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Most New Products Will Fail — Will Yours? ...continued Once you have determined that the market opportunity fits your strategic and financial goals, it’s time to position your product or solution at one or more market segments. Effectively segmenting your market can help you identify the customer group with the most profit potential for your product. This segment must be easily accessible and substantial enough to meet your financial goals. With a valid customer group to target, you can then position your offering (product, value proposition and distribution channel) to appeal to this critical customer group.  A pitfall here is failing to realize that groups other than your target customer can influence the purchase decision and ultimately your product’s success. As you plan the launch, map out the purchase process for your product and identify any influencers. Build a value proposition for these key influencers to keep your product from being sidelined.Communicate Your Value Proposition At this point, you have developed your product to fulfill an identified opportunity and targeted a customer group. Now you have to decide how to brand the new product. A product name and positioning should resonate with your target customer group and fit into your company’s overall brand architecture and product portfolio. You must define the brand promise – what is the benefit to the targeted group. Next, identify how your target customers and key influencers learn about new products and target your communications strategy accordingly. Elements for a successful communications strategy can vary widely depending on the segment targeted. Be sensitive to the specific communications pathway of your target segment. A major pitfall is the “build it and they will come” business practice. Even with a revolutionary new product, customers have to know that your product exists and what differentiates your offering. Measure and Adjust Of course sales and profits are the best ways to measure success. But sales are often too late in the process to serve as an early indicator of a product’s success. Set early milestones such as number of qualified leads, number of product information requests, channel response and lead conversation rates. These indicators can let you know early on if you are on track before sales materialize. Analyze measurements to see if any adjustments need to be made. For example, if consideration is high, your communication or distribution tactics may need adjustment. With predictive measures, you can adjust quickly before your competitors have an opportunity to respond. The Internet— Why it Remains a Growing Marketing Communications Force In spite of the dot com bust in 2001, the Internet and all the options around it continue to play an integral role in business-to-business marketing. According to a recent PricewaterhouseCooper report, the fastest-growing media segment over the next five years is the Internet, averaging 9.5% compound growth annually from 2004 to 2008. After two consecutive years of double-digit declines, Internet advertising jumped 20.5% between 2002 and 2003. The Forrester Report also reported that 92% of marketers use e-mail for customer retention marketing, while 60% use it for prospecting. Rich e-mail (with numerous applications such as e-newsletters) is particularly critical for companies with large numbers of customers – It is a great way to stay in front of them. Now with “back end” tools, companies can have a better understanding of what’s important to their customers and how much they value these forms of communication. Trade Shows—Take the Necessary Steps to Increase Your ROI Most business-to-business marketers rely on trade shows as a significant marketing tool, but few get the results that they would like. One of the major reasons is that so few do what’s needed on the front end. A recent BMA White Paper published the results of a survey that showed: • 1 direct mailing results in a 25% increase in exhibit traffic • 2 direct mailings result in a 50% increase in exhibit traffic • 3 direct mailings result in a 75% increase in exhibit traffic These results clearly show that it isn’t about just what you do at the trade show, but what you do before it. Statistics show that 75% of all attendees already know what they are going to do and who they are going to see before they even arrive at the show. So why not do what you can on the front end through various pre-show initiatives to help ensure that your prospects or customers are coming by your booth? In doing so, you will see your ROI significantly increase. Product Launches—So Critical, but Yet, So Poorly Executed A market research study of executives, product managers, sales managers, and salespeople was conducted by OnTarget Inc. utilizing in-depth telephone interviews. The study found that a significant majority (78%) of the respondents rated their method of launching new products “neutral,” “ineffective” or “very ineffective.” While all the respondents recognized the importance of new product launches, they also realized their method needed real improvement. For various reasons, companies continue to struggle with their product launches even though they are so important to top-line growth. With product life cycles continuing to shorten, the stakes are even higher with very little margin for error. If you play a key role in your company’s new products efforts, we would like to extend an invitation to our upcoming workshop. Training—It’s More Important Than Ever According to a nationwide study conducted by Training Magazine, the number one priority for businesses is training around “business strategy and ROI impact.” Companies are realizing more than ever that training or equipping, as some like to refer to it, must be focused on helping companies get bottom-line results. Not surprisingly, training is now migrating outside an organization’s four walls to the many channel companies that represent them in their marketplace. Online learning is taking a critical role in this arena. Several of our clients are finding that it is making a huge difference in their distributors’ performances and as a result, sales are increasing. Online learning is also being combined with facilitated training for what is typically referred to as “blended training.” If you would like more information on how companies are strengthening their organizations and getting results through online training, feel free to contact us. 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