Ready ... aim ... roll it out! 10 steps to make your next product introduction a success."If you build it they will come" may be true for baseball fields, but not necessarily for new product launches. In fact, regardless of what the new products or invention is, chances are that your consumers won't won't Contraction of will not. won't will not won't will come--unless you follow some key steps. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] So whether you're you're Contraction of you are. you're you are you're be a one-person one-per·son adj. 1. Consisting of a single person. 2. Designed for or restricted to one person. Adj. 1. company with the next great American American, river, 30 mi (48 km) long, rising in N central Calif. in the Sierra Nevada and flowing SW into the Sacramento River at Sacramento. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill (see Sutter, John Augustus) along the river in 1848 led to the California gold rush of invention or a large company that rolls out several new products a year, you need to follow a proven 10-step process that will give your new product the greatest chance for success. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1. Develop a product or service that's within your area of expertise. If you or your company are already an expert in a certain field, then stick with that area of expertise. Don't don't 1. Contraction of do not. 2. Nonstandard Contraction of does not. n. A statement of what should not be done: a list of the dos and don'ts. roll out a new video game, for example, if your background is in the auto industry or in developing security systems. Why? Because when you stick with product concepts you're familiar with, you can bring some prior knowledge to the marketing aspect of it. Additionally, if you're an expert in a particular area, generally you're going to better understand what the consumer finds interesting about the product. 2. Do the needed research on your potential consumer. If the consumer doesn't does·n't Contraction of does not. think your new product is useful, then it won't sell no matter how great you think it is. To find out if your new product has market appeal, you can do a survey of past customers who bought a similar product in your line and ask for their opinion of this new product. You can also engage focus groups to give you input. 3. Do the needed research on existing patents. Just because you thought of an idea for a product that the marketplace seems to need doesn't mean you can still move forward. Someone else may have beaten you to the idea and just not launched the product yet. In fact, surveys show that 97 percent of all patented products never make it to market, so you may not know that your product already exists. Do patent research to ensure your idea truly is original. You can visit the U.S. Patent Office (www.uspto.gov See .gov and GovNet. (networking) gov - The top-level domain for US government bodies. ) and do a search. You can also go to retail stores and scan catalogs to see if any similar product is currently available. 4. Make a prototype of the product. Before you file for a patent, you need a mockup mock·up also mock-up n. 1. A usually full-sized scale model of a structure, used for demonstration, study, or testing. 2. A layout of printed matter. or prototype of the product. Be sure this is the final form of the product idea you want to patent, because if you make changes after your patent is filed, your new modifications to the product wouldn't would·n't Contraction of would not. wouldn't would not wouldn't would be covered by the existing patent, and you'd you'd 1. Contraction of you had. 2. Contraction of you would. you'd you had or you would you'd have ~would need to re-file. So have all the bugs worked out of your product before you file your patent. 5. Ask the right questions. When you're considering patenting something, be sure you ask yourself some key questions, such as: "Is this a unique product that solves a real problem?" "Is this product easy to manufacture?" "What type of market will buy this product?" "What is the size of the market?" "What are the growth prospects?" and "Who's who's 1. Contraction of who is. 2. Contraction of who has. who's who is or who has who's short for who is, who has. the competition?" By answering these questions honestly and thoroughly, you'll you'll Contraction of you will. you'll you will or you shall you'll will know whether it's it's 1. Contraction of it is. 2. Contraction of it has. See Usage Note at its. it's it is or it has it's be ~have a good idea to move forward with your product idea. 6. File for the patent. Once you determine that it's wise to proceed, you need to secure your patent. You can either do this step yourself by going to the U.S. Patent Office or you can hire a patent and trademark attorney to do the filing for you. If your product is for a new process or machine, then you would file a utility patent. If your product involves manufacturing a new, non-obvious ornamental design, then you would file a design patent. Realize that most patents today are for incremental Additional or increased growth, bulk, quantity, number, or value; enlarged. Incremental cost is additional or increased cost of an item or service apart from its actual cost. improvements to something. The innovation is evolution rather than revolution. 7. Determine who is going to market and distribute the product. Are you going to do the marketing and distribution yourself, or will you license your product and have another company take over those aspects for you? Realize that most chain stores won't buy anything from a one-product vendor. They only work with companies that offer multiple products, in order to ensure they'll they'll Contraction of they will. they'll will receive quality products that consumers will purchase. So if you can't do the marketing and distribution on your own, you'll need to license your product to a company that markets and distributes multiple products. 8. Price the product appropriately. Here's another area where you need to do some research. Look for products that are similar to yours and note their retail price. You want to price your product a little below or at the same price to stay competitive. As a general rule of thumb, in order to generate a profit, you'll need to mark up your product four to five times your manufacturing prices. So if it costs you $1 to manufacture your product, you'll need to sell it for at least $4 or $5. If you can't meet that mark-up rate and stay competitive, then you'll need to investigate other, less expensive manufacturing options. 9. Get your funding in order. Create a business and marketing plan for your product to attract investors, or to get your company's approval to move forward on the idea. Address such things as why this product is needed in the marketplace, how much money you need to move forward, where you're going to manufacture the product, how you're going to market it, what channels of distribution you're going to use, what kind of return on investment is expected, and other issues that your company or investor requires. 10. Advertise your product. Regardless of who is distributing your product, you'll likely need to do the advertising yourself. You can either market your products directly to consumers via TV ads, infomercials, radio, print ads and online ads, or you can market through retailers, where the product will be on retail shelves. If you opt to market through retailers, you'll want your ads to encourage consumers to visit the retail store and ask for your product. If you opt to market directly to the consumer, you'll want your ads to prompt consumers to make an immediate impulse buy impulse buy n → achat m d'impulsion impulse buy impulse n → Impulsivkauf m impulse buy n → . About the Author Peter Koeppel s founder and president of Koeppel Direct, a leader in direct response media buying, marketing, campaign management and creative strategies. With over 20 years of marketing and advertising experience, Koeppel has helped businesses develop marketing campaigns to increase profits. |
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