3.4.2 Launch strategies

The launch strategy can be described as the marketing, production and distribution decisions to introduce the product to the market and to start to generate sales. The launch strategies include the targeting strategy, the timing strategy and the product's innovation level. The perceived innovation level depends on the target market and also the competing products in the market. The target market can be a mass market or a niche market; the choice often governed by the size and resources of the company. New products may be aimed at a market segment, which is likely to be attracted to the new product, and then may be expanded to other market segments. Mass customisation in which the product is modified for specific groups of consumers is also another possibility. So there must be a strategy for reaching the target market segments.

Another launching strategy is to lead or to follow the competitors. This is an important timing strategy. With an innovation, the costs of being the pioneer can be high and if sales growth is slow then it takes some time to recover these costs.

But of course if there is a reasonably fast sales growth, then the product can win the major share of the market for a long time. With the incremental product, it is important to do this continuously with the succeeding products, so that the market share is either held or grows. To increase the market share, people of course make a product change so the new product must have their desired benefits and also needs marketing tactics to encourage them to make the change.

Hultink and Robben (1999) grouped the launch strategy decisions as:

     strategic product/market decisions - relative product innovativeness,
        targeting, introduction objectives and product newness;

     timing-related decisions - timing of market entry, speed to market.

These decisions have to fit into the company environment, its capabilities and resources, and the working environment of technology, market and competitors, as well as the surrounding societal environment. Successful launches were found to be related to perceived superior skills in marketing research, sales, distribution, promotion, R&D and engineering (Di Benedetto, 1999). Having cross-functional teams making key marketing and manufacturing decisions, and getting logistics involved in early planning, were strategic activities that were strongly related to successful launches.