Session 5:: New Product Branding Product Launches

Product Policy & Innovation
Session 5:
New Product Branding
Product Launches
Objectives
• To consider the role and importance of
branding in NPD
• To examine the Product Launch Phase of
NPD, and key considerations within.
Branding
• ‘Simply a collection of perceptions in the
mind of the consumer... At its simplest a
brand is a recognisable and trustworthy
badge of origin and also a promise of
performance’ (Cowley, 1991:21)
• Authenticity, Replicability, Reassurance,

Differentiation and Personality
NPD and Branding
• Consumers often face making choices between
products that differ little in terms of price or
function. Enter the commodity sign, an overall
image attached to the brand name product by
advertisers to create an additional axis of
difference in the consumer market place. The
weapons of choice in the contemporary sign wars
are aesthetic differentiation and aesthetic attack
– (Goldman and Papson, 1996)
The Brand
• Functional Capabilities
– Product functions, design, physical characteristics
• Symbolic Features
– Personality
– Emotional Values
– User Image
• Sign of Ownership/Corporate Culture
– Ethics
– Identity
– Vision
Process of Making Brands
• Object > Commodity
• Process of Appropriation. (meaning
making)
• Commodity, like language – never fixed
• Built through continual representations and
interpretations.
• Brand as Image, or Imagined Realm.
Branding: Representation
• Company
– Products
• Naming
• Packaging and Merchandising
• Retail Store/interiors branding
• Graphics
• Advertising
Consuming Brands
• Consumer Appropriations
– Cultural ‘Readings’ and Meaning Making
• Corporate Success
– Brand Moveable
NPD and Branding
• Various Company Strategies
• Be aware of related
Advantages/Disadvantages and
Opportunities/Threats
• You may wish to read Trott pp 371-4 for more
on these issues
• Plus, of course, see your Branding &
Communications module materials!
Product Launch
Positioning Launch in the NPD process
Development Stages Evaluation Gates
NPD Strategy
Idea Generation
Idea Screening
Concept Development
Concept testing
Build Business Case
Business Analysis
Product Development
Product Testing (functional)
Market Testing
Analyze Test Market Results
Market Launch
Post-launch Evaluation
High profile launches…… England
Shirts 2006…
Harry Potter…
Apple Wii…
Launch: An Important Investment
• Unilever spent $3m for the development of OMO
Power but it spent over $5m for market launch
• Case of Windows 95 campaign
• 54% of NPD expenditures on market launch
• 39% on development activities
• 7% on pre-development activities
(Source: Cooper & Kleinschmidt, 1988)
Why is Launch so Important?
• Can determine the success or failure of the product
or service in the market place
• Provides initial and much needed revenue
• The firm has to take into account many
uncontrollable factors
• A launch can be very expensive at a time when the
firm is depleted of resources
A Launch Strategy: Some Key Decisions
and Considerations…..
 Why to launch a new product or service

Strategy / Commercialisation / Product Development
 When to launch
What stage NPD?
Time of Day / Time of Year
 Where to launch
International Product? Most impact and reach?
A Launch Strategy: Key Decisions and
Considerations…..
 What to launch
Discussed earlier regarding Key NPD Decisions
 How to launch
Advertising
Promotion
 How to measure success or failure of launch
Matching Forecasts?
Achieve Targets?
Comparative Products
The process of launching new
products
C o m p e titio n
S tra te g ic
D e c is io n s
L aunch Success/
F a ilu r e
C a m p a ig n
T a c tic a l
D e c is io n s
Im p le m e n ta tio n
First Mover Advantages
• Obtain higher market shares than later entrants
• Establish a reputation as a leader and innovator
• Charge higher premium prices
• Deter imitation by means of continuous innovation
• Learn faster than late entrants
• Build and retain loyalty of first time buyers.
First Mover Disadvantages
• High R&D costs
• High marketing costs
• Need to educate the market
• Later entrants can imitate the product and make use of
process innovations to reduce its cost and therefore
price
• Risk from betting on the wrong technological trajectory
Reaction of Competitors
• No response
• Partial response
• Full scale response
Will depend on:
• Type of launch (niche or mass)
• Immediate effects on their sales
• Strategic effects in their markets
• Technological ability to respond
• Resources available to respond
Critical success factors for launch
• Timing
• Reaction of customers
• Quality of Product
• The launch campaign and its implementation
• Competitive reaction & response

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Product Policy & Innovation

• Authenticity, Replicability, Reassurance,

 Why to launch a new product or service

• The launch campaign and its implementation

• Competitive reaction & response

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