How to introduce a new product to the market. Instructions: how a company can bring a new product to market. Launching a new product is a lottery

Elena Nasobina, project manager at Tochka bank for entrepreneurs

Not long ago we launched a product for calculating taxes for individual entrepreneurs. Some clients enthusiastically accepted the new service. They understood that the probability of an error in the calculations of the “machine” was much lower. But among the clients there were also those who were wary of the new service. Some entrepreneurs have been entrusting all calculations only to their accountants for many years and did not want to “trust” a soulless machine. The main snag was that it was very important for them to have their own person who they could turn to at any time.

In many cases, skepticism was overcome thanks to the fact that we sat down with clients and described all the calculations in detail. Or they calculated together using a formula from the tax authorities, why such a sum of contributions was calculated.

There are also clients who really liked the service - they didn’t really want to go into the details of the calculations, but warned: “If something happens, you will be responsible!”

It is difficult to say why this particular product caused skepticism from customers. There is no need to say that people are simply not ready for innovation, because cloud accounting has been on everyone’s lips for a long time.

2. We were not prepared for high demand

Ekaterina Makarova, co-founder of BelkaCar car sharing

When we launched premium car sharing BelkaBlack, we did not expect such a boom. On the day of the announcement, the number of applications exceeded ten thousand - no one was prepared for such a development of events. We sat day and night and solved the problem only a week later, when the number of verifiers doubled.

When you introduce a new product to the market, you should work out as many potential situations as possible: what to do if an emergency happens, where to hire people, from which departments to attract employees, which relatives to call if the team cannot cope. You should have a ready-made solution for all these problems so as not to waste time working through the situation later.

3. Clients did not understand the logic of pricing

Dmitry Zubkov, CEO at Dostavista

Our service urgent delivery currently operates in 10 countries around the world. We launched in India in 2016 - before that there were delivery services there, but our service was a new product: crowdsourced door-to-door delivery in 60-90 minutes.

At first there was a problem with addresses: in Indian cities, only districts and streets are indicated on the map. The buildings do not have numbers. This created difficulties for couriers and customers.

The former often could not find the right address or Google Maps showed them the wrong point on the map, and they simply arrived in the wrong place. And clients did not understand how the tariff was formed. The same delivery could cost differently today and tomorrow.

They “helped” again: if you change at least one letter in the address description, they will consider it a different point. For example, today a client could write: “Mumbai, Link Road, the house is opposite a vegetable shop,” and tomorrow - “Mumbai, Link Road, the house is red, there will be a vegetable shop across the road.” The service, by order of Google Maps, calculated different prices.

We solved the problem by changing the algorithm for calculating tariffs: now the cost is calculated based on the distance between specific small areas, and not points that were previously determined incorrectly. It is still difficult for couriers to find a specific house; it helps to be able to contact the client via chat or phone.

4. We wanted to receive money immediately (but it didn’t work out)

Sergey Shalaev, founder and CEO of Relap.io

In 2014, the Surfingbird team and I began working on a new (at that time) project, Relap.io. We had internal fears - if before we were engaged in a b2c project, now we decided to switch to b2b, since even then we felt an increase in demand for native . But no matter how big Surfingbird was, we understood that we were about to hit a ceiling in terms of inventory growth and were afraid that by doing everything at the same time, we would not succeed anywhere, but we still decided to open up new opportunities for ourselves. And, as it turned out, not in vain.

The main problem was that we wanted to immediately get paid for using recommendation technology with the media. But it didn’t work out that way, since these were not the best of times: media managers simply did not have extra money, and it was very difficult to convince editors and journalists that our algorithms could suggest more interesting content to the reader than the editor.

As a result, we decided to provide our technology for free, which we still do today.

And time solved the problem with installing the widget and the conservatism of the market - the journalists really saw that readers liked our recommendations, they fit naturally into the site’s content and did not cause rejection. Readers began to spend even more time on the site, which affected the amount of advertising inventory at sites. Subsequently, we invited partners to mix recommendations with advertising and earn money with us.

