Are you ready for the hype? Get the inside scoop on how to launch a product like Apple with our 6 game-changing ideas. From understanding your target audience to crafting the perfect marketing campaign, we’ll show you how to make sure your product launch is a success.
Building on the strategies of companies like Apple, known for their strong product launches that leave media outlets and fans eagerly anticipating the release, let’s dive into what a product launch event is, what makes a product launch successful and some creative product launch ideas you can utilize for your upcoming product.
Whether you’re launching a new product line or introducing a new version of an existing product, our ideas will give you the edge you need to stand out in today’s competitive market. While we can’t promise you’ll become the next Apple, you’ll certainly be a step closer to a successful product launch by following our strategies.
So, let’s start.
What is a Product Launch?
An event called a “product launch” represents the release of a brand-new product or service. Businesses usually spend a lot of money on these events because they successfully build anticipation for the new line of products or services.
A company would often invite investors, leading news outlets, selected customers, and social media influencers to help spread the word about the product and create interest in the launch party.
In other words, a successful product launch event may raise awareness of your product, spur initial sales, and establish momentum for your brand that will last long after the product has been released.
What Goes into a Successful Product Launch?
A successful launch takes the correct recipe and the right ingredients, much like your favourite chocolate cake. That includes good timing, a great product, and an understanding of your target customers.
Here is a brief overview of the steps involved in a successful launch. But keep in mind that one brand and product will have slightly distinct processes from the other brands.
1. Understand your Customer Base
Do you want to know what your audience wants? Ask them: Past, present, and prospective clients might offer insightful recommendations and feedback. Sometimes, your loyal customers, often known as raving fans, are your most valuable resource when thinking of product launch ideas.
Consider including them in the decision-making process by asking them what they would like to see and experience from your next launch. This may be especially true if you always go into hiding to create the next thing for them. Then, try to make those ideas a reality.
If anything, they’ll love being a part of the process and you’ll be able to show how much you value them. You would think it takes away some of the thrills, but it won’t. The best part is that their passion will create excitement for more casual clients.
2. Create a Solid, Specific Buyer Persona
This is related to understanding your customers’ pain points. Before the launch date, your team should have a thoughtful buyer persona in place to help ensure product-market fit. Relate your product to your target market’s values and demographics.
To ensure that you can offer customised services, relevant content, and useful sales information, you want to learn as much as you can about them. The greatest place to put all of that information together into a narrative that resonates with your brand and the rest of your team is through your buyer personas.
3. Boost your Product Positioning
Your product positioning should take into account the culture of your brand, the assets and expertise of your team, your target market, and your competitors. You want to influence people’s perspective of what they are familiar with.
Ask your company a question — Are you formal, casual, fun, affordable, or high-end? How you position your product will be based on factors such as the design, features, copy, and pricing. Positioning your product is essential for a successful launch and sets the tone for how people will view your product before, during, and after the launch.
4. Conduct a Stress Test on your Website and your Customer Support Team
To prevent your website from crashing and your support team from becoming overworked or clueless on the official launch date, you should anticipate an increase in web traffic and customer service demands. While it may not always go as planned, creating a workaround process that your team can go to will be important to save time and energy while everyone is busy handling customers’ requests.
5. Create a Strong Go-To-Market Strategy
A successful product launch requires having a launch plan as it is an essential component of any marketing strategy. Here is the multiple-step process that involves your pre-launch and launch campaigns.
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Make a list of the actionable steps.
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Establish duties for each task and assign stakeholders.
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Set the product launch timeline and specifies dates.
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Allow for some flexibility.
Also read: Advertising Medium: Which One Is The Best?
6 Successful Product Launch Ideas
Success for new products can depend on hype. But how do you create buzz? Here are six product launch ideas to help you promote the product successfully.
1. Collaborate with Influencers
When deciding on the perfect product launch idea, influencer marketing is an excellent technique for your brand to increase its marketing efforts. Using influencers to promote your new product is a great approach to excite customers.
According to a survey from Mediakix, 71% of marketers feel that influencer marketing is good for the business. And if you are new to the business then you might not have two things that influencers have, which are credibility and a substantial following.
A collaboration with influencers is ideal for promoting your new product since you can use their platform to connect with both prospective and loyal buyers. But how does it work?
Influencers frequently share short videos with their followers on their social media accounts. If the products are physical, you could also give free samples early to the influencers so they can test them out in front of their social media followers. They can also be creating content where they share explanation videos on how to use the product so customers can understand them even better.
