7.4 EXTERNAL LAUNCH TO THE RETAILER & OTHER DISTRIBUTORS

The launch to the retailer is of course crucial. Supermarkets today have strong control over the introduction of new products with their decisions affecting how much shelf space will be allocated, the costs of the introduction, the length of time allowed for sales to grow and the potential introduction of their own-brand products. Supermarket buyers rarely use formal analysis to make their new product decisions because of the low risk in giving shelf space to new products - a failure can soon be dropped from their shelves, and if a rejected product is a success in other supermarkets, it can then be purchased with confidence.

Some of the questions supermarkets ask when reviewing a new product are:

      Does the product look as if it will sell?
      Is the manufacturer going to promote the product strongly enough
      to produce the sales?
      Are the 'deals' offered in line with the product type and past
      experience with the manufacturer?
      Will the product increase profit because it is a superior replacement
      to an existing product on the shelves?

For some products, there are advantages in launching the products only to strategic retailers, especially if the product is particularly new in some way and requires special cooperation from them to sell to the consumers. The product may be launched in a 'party' atmosphere with free food and drink, promotional gifts, samples presented in attractive ways, and information presented in easy-to-read form. These parties can be great publicity if they are covered by the media, and thus can give the company a chance to reach the public before the actual consumer launch.

Industrial products are often launched in a similar manner at trade fairs, where they can be presented to a large number of manufacturers at the same time. But often industrial products are launched to a few manufacturers, or even one manufacturer with a long association with the company so that there is the opportunity to solve that manufacturer’s problems and gain knowledge of the effects of the product in their processing.