5. Launching a new product is a lottery

Yuri Galtykhin, product manager of JSC Firm MMS (PROLOGY brand)

Bringing a new product to market is always a lottery. You never know how customers will accept a new product until it hits the store shelf. But before the product ends up in the store, you need to go a long way - from developing the product concept to delivering the finished batch. And every stage has its own difficulties.

In electronics manufacturing, the biggest headache is designing the electronic part itself. Let's say we decide to release a new model based on the existing one - but we need to reduce the dimensions of the case and add several functions. In theory, this is not very difficult for car radios: they usually have a lot of free space inside. We install the new main board and check: the sensitivity of the radio tuner has decreased. We're looking into it, and we've found the place where the microcircuit is leaking. We added a metal screen and laid out the board a little differently. We check, the radio is now ok, but the maximum current on the USB ports is not enough to charge the phone. We are looking into it, we found out the reason, and again we installed the board in a new way. We are checking if everything is fine with the radio and USB ports, but we found a new problem. And this could happen twenty more times. And this is not counting the problems with the software, there are also a lot of interesting things there.

Separately, I would like to say that creating a new product is always a compromise. A compromise between price and set of functions and properties, but not between price and quality.

Even when planning the release of a new product, we immediately assign it a place in the product line, set the maximum price and the desired set of functions or properties. And then we try to make sure that the price remains within the limits and that the quality does not suffer. For example, let's take the case. Plastic parts are cast into special molds, and each has a maximum surface angle above which it will be impossible to remove it from the mold without damaging the part. If the design of the device involves the use of complex shapes, then expensive composite molds are used: the cost of the mold itself will be higher, as well as the price of producing one part. If we are approaching the limit of the allotted budget, it would be better to change the body design to use a one-piece mold.

The same applies to the choice of components. Automotive electronics are subject to the highest requirements for reliability and resistance to external influences. If a home TV does not require operation in conditions of very low temperatures or high vibrations, then for a car radio with a display these are normal operating conditions. If you get into a car in winter at -20ºC, you won’t wait half an hour for the display to warm up and start showing something, will you? Therefore, when we choose, say, the same display, we can sacrifice resolution (put a regular display instead of a high-definition display to reduce the price), but this display will still work both at +60 and at -20.

In conclusion, I can’t think of any one product that had a lot of problems during its creation. With every product there are problems when they are launched on the market - without this we have never had one. But any problems can be solved. The main thing is to clearly understand what the product should be, and at all stages of development and production to control quality and compliance with requirements, including the budget. After all, a low-quality or too expensive product will not be sold.

6. We are faced with the fact that the product must be “flexible”

Igor Eremin, founder of the telemedicine service “Mobile Doctor”

When launching the MVP of our telemedicine platform, we were faced with the fact that the product must be super flexible in terms of customization, since partners in telemedicine can also be Insurance companies, and banks, and mobile operators and many others. And everyone has their own tasks and “wants” in terms of functionality.

The solution was to build into the service architecture a lot of “custom” things that were not activated until the first partner appeared from one area or another. For example, functionality for uploading monthly statistics on consultations, activated policies, recording, automatic calculation, and so on. This made development more expensive initially, but saved a lot of time and money in the long run.

7. The main difficulty was in the business model itself

Andrey Myakin, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of the company TNOMER

The biggest difficulty in entering the market was that there were no analogues to our business model. I’ll explain what’s special: the classic service retail model is designed to offer one service in general, for example, only major renovations of an apartment. We have about 50 services that cover all repairs in the apartment, in the house and on the site. That is, we strive to accompany the client at all his life’s turns: after renovating the apartment, we will build a bathhouse, after the bathhouse - a fence, a gazebo, and lighting on the site. Then renovations in a new apartment and so on.

At the same time, we do not construction company, and a platform for three participants in the process: the client, the material manufacturer and the team. These three lines should not intersect with each other; we are the guarantor and representative. Rounding it all out is the TV channel of the same name, which is integrated into the business model to create trust and generate customers, but must exist separately and independently in order to grow an audience, and for this to produce interesting content.

We built such a complex model in about six months, and we are still optimizing it.

