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Books, Articles and Consulting Services by Catherine Kitcho, The Launch Doctor |
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How can I use the Internet to launch a product?
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| The Launch Forum A newsletter about product launch... Current issue v.1, no.1 "Internet Frenzy" Q: How can I use the Internet to launch a product? A. The Internet plays a very key role during the product launch process, and there are many ways to leverage this important marketing resource. You can use the Internet to do market research (primary and secondary). If you have a company website (doesn't everyone?), it can be used as a showcase for the product that you are launching, and also as a public relations center. In some cases, your company website IS your product, and so the site itself becomes the product "packaging" - and a primary vehicle for promotion. Where to start? In High Tech Product Launch, I presented the three parts of any product launch: Product and Market Assessment, Marketing Strategy Development, and Launch Planning and Implementation. You can leverage the Internet in all three of these stages. The first part is the data gathering phase, where you gather all the information you can about your product, your customer, the market as a whole, your competition, and possible distribution channels. Gathering all this data should be the first step in any launch. You can use the Internet and a variety of search engines to do secondary research. Key in search terms that describe your product or service, and look for competing products. Study those products and identify what makes your product different or better; these are your differentiators. Go to those websites and study your competitors as companies - how big are they? Do they sell other products? Who are their customers? Who distributes their products? Read their press releases. When you key in your search terms, you may also find trade press articles that discuss market demand for your type of product, or market trends that help you estimate the size of your target market. Another way to approach the research is to key in search terms that describe your target customer. You may find information that tells you more about their problems, concerns and product needs, or you may find articles related to market demand also. You can also use the Internet to do primary market research, i.e., doing surveys directly with potential customers. If you have a website, you can set up an online survey to get information and feedback about your current and future products. It's a good idea to provide some incentive for people to fill out the form (free gift, coupon, discount, etc.). You should also limit the data gathering time that the survey is available, in order to convey a sense of urgency. During the second part of product launch - the Marketing Strategy Development - you need to decide how your product or service will be positioned against the competition, which messages need to be used in your marketing campaign, and which external marketing programs to pursue. This is when you can leverage your company's website; it should be the showcase for the product you are launching. The website should function as the product information center and the public relations center for your product. As you develop your external marketing programs and materials, you can post them almost instantaneously on your site. You can post brochures, datasheets, white papers, ads, press releases, articles the trade press have written about your product, demos, videos, customer quotes and testimonials. During the launch of a new product, all of the corresponding information can be highlighted as NEW or placed in a certain spot on the home page in order to get the viewer's attention. Make sure that your key messages are contained in the first few sentences of any online versions of your material. Packaging is another type of a marketing program, as stated in my book. Your primary messages need to be carried through your product packaging, in the design, graphics and text that appear on the package. If your product IS your website, then you need to make sure that your home page reflects your corporate image (including logos and branding), that people know your "product's" features, and the benefits of using your product. The last part of product launch is to complete the launch plan, and then implement it. In the launch plan, the various marketing "deliverables" are listed, resources are assigned, a schedule is developed, and then the work is done. Nearly every launch I've experienced is quite chaotic, and everything needs to done in parallel. This is when your corporate website can really help - especially during the plan development. If you have a long list of deliverables that include printed materials, multimedia items and online versions, you can put most of your marketing materials on your website first, with the printed versions (the more expensive versions) developed later. This will buy you some time, because the printing and review cycle can take several weeks. It will also free up some resources to assign to the highest priority items. You can more easily meet your launch date that way. When the launch date arrives, once again your website can be the primary vehicle for your product announcement. Post your press release at the top of your home page on launch day. (Also send it out via the web or email to targeted news media.) The Internet is a wonderful marketing tool. I don't know how we got along without it before! It saves money and time, and gives marketeers a whole new creative palette for developing marketing campaigns. Happy launching - on the Internet! Catherine Kitcho Visit the Forum Archive Pages for past issues of The Launch Forum. |
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