Also read: What is Virtual Influencer and The Benefit For Your Business
2. Utilize Social Media Channels
You must use social media if you want to increase the visibility of your product’s launch message. You can pick the platforms where your target market is most engaged. When using this product launch idea, be sure to maintain consistency in your messaging and content across various social media channels.
Customers love to see consistency and familiarity with the brands they follow. Promote your product launch hashtag campaign to make the most of the content shared by customers. People won’t be able to follow social media posts in one place if they use different hashtags.
Use a single hashtag throughout all your content marketing to create buzz and encourage them to use the hashtag in their photos both in-person and online.
3. Build a story
Your product launch idea will generate more attention if you can also incorporate a story into it. You can explain to your target audience the problem your solution resolves by using a story.
It has always been used in the past to foster communities and relationships. And it continues to have an impact today as an effective marketing tool. Creating a backstory around the launch of your product will increase buzz because people won’t forget as easily, especially on social media platforms.
The best part is that your audience will be interested in your story and become invested in the history of the brand and the product. Consequently, the brand reputation will improve if you can develop a compelling story as it increases more conversations with a positive sentiment about the product.
4. Produce entertaining and informative videos
The concept for your product launch could also incorporate a fun and informative video about your product. With the help of a video, you may thoroughly explain your product or service to your target audience. It’s crucial to inform consumers about products and how to use them properly, especially for new ones.
This short animated video for KAO MegRhythm created by Superpixel was used to increase awareness and knowledge about their flagship product, which is the Steam Thermo Patch. The short video content was used across social media channels to educate the users on how the product works and its benefits.
5. Create a giveaway contest
One of the finest ways to build buzz about your product is to launch giveaway contests. This could be one of the new product launch ideas you should include in your marketing campaign. A giveaway contest can increase your social media audience and raise awareness of your brand.
They can introduce you to enquiring customers who are interested in freebies and could become your future customers.
Additionally, you can rely on some of the participants to promote it on other social media platforms and convince their friends and family to join as well. User-generated content (UGC) from giveaway contests is an excellent idea to get people talking about your new product and build excitement.
6. Share the pre-launch videos
Another brilliant idea for your next campaign is to release a behind-the-scenes video before the launch. It can serve in building anticipation for the main event. It will help you generate buzz while getting people to talk about the pre-launch events.
Use these videos to tell a story to your audience. Invite potential customers to a behind-the-scenes tour, record a brief video of your event planning procedure, and snap pictures of your crew preparing for the event.
Also read: All The Reasons Why You Need A Promotion Video
Examples of Great Product Launches
Learning from examples is the most effective technique to develop a product launch strategy. To provide you with some inspiration for your product launch, let’s look at some successful launches below.
1. Starbucks VIA Instant Coffee
People who participated in the launch through taste tests were largely responsible for Starbucks’ instant coffee success. The coffee brand sent invitations to its then 4 million Facebook followers to the event. Consequently, it rose to become the fifth-best-selling instant coffee in the U.S. two years after the product launch.
Image Credit: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled – Via – Sep. 29, 2009
2. Squarespace
In 2015, Squarespace takes a giant step forward in the marketing industry. They started an advertising campaign with Hollywood actor Jeff Bridges to promote the website and Bridge’s sleep therapy album. The ad revealed that the album’s website was created on the Squarespace platform and was allegedly built by Bridges himself.
It serves as a great inspiration for other businesses due to its effective marketing strategy that comprises creative and compelling content, and a clever product demo.
Image Credits: Squarespace | Jeff Bridges’ Sleep Tapes – YouTube
3. Evolve by PepsiCo
A new design has been given to PepsiCo’s plant-based protein beverage. They used their in-house design team to produce new packaging designs for their reformulated EVOLVE drink.
The Big Bend National Park, the Glacier National Park, the Haleakala National Park in Hawaii, and the Rocky Mountain National Park have all been highlighted in this new design by PepsiCo where the updated look shows the company’s dedication to protecting the National Parks.
Image Credits: https://www.artworkflowhq.com/
Launch your New Product with Confidence
It does take a lot of preparation and effort to launch a new product. But maybe now you have the knowledge and inspiration to properly introduce your new product to the world. One of the most crucial elements of product marketing is a successful product launch.
A brand’s name alone is not enough to ensure that everyone knows it. You must ensure that customers can relate to your brand and the new product on some level. It’s critical to select the best idea for your product launch.
An animation company in Singapore like Superpixel can help you launch your new product by designing and producing animated videos and graphics that you can use to promote on all your social media channels and even to an in-person launch event.
Contact us today and let Superpixel help you design the right animated campaign for your product launch.