Another difficulty is television filming at the facilities that we are repairing. To show viewers the renovation as it is, we film the renovation process, accompanied by expert comments. And in small areas surrounded by 5 tons various materials filming is quite problematic. Therefore, it was necessary to create an interaction algorithm that would allow them to be carried out in such a way that it would not affect the quality and duration of the repair itself: find out in advance about the readiness of the facility, figure out where to put the cameras, how to combine the work of the film crew with the work of the construction crew.

8. It was difficult to convince clinics to work with us

Ekaterina Yakubchik, product manager of the DOC+ mobile clinic

We have a partnership system with clinics: through the application you can make an appointment with highly specialized specialists. There were a number of problems at launch, which will be discussed below.

Problem: finding good clinics

We care about our patients, so we carefully select doctors for our staff, train them and control the quality of each treatment. When we send clients to third-party clinics, we want to be sure that they will receive highly qualified medical care.

Solution

First we researched the market medical services, where they paid attention to the business reputation of the clinics and looked at reviews from clients and doctors. After that, we went to each medical institution as ordinary clients, and at meetings with the management of the clinics we found out how they find doctors and control their quality.

We checked each clinic ourselves. Like ordinary clients, they came to an appointment and looked at what the organization looked like from the inside: is it clean, does the receptionist communicate with you adequately, is the doctor a good person, does he not sell unnecessary services, does he conduct a full examination, does he explain his prescriptions. Then the diagnoses and prescribed treatment were assessed by our head physician.

Once the clinic is connected, it doesn’t end there. We randomly check the quality medical care according to medical records and take feedback from each client about the quality of service.

Challenge: Integrating Online Scheduling and Medical Data

We wanted to make the most convenient product for the user: you go into the application, select the doctor’s specialty, a convenient time and place, make an appointment, and after the appointment you receive all the data in the application. No calls to the clinic, no paperwork - everything is done through the application. This simplification of the patient’s life “complicates” our life: we need to integrate with the clinic’s medical information system in order to have access to their online schedule and receive the results of the patient’s appointment. Our IT resources allow us to do this quickly, but from the MIS (medical information systems) everything turned out to be more complicated.

There are two types of MIS: large players who supply their systems to other clinics, and small clinics with self-written MIS. For large MISs, we are a third-party company that is not even their client, which means that by default we are at the very end of the list of priorities. In the case of self-made MIS, clinics are not IT companies; for them this is a completely non-core story, and resources for any improvements are severely limited. Both the first and second can be understood, but for us integration has become a very serious obstacle.

Solution

In the end, the only strategy that worked was to be patient and constantly make contact until we achieve results. For example, it took us about a year to convince one of the largest players in the market, but in the end we gained access to a large number of partners. So just patience and no magic.

Understand the requirements existing market easily. You are considered to have reached it if your product has better characteristics than those that already exist. Better features mean that your product or service works faster, does something better, or is a significant improvement on an identical product already sold by others. The good news is that consumers and the market are clear. The bad: you have competitors. In reality, competitors define the market. The essence of competition is product characteristics.

You can enter an existing market with a cheaper or niche product, but this is what we call entering a resegmented market.

New product on a new market

Another option is to introduce a new product to a new market. A new market occurs when a company manages to create a large base of consumers who, with the help of a new product, can do what they couldn't do before. This happens when it is possible to launch an innovative product that creates a new brand; a product that costs so much less than before that it attracts new class consumers; or when a new product is so accessible, convenient, and easy to use like no other before it. For example, Compaq created a new market - the laptop market. Another example is Intuit's Quicken program. It was created for maintaining home financial accounting for personal computers: can automatically create payment documents, draw up a payment schedule, calculate the monthly balance - things that many people hate and that very few know how to do well. By offering users similar functions, the program created a market for home accounting. (By “created a market” in this case, I do not mean that the company “introduced a new product into a new market”, but that its market gains - share and widespread distribution of the product are similar to the creation of its market.)

