Question

Many firms target lead users or innovators with their new products, with the assumption that their adoption will trickle down to influence the broader market. Others disagree with this approach and contend that the most efficient and quickest route is to target the broader or even mass market directly. Take one of the two positions and defend it.

Answer 1

New product launch require significant marketing budget to increase the product awareness. The customer need created and demand generated. Promotional elements like web site, social media campaign, print, press campaign among other needed.

Investment in distribution channels and related marketing support are required. Business to customer product requires sales force training and developing sales tools and material for direct selling. Business to business product requires training and incentives to retail partner to stock and promote the product.

During product launching stage price are generally on higher side as there are less competitors. Discount and promotional pricing offered during this stage.

Product launching differs depending on the category of the product. Launching complete new innovative product requires both educating the market about new product usage and its brand awareness. As for example, Google selected and targeted tech – savvy lead users or innovators when it launched its Google Glass which is an optical head – mounted computer display. Google launched the product with lot of media fanfare and selective product distribution. The demand thus created followed more by mass hype through tech bloggers and business insider blog and tweets and word of mouth marketing.

Launching common new product or extension of existing product line requires targeting the audience that fits into its product marketing and distribution channels. Tesla, one of the leading automaker offered a new line of home products. Breaking into new product categories and market is challenging. Greater the difference in product from its existing offering, the more the complexity and marketing expenses during the product launching phase.

Marketer becomes conservative during the launch stage because the product is not fully accepted and its distribution channels not fully extended. Launching the product to only the lead user or innovators with less promotion and limited distribution are the safe bet. This decreases the risk of early product issue if any and allows for early customer feedback.