities.
Success or failure?
Whether using the term launch or commercialization or a phrase such as new-product introduction (NPI), the most troubling problem is reflected in summaries such as the following:
The new-product introduction (NPI) process in competitive high-tech industry sectors such as mobile telecom equipment or computer hardware consistently fails, causing companies to miss (too many) product-launch windows... Companies cannot afford to miss more than one out of three NPI windows; those that do so consistently tend to become unprofitable, and may go out of business or get acquired within a couple of years if they don’t manage to fix the process. Defining the 'Compelling reason to Buy,' Under the Buzz newsletter from The Chasm Advisors, May 26, 2004 - Vol. 5. Number 2, www.tcg-advisors.com/Library/utb/ub_vol5_no2.pdf
In the December 2006 issue of New Products Magazine, Jack Gordon, CEO of AcuPOLL Research Inc writes in an article titled Returning Insight To The Consumer:
"In the world we live in, somewhere between 80 percent and 95 percent of new product introductions fail. It’s not that hard to postulate that you must do virtually everything right to successfully launch new products. Therefore, intelligent new product marketers arm themselves with the discipline to not only find and evaluate key Insights, but to effectively execute all the elements to both deliver and communicate these Insights in introducing compelling new products."
Typically, a successful product launch is one that establishes a product on a sales trajectory that results in a positive return on investment for the project. To learn more about how to maximize the potential for launch success, visit the Launch Types, Orchestration of Launch Resources, Launch Architecture, and Optimized Launch pages.
Note: Apollo launch image provided by NASA.