The good thing about a new market is that your product is unique, its characteristics have nothing to compare with and you have no competitors (except - what a shame - other similar startups). The bad thing is that consumers and the market are not defined and known. When you create a new market, the problem is not how to outperform your competitors on the features of your product, but how to convince consumers that your vision is not a hallucination. Creating a new market requires you to understand whether there is a large enough population of consumers who could not do something you now offer them. Can you convince consumers that they need your product and want to buy it? And will consumer perception of the new product fit within life cycle your company. In the case of the formation of a new market, it can be very difficult to plan finances: how to manage money during the stage of familiarization of consumers with the product, how to find very patient investors with very tight wallets.

Does the quality of a product always guarantee its success in the market? Even if it is backed by an affordable price? Unfortunately, not always, and this is especially true if we are talking about a fundamentally new product with which the market is not yet familiar. However, even if you cannot rely on analogues, it is still possible to determine the probability of success of the product.

What you need to know before launching a product on the market

If you see the opportunity to offer something new to the market, this is already good, but not yet enough. When you have an idea for a new product, you should ask yourself a series of questions:

• Does the consumer need this product?
• Are the conditions created in the market for the emergence of a new product?
• Is there an opportunity for its comprehensive promotion?

These questions suggest that when introducing a new product to the market, you need to understand what laws it lives by and be able to make forecasts, both on general market trends and on your own activities. There is nothing impossible about this, since some of these issues are closed after marketing research which will include:

• Studying competitors and their working methods;
• Search for options for highlighting against their background;
• Study of consumer preferences: regarding goods and ways to obtain information about them;
• Segmentation of potential audience.

Have an understanding of what product you will be releasing. Make for yourself a list of characteristics of the ideal product in your opinion. Assess whether you can implement them, and whether the consumer will feel the need for such a product. Conduct a SWOT analysis that will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the product, so you will not only know your advantages, but also be prepared for potential threats. After this, study the channels of communication with consumers, select the most effective and representative ones, through which the first information about the new product will be exchanged.

The novelty didn’t catch on...

A couple more important points:

Easily accessible

Nowadays, few people are interested in using any service or product if it is difficult to get access to them, while analogues do not cause any problems in this regard. This is especially visible in the market software, when a service provider can develop a special service tailored only to itself, while there are already applications that have the ability to integrate with everything necessary. Therefore, it is better to choose as an intermediary a tool that has already been tried by the target audience and is as easy to use as possible, because any extra step cuts off some consumers. Of course, when you invent something of your own, exclusive, then, at first glance, you can earn more from this, but you need to take into account the possible loss of the number of customers.

Price policy

Your product doesn't have to be cheap. But even if you work in the premium segment and count on wealthy clients, you should remember that the price of the product should be affordable. That is, to correspond to the level of products and their quality. That is why nothing prevents manufacturers of expensive smartphones from selling their devices in tens of thousands. An example is Tesla cars, which were not in great demand for more than three years, but with the announcement of a more budget model (which nevertheless cost $35,000), the number of pre-orders significantly exceeded all previous sales in just a couple of days. The concept of the car did not change radically, but the affordable price did its job, and the sought-after product lost its barriers to entry into the market.

Conclusion

When creating an innovative product, you can minimize risks by conducting preliminary research: some you can do yourself, others - with the involvement of third-party companies. By assessing whether the time is right to bring a product to market, understanding customer requirements, and establishing appropriate policies, you can be confident that you will avoid much of the risk.

Do not miss:

New product launch construction organization to the market is a complex, multidimensional and sequential process. In this case, it is necessary to find the optimal solution that meets both the market requirements and the capabilities of the organization.

The introduction of a new product to the market allows a company to establish itself in a specific segment, maintain competitiveness, and expand sales. To reduce the risk of failure in the market when releasing a new product, it is necessary to model the decision-making process that ensures the choice of the optimal option for a new product, strategy and tactics for its sales.

In every work, especially creative work, there is always the problem of maintaining a balance between theory and practical experience. When introducing a new product to the market, many companies try to follow advanced theoretical developments, while any entrepreneur has his own experience of working in the market - both successful and not so successful. When launching a new product, to what extent should one rely on the methodology, and to what extent on one’s own experience? What tools are advisable to use?

