2021 New Product Marketing Methodology

For marketers, launching new products is a periodic test that cannot be avoided. This type of test is direct and sharp. Whether the new product is a hit on the entire network or sits on the sidelines will directly determine the score of this wave of marketing. I have also experienced countless major and minor tests, spanning various subjects - beauty, daily chemicals, food, home furnishings, clothing, and now consumer digital products. Today let’s talk about the marketing methods and logical thinking for new product launches.

Different brands and products face different marketing environments, but the logical framework behind them remains the same. As a trader, my thinking framework is as follows:

In summary, first conduct market and consumer analysis, refine product selling points, and determine the main strategy; make phased plans (resources, manpower, rhythm, etc.) based on the main strategy, and break down, segment, and quantify the goals accordingly; then come the media and content strategies, as well as the ultimate move in the planning campaign; after entering the execution stage, pay attention to dynamic adjustments and planning based on market feedback, and finally conduct evaluation and backward effect research and review.

According to this framework, each part is explained in detail.

1. Market Analysis

1. Market positioning

Referring to Dentsu's model, market positioning can be divided into four quadrants according to the maturity of the market and products:

For new products, the focus is mainly on [new market, new brand] and [old market, new brand].

The so-called new market refers to a market in the development stage or demand cultivation stage. Users have not yet formed rigid demand and strong dependence, there are few market competitors, but the overall capacity is not large either. For example, when Xiaodu smart speaker was first launched on the market, people were unfamiliar with this category and were not familiar with the product functions, so they were unable to directly evoke the strong correlation of [satisfying needs].

For this type of market, the goal of launching new products should be to cultivate new brands while exploring new demands. Companies need to bear certain costs for brand education, but once the market is cultivated and a leading position is achieved, the benefits will be considerable.

The corresponding new product launch strategy is:

Arouse consumers' needs and make consumers realize that the new brand is a representative brand that meets their needs. This part is detailed in the content strategy section.

The old market refers to a market with sufficient competition. In this type of market, there is no need to bear market education costs. The core goal of launching new products is to enter the category association pool and enhance brand awareness. The core of new product launch lies in:

1. Strengthen the fact that the product is competitive

2. Highlight the differentiated advantages compared with competing products

To put it simply, it means "I have what others have (same strengths), but I am better than others (differentiated advantages)."

For example, when Xiaodu earphones were launched, the wireless Bluetooth earphones market had already matured, and the launch marketing focused on differentiated smart selling points.

Xiaodu earphones commercial "Left and Right" focuses on differentiated selling points

2. Target population analysis

After completing market positioning, we move on to target group segmentation.

(As for product selling point analysis, different categories vary greatly, so it is not described here)

First, clearly define the target consumer group, user group, and purchase group (the cost bearer may be the same as the purchaser, or there may be a difference)
Let’s analyze them one by one:

• Analyze the characteristics of the user population, focusing on gender, age, residential area, family situation, education level, lifestyle, frequency of use, etc.;
• Analyze the behavior of purchasing groups, focusing on purchasing motivations, decision-making paths, purchasing convenience, income levels, consumption concepts, spending tendencies, etc. Among them, we need to pay special attention to:

  Buyers’ perception, knowledge and preferences of products — affecting core content strategy

  Buying group contact habits and preferences - determine the core media strategy

2. Purchase Behavior Analysis

For the sake of convenience, we divide purchasing behaviors into three categories: high, medium and low involvement:
(The actual situation may be more complicated, for example, participation in different regions and income levels may also vary)

• High involvement means purchasing high-value and durable consumer goods, such as RVs and large appliances. These products need to provide very up-to-date product information and average benchmarks for decision-making reference.
• Medium participation type is more about replacing and purchasing existing products. Consumers will consciously spend time and energy to make choices, but the investment is not too much. At this time, it is very important to provide brand differentiation, product characteristics, and brand value proposition (to impress specific target groups).
• Low engagement corresponds to high frequency and low price. The threshold for this type of product is very low, and it is more about arousing curiosity and attention. Therefore, direct sensory stimulation and hooks that entice people to try are very important (for example, APPs have a very low threshold (just download), and most of them will use red envelopes to subsidize new customers; beauty and daily chemical foods with low customer unit prices usually spend a lot of money on short video content marketing.)

3. Phased Strategic Planning

This part focuses on the rhythm (the amount of resources invested in each stage and target management). There are many factors that affect the rhythm. To achieve a successful new product launch marketing, you must consider all the factors:

• Consumer psychology: How do consumers psychologically accept brands and products? Whether it is unfamiliar or familiar, whether it is focused or casual, determines whether the marketing is a slow cooker or a fierce one.
• Time nodes: Festivals, periodic consumption habits, e-commerce nodes, these factors must also be considered. For example, e-commerce nodes may not necessarily be good times for promotion (with redundant information, fierce competition, confusing prices, etc.). New products must be launched well in advance of major e-commerce promotions to allow the new products to gain popularity and fame before reaping the benefits of price and traffic.
• Supply rhythm: The launch of new products is usually related to supply chain forecasts and capacity ramp-up. Pre-sales are certainly possible, but you also need to fully consider the waiting costs and psychological expectations, as well as the possible interception actions of competitors.
• Word of mouth: The launch rhythm matches the fermentation of the first round of consumer word of mouth, forming a gear effect with a high degree of engagement. …

For new product marketing, it is necessary not only to set an overall goal, but also to set phased goals according to the amount of investment in each stage (with different focuses, such as early voice, mid-term search volume, late conversion and sales, etc.). This will help to flexibly control and adjust the plan in real time.