We will try to find the answer to this question by considering several methods.

First, a little theory. In order to correctly navigate the market situation, an organization must correctly answer the following questions:

1) determine what product to produce;

2) choose a sales strategy;

3) determine the need for additional research to increase the reliability of the available information.

To solve these issues, it is proposed to use a decision-making mechanism, the multifactor system of which is presented in Fig. 2.3.

Initially, it is necessary to formulate the main goal that the company wants to achieve by releasing a new product.

Next, information is collected on the basis of which decisions will be made. When collecting information, you need to pay attention to the following nuances: it is necessary to consider everything possible options new products, internal capabilities of the company and market conditions.

The multifactor system contains the following main stages of adoption management decisions. It includes the selection of the optimal option for a new product (service), taking into account the potential capabilities of the company and the risk of each option depending on market conditions, takes into account the internal environment of the company, and performs an analysis external environment, which consists of assessing risk based on information about the market conditions commodity market. The criterion for choosing the optimal option is the expected profit. First of all, the optimal marketing strategy for the new product is selected. Based on information about the probability of the occurrence of a particular market state, the possibilities of adjusting the strategy when the external environment changes are considered, the reliability of the choice of a priori probabilities of the occurrence of market conditions is checked when introducing a new product to the market, and the expected utility from clarifying these probabilities is calculated. For this purpose, a decision tree is built.

To launch a new product on the market, we will consider the organizational scheme for selecting options for a new product, taking into account the capabilities of the company. In this case, system analysis is performed in the following sequence:

Creation of a structural model of the system;

Construction of a matrix of relative assessments;

Calculation of the specific weights of each option and determination of priorities.

Creating a multifactor system involves studying the constituent elements and their relationships, grouping these elements according to similar properties and distributing them among levels depending on their subordination to each other. Elements of one level act as targets for elements of a lower level and at the same time are subordinate to elements of a higher level. It is advisable to carry out distribution by levels until it is convenient to compare the selected elements. At the highest level, a global goal is formed that they want to achieve when introducing a new product to the market (Fig. 2.4.).

At the second level, significant factors of the external environment are listed: the organization’s position in the market; provision of the company with all necessary resources; technical capabilities of the organization, etc.

At the third level there are more detailed factors that are supporting elements of the second level factors: the possibilities of product sales channels; availability of a specific type of resource; level of technological automation, production processes etc. At the lower level, selectable options for new construction products are presented.

Thus, it is formed organizational chart selection of product options based on the potential resource capabilities of the construction organization.

The matrix of relative assessments is based on an analysis of the internal environment of the company. It establishes, through comparison, the relative importance of elements at the same level with respect to elements at a higher level.

If all values ​​of relative importance have certain properties, then by calculating the specific weights, it is possible to determine the priorities of the options. For the system shown in Fig. 2.4., we have the following sequence of actions and calculations.

Comparison of second-level elements relative to the main goal.

1. Comparison of elements of the third level relative to the second level.

2. Comparison of new product options relative to the third level.

3. To determine the priority of new product options, it is necessary to calculate specific gravity each option relative to the main goal.

Among all the options, the one that has the maximum specific weight is selected, that is, the maximum value of the specific weight determines the most promising option from the point of view of the company’s resource capabilities. Sorting the obtained specific gravity values ​​in descending order establishes the order of the remaining options for the development of new products.

Thus, an array of priority options has been formed. Consequently, the most promising version of the new product was selected, meeting the real conditions of the organization.

In the process of introducing new products to the market, there are many unpredictable moments and factors independent of the will of the company's managers that must be taken into account. These factors include risk, for which mitigation strategies are being developed simultaneously. The task is to choose from a variety of possible options a management decision with minimal risk. To do this, a table of probabilities of market states and utility is created, in which, for each selected option, the probability and utility for a particular market state are indicated.

Under objective market condition refers to market conditions related to a certain point in time, a situation characterized by the relationship between supply and demand, the dynamics of prices and inventories, the presence of competitors and their position, etc.

Under usefulness you can understand what result the company will have after selling new products, and the result must be expressed quantitatively. After choosing the optimal feasible option for introducing new products to the market, the company’s management needs to make a management decision and develop sales policy, tactics of market behavior, strategy for increasing market share and profit growth.

Wherein, important has the ability to obtain reliable information to make an objective decision. To reduce the uncertainty of the final result, you can consider and analyze the perspective of the company's activities using the theory of Markov chains and Bayesian decision making theory.

To use quantitative methods of analysis, you should create a utility matrix, on the basis of which the optimal sales strategy can be selected. It lists all possible and mutually exclusive, that is, independent, market states, as well as the chosen strategies and possible utilities.

First, the expected utilities of all strategies are calculated, and then the maximum one is selected.

Due to the constant volatility of the market, the company faces the question: how to change its strategy so as not to fall into a crisis situation? In the process of quantitative forecasting of the market situation, it is advisable to use the Markov chain apparatus. The use of this device allows you to make a decision in advance when the market condition changes. The forecasting process uses the transition probability from one state to another.

Any change in some market state will almost certainly lead to a change in utility, that is, it will bring additional profit or loss. These utilities are recorded in the following matrix, which is called the transition utility matrix.

Based on the transition probability matrix and the transition utility matrix, a decision-making matrix is ​​constructed when market conditions change.

Using the information from this matrix, you can find out which strategy should be used in a certain period and in a selected market state.

In marketing practical activities firms often have to compare the costs of obtaining partial (incomplete) information and the costs of finding additional new information to make better management decisions.

The manager must evaluate how much the benefits obtained from additional information cover the costs of obtaining it. In this case, Bayesian decision theory can be applied.

When new information is received, the expected utilities of each strategy are calculated, and then the strategy with the maximum expected utility is selected. With the help of new information, the decision maker can correct prior probabilities , and this is very important when making decisions.

The results of marketing research cannot be absolutely reliable, namely, they cannot exactly coincide with the true state of needs for a given product. Therefore, decision makers use hypothetical different probabilities of coincidence of the obtained marketing research results with the true state of market demand.

The methodology for making management decisions on the launch of a new product seems interesting (Fig. 2.5). Let us describe the model of the management decision-making process for introducing a new product to the market in stages.

Block 1. At this stage, the idea of ​​a new product is formalized.

A description of the product is drawn up, its distinctive features, nuances of technology, competitive advantages– everything that will allow him to find his niche in the market.

Such a description is usually does not contain exact characteristics, such as weight, size, color, etc. Rather, when formalizing the idea, ranges are indicated according to the specified characteristics and consumer qualities are formulated, for example taste, smell, usefulness, convenience, etc.

Here, to a first approximation, we describe differences between the new product and its analogues or direct competitors.

After compiling a product description, it is necessary to analyze it places in the company's current assortment: which products the new product will replace, which ones it will complement. This analysis often leads to the timely refusal to release a new product: for example, because it displaces the most profitable or successfully sold one available.

At this stage, a decision may be made to implement an idea in the form of a separate business.

It is very important, even before launching full-scale product research, to understand what place it will have in the company’s assortment. It is at this stage that the first significant screening of ideas occurs: out of 10-20, 2-3 remain.

Formalization (description according to the diagram) – preliminary requirements (wishes) for sales, production;

Consumer properties of the product;

Planned differences from competitors, etc.;

Comparative sales modeling.

Block 2. Initial study

This block is formed request for market research and technological development of a new product. In this case, the research can and should be small, low-budget, but providing answers to exactly questions asked: how will buyers react to the new product, how much are they willing to pay for it, what analogues do competitors offer?

At the same stage, it is necessary to determine possible options for the technologies used, as well as explore the limitations and capabilities of existing production, the need to purchase new equipment, recruit new qualified personnel, etc.

The combined results of these two studies will give assessing the prospects of working with a new product On the market. It often happens that existing production cannot produce a new product at acceptable market prices, and re-equipment is too expensive.

The analysis will make it possible assess the real capabilities of the company – both internal and external - on the withdrawal of this particular product and discard it in a timely manner, saving a lot of money. In this case, it is better to spend tens of thousands of rubles on research than to lose millions of rubles on equipping a new production facility, relying on intuitive proposals.