4. Content Strategy

In fact, content planning is usually considered together with media strategy, so that there is more room for integrated thinking and more sparks of inspiration for the "killer feature" brought about by the collision and combination of the two.

For the sake of narrative coherence, let’s first talk about content strategy:

Still using the logic of new and old markets:
For new markets, the key to launching new products is to cultivate demand (using the brand as the only solution to meet the demand in the process of cultivating demand). Here are three ways to enter:

• Mining from various levels of demand: consumption behavior, life behavior, self-portrait level, demand points that may not be met or have great room for improvement during consumption and use of products (Haidilao service)

  Neglected or optimized requirements in lifestyle behaviors (healthy eating trends stimulate various plant-based diets)

  Resonance and expectation in terms of spiritual satisfaction (neiwai [demanding women’s body shape: no body shape is insignificant])

• Highlight the utility of goods. Sometimes, the demand on the consumer side is not particularly significant. However, if the product does have a unique selling point or technological innovation, it is often necessary to create a [ typical usage scenario ]. It may be relatively niche, but by linking utility and desire through small scenarios, it can amplify satisfaction and attract more people's attention. For example, the early marketing of Dyson curling irons highlighted the real, visible effects brought about by the product's technological innovation.
• Dig from the opposite side of demand: look for deficiency-type needs (lack) and desire-type needs (desire). The former refers to the state of lack or deficiency - such as the products targeting hair loss and insomnia that have become increasingly popular recently; the latter refers to the expectation for a better state in the future - such as letting preschool children learn to think.

For the old market, we can consider the content side based on the previous purchase engagement:

• For purchase decisions with medium to high involvement (low-price products or medium to high-price products for exchange or additional purchase), if the differentiation is obvious, you can directly emphasize the differentiated selling points that a small number of users care about or can arouse sufficient interest;

  If the differentiation is weak (which is probably the case for most products), there are several strategies to consider:

  General strategy : Instead of emphasizing the difference from competing brands, the first launch uses the general characteristics of the product as the characteristics of the own brand (especially for representative products with a high market share)

  First-in-first-out strategy: The brand’s feature is not unique to the brand, but it is the first to spread it. An old but classic example: Volvo focuses on safety, and OPPO focuses on photography.

  USP strategy: adopt unique propositions that other competing brands have not used. For example, many underwear products previously emphasized thinness and comfort, but this year one brand suddenly introduced a new benefit point of "big breasts look small" (the product itself has changed in name only).

• For low-involvement products (buy casually, buy early), there are two ways to consider content creation: focus on brand favorability, let advertising favorability turn into brand favorability , focus on cultivating brand impression, and create memory symbols (good advertising materials, popularity, brand popularity and other simple clues), such as lipstick spokesperson marketing

  Improve user engagement, supplement product knowledge, and emphasize purchase interests - for example, a large number of Nongfu Spring's advertising materials emphasize the origin and water quality.

5. Media Strategy

After talking about content, let’s talk about media strategy. Before doing media planning, you need to understand two things:

Understand the media types, features and prices of your choice

Understand users’ response to different media information

There are three typical media combinations around the degree of participation in consumer behavior:

• High involvement (spending more time and energy on shopping decisions): delivering detailed information and knowledge to specific consumer groups (high potential), and then forming public opinion through national media (popular and becoming a hot topic)
• Medium participation (mainly replacement and additional purchase): mass media preheating to increase expectations (similar to creating a "sense of atmosphere") + professional knowledge media providing detailed information + a certain period of time after the launch of the product to achieve full awareness through large exposure in the media
• Low engagement: Spread attractive advertising materials to arouse interest and trial purchases, then add large-scale media promotion effects to stimulate positive feedback and circular purchases, and add promotional activities (e-commerce offline)

To give an example of high participation, the recently launched Xiaodu learning tablet is a high-priced, low-frequency product, and parents have a high level of participation in purchasing it. To this end, we first accurately target the precise group of parents (old Xiaodu users, parent and teacher KOLs, etc.), explain clearly the considerations for selecting the product and the performance advantages of the Xiaodu tablet, complete the first part of the communication to the specific group, and form professional endorsement.

Afterwards, combined with the evaluation results of [blue light protection and eye protection capabilities] by professional organizations (Xiaodu ranked first in blue light protection), the topic #Blue light protection is not pseudoscience# was initiated, which automatically became a hot search on Weibo that day and automatically triggered extensive media coverage - thereby attracting more interested people. When they searched for product information, they paid attention to the information and knowledge that had been accumulated before, which made it easier to convert.