Rice. 2.5. – Model for making management decisions on bringing a product to market

In addition, at this stage a decision may be made to place a new product in one of the existing production facilities, to find and analyze the capabilities of a potential supplier, to market possible alternative channels, etc.

Methods/tools used:

Request for marketing research (technical specifications) – parameters, criteria, completeness and depth, resources, deadlines;

Marketing research - methods are selected depending on the specific request and product: open sources, sample surveys, etc.;

Production diagnostics – modeling of capabilities.

If a decision is made to produce a product outside own production it is necessary to obtain prototypes of the future product , manufactured in accordance with technical specifications, and not “model samples” of the manufacturer. At this stage expedient send engineers or technologists to future production so that they can analyze not only the quality of the resulting product, but also quality of organization of its production.

At this stage, real production possibilities are analyzed, the cost of a new product is modeled, and its economic feasibility for the company is determined.

Upon completion of this stage, a decision is also made on the advisability of launching a new product into mass production.

Methods/tools used:

Technical specifications (TS) for the product - technical and technological characteristics, requirements for raw materials, materials and equipment, restrictions, etc.;

Examination of samples - expert assessments, “focus groups”, “quality circles”, etc.;

Cost calculation - in accordance with accepted accounting standards and rules; accounting for overhead costs, variable costs, etc.

Additionally: "test sales" Sometimes, for completely new products on the market, it makes sense to prepare and conduct so-called “test sales”.

This method is used very often trading companies– they have this term “let’s take it for testing.”

When organizing “trial sales”, it is necessary to draw up a precise sales program: what exactly do we want to test through this promotion? In no case should you set yourself the goal of selling a trial batch of a product with a planned profit - it is much more important to check the accuracy of the choice of packaging, price, promotion methods, and sales channels.

Methods/tools used:

“Test sales” program – tasks, conditions, methods, deadlines;

Organization of “trial sales” – logistics, instructing sellers, collecting information;

Analysis of results – it is possible to use SWOT analysis in a reduced volume.

Block 3. Clarifying research.

The tasks of this block of work: development of precise technical specifications (and technical specifications– TU) on the parameters and external design of the product, indicating the necessary technical characteristics(color, size, weight, etc.), determining the most effective sales channels and methods of promotion, clarifying the price range and obtaining other information necessary for drawing up a business program (business plan) for the launch and promotion of a new product.

At this stage, regular monitoring of the needs and preferences of the company’s clients, as well as the competitive situation in the market, is carried out. In addition, research in this block may be less expensive if the previous steps in the method have been worked out carefully and successfully.

At this stage, the following is determined: the product name, the main positioning parameters, as well as the most significant aspects of the promotion strategy. It should be taken into account that the work of this block is closely related to the next stage of bringing the product to the market.

Methods/tools used:

Request for marketing research (technical specifications) – parameters, criteria, completeness and depth, resources, deadlines;

Marketing research program – development, implementation:

Marketing research - methods are selected depending on the specific request and product: open sources, sample surveys, etc.;

Analysis of results.

Block 4. Trial production.

A very important stage, at the end of which it becomes clear to what extent the calculations coincide with reality. In production, this stage is also known as the “prototype”.

Product samples are made and undergo comprehensive technical and technological examination. Packaging options are being checked.

It is specified here profitprofitability (profitability) of the future product.

Upon completion of this stage, the product production technology, its weaknesses, and possible risks are clarified.

Block 5. Product launch (promotion) program.

The results of the third and fourth blocks of work (and sometimes “trial sales”) provide the basis for the development of a business program (business plan) for the launch and promotion of a new product. The detail and elaboration of this program depends on the specific situation: product, market segment, degree of saturation, etc.

For example, the program may consist of the following sections:

Description of the product (including its strengths and weaknesses);

Product positioning;

Sales markets and target audience;

Sales policy (including a description of the “ideal” buyer);

Sales channels (existing, new);

Sales promotion (tools used);

Individual special marketing projects and their implementation (special projects aimed at promoting a new product, for example participation in an exhibition, “promotions”, etc.);

Trading conditions (relationships with customers) and pricing policy;

Marketing budget.