To give another example of low participation, when we were at NetEase Kaola, we were preparing to launch a self-produced mooncake. This type of product is undoubtedly a relatively low-participation product, and the mooncakes themselves are not differentiated enough (there are too many internet celebrity flavors, and this flavor is relatively traditional). For this reason, we launched a trial purchase event [If it rains during Mid-Autumn Festival, get a free mooncake]. After the activity is launched, the threshold for everyone to try the product will be lowered to stimulate interest in trial purchases. As a result, all the mooncakes in stock were sold out within less than a week after the event went online.

It is worth noting that some new products are annual strategic new products. For this reason, the promotion period should be longer, up to half a year or a year.

• Medium and high frequency purchases: adopt a concentrated + pulse delivery strategy - concentrated new product launches + uninterrupted regular delivery + pulse delivery at important nodes
• Low-frequency purchase: adopt concentrated + intermittent delivery strategy - concentrated new product launch + no delivery during normal times + pulse delivery at important nodes. For example, Xiaodu Smart Screen X series, as an annual strategic new product (low-frequency purchase), has a new product launch conference and concentrated evaluation to promote publicity during the launch period, and pulse delivery is combined with user purchase demands at important nodes (recently combined with the gift-giving demands during the Spring Festival, implanted in the variety show "Ace vs. Ace")

6. The killer weapon

The last and most exciting step is based on a lot of preparations made before, including target market assessment, user research, content planning, media strategy... However, the cruel reality is that even if these are correct analyses and strategies, only normal results and a normal input-output ratio can be achieved.

Rather than [explosive] or [beyond-expectation] earnings.

Because most of the time, we are facing a competitive market with limited resources. If we want to go further, we need to think about the "killer weapon", that is:

1. Topics or events that trigger active dissemination
2. Have a huge impact on consumer choices

Of course, it would be better if you have both.

The first point is to combine a certain selling point or proposition to trigger sufficient public discussion, such as:

Value-based marketing (Neiwai, Dove)

Creating a love-hate relationship with competitors (HEYTEA & CHAYANYUESE)

Do the opposite (often used by NetEase Yanxuan)

Hot topics that target users are interested in (Xiaodu’s tutorial homework series)

…

Unless it is a giant brand like Apple or McDonald's, if other brands want to adopt this kind of communication, it is recommended to do it in the middle and late stages of the new product launch, otherwise there is a risk of overshadowing the main event. For example, at Xiaomi’s press conference, everyone’s attention was focused on the 2 million yuan logo.

Secondly, the usual practice is to create a very attractive and contagious sense of yearning for the product, or to package it with an irresistible temptation hook.

The former includes, for example, advertisements that are indestructible - but to be honest, with the fragmentation of media and the dilution of attention, the requirements for advertising content are getting higher and higher, and big stars and big productions may not necessarily meet expectations.

——Advertising for the product itself is much more difficult to make than attitude-based TVCs and micro-films, because the real protagonist must be the product itself, in order to create a true sense of yearning, rather than just the company, brand or user.

The product itself is actually the best carrier, such as Mengniu’s college entrance examination milk packaging, various Coke bottles, Oreo vinyl music boxes, Hippocampus Christmas photos, etc. - in the development of new products, marketing should be fully advanced.

Perceptible on-site experience activities are also a part of it. For products with strong differentiation, personal experience is even more irresistible.

The latter, such as cleverly designed attempts (risk reduction, hidden rewards, special identities, etc.) - are more suitable for new products that are well-known or have highly vertical target users.

The killer feature is also the area that best demonstrates a marketer's true capabilities. With the same budget and the same product, it is not limited to media placement and routine operations. One must use deep thinking and creativity to achieve outstanding results, which can not only make miracles happen with great effort, but also achieve great results with little effort.

——is a topic that should always be explored with enthusiasm.

VII. Execution Period

Not much to say about execution. Just one point: in the new process, you need to stay vigilant and make flexible adjustments - constantly adjust based on feedback from the first batch of consumers, market trends, and even competitors' strategies.

On the one hand, seize opportunities, such as selling points that have received high praise from consumers, current public opinion and fashion trends, potential partners, etc.;

On the other hand, timely correction is necessary. It is very likely that the early strategy does not meet the real needs of the target population, and flexible adjustments must be made at this time.

8. Review

A new product campaign is finally over, and the last step is:

rest

After a day of rest, you can enter the review phase.

It mainly includes several parts:

• Objective judgment on whether the goal has been achieved (don’t fool yourself, for marketers, making mistakes, wasting money, taking the wrong path... are all valuable experiences)
• Attribution: Through consumer questionnaires or qualitative interviews, we can get the real reasons why users buy or not buy, reach or not reach, are influenced or not influenced.
• Reflection on the strategy and execution levels (requires participation from everyone in the team)
• Subsequent summary and update of working methods

Finally, let me say a few words about my personal feelings. Unlike other types of projects, new product marketing is most directly linked to sales. Therefore, when making every decision and every action, you must think about:

Why should you buy our new products?

Sometimes, it is more important to think more about the negative answers.

Author: Taro and Cat Talk

Source: Taro and Cat Talk