When developing the program, all available information from the market and production is checked again, and calculations are clarified. Ideally, the program should undergo examination.

It is quite possible that experts will find significant flaws in it that will force them to either return to previous levels or even abandon the release of a new product.

The most loyal clients, independent market specialists, partners, management and marketing specialists and consultants can be involved as experts at this stage.

Methods/tools used:

The structure of the promotion program – the required volume, degree of detail;

Program examination – expert assessments, results of “trial sales”, customer surveys, etc.;

SWOT analysis – the presence and content of winning promotion strategies.

Block 6. Bringing the product to market.

Based on the program obtained in block 5, a detailed plan work with a new product for the marketing and sales departments, accordingly the production plan is adjusted.

According to experts, for a period of one to two years a new product should be in the area of ​​close attention of all top managers. Constant monitoring of the situation will allow timely identification and correction of errors and inaccuracies. This minimizes the risk of failure with a new product. But there will always be mistakes and blunders, since even the most large-scale and expensive research does not provide a one hundred percent guarantee of success.

The method is considered effective allocation of a separate “product manager”, assigned to a new product. The entire “chain” should be in the area of ​​his attention and control - from the purchase of raw materials to final sales. The task of the “product manager” is to promptly inform management about any cases, when the actual development of the situation deviates from the planned plans and indicators. It would be logical to tie his salary to the results of serial sales of this product.

Methods/tools used:

The structure of the promotion program – the required volume, degree of detail;

The production plan is dynamic, including an adjustment mechanism;

Cost adjustment program - based on actual labor costs;

Algorithm and plan for launching the product into production;

Distribution of control functions - for the period of launch and delivery to “design capacity” of a new product.

Consideration of methods allows you to break down the entire project to launch a new product into separate stages, after each of which a decision is made to move forward with the project or exit it.

Each stage has a certain cost and a specific result. Depending on the situation in the company and on the market, one or another stage of the product can be significantly reduced or skipped altogether.

The concept outlined here for bringing a new product to market requires some ingenuity in putting it into practice and making real improvements in the company's work on new products. Answers to vital questions “how?”, “in what way?”, “in what ways?” not so easy to generalize. A new product launch program that is successful in one case may be unsuitable, and often dangerous, in another. That is why we focused on the fundamental steps - the stages of the project to bring a new product to the market. The presented diagram is general algorithm working on a new product. It takes into account most of the “commandments” and allows you to remember them. For complex situations (an innovative product, a saturated market, etc.), the diagram can be detailed and supplemented with other necessary blocks.

Prostova, N., Renard, A. Launching a new product on the market // Journal of company management. – 2005. – No. 10 (53).

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Stages of bringing a new product to market

The process of bringing a new product to market requires a significant amount of preliminary work. Preparing to launch a product on the market can be divided into five stages:

Stage 1. Development of a marketing strategy

The purpose of this stage is to identify the most promising market segments or select target audience using market situation analysis.

To achieve the company's goal, it is necessary to conduct various studies of consumers, their behavior and attitude towards the product; as well as sales and promotion methods used in target market. Possession of such information will allow the company to identify the most promising market segments from the point of view of the product being promoted. As a result of analyzing this information, the company develops one or more suitable marketing strategies.

Stage 2. Defining the concept

At this stage of new product development, it is especially important for the company to work with potential consumers. It is their opinion that should be decisive in the process of developing the concept of a new product. Marketing research tools such as brainstorming with experts, creative group discussions and in-depth interviews are used to generate conceptual ideas.

Note 1

The analysis of the developed concept is carried out according to the SWOT scheme - the strengths and weaknesses of the product, market opportunities and market threats are identified.

Stage 3. Create a product formula

This stage consists of testing various characteristics of the product: from its taste, color, planned and possible functionality, etc., to the attitude of consumers towards the product. Testing is conducted among consumers using focus groups and quantitative research and helps determine the optimal formula for a new product.

Note 2

With the help of focus groups, hypotheses are put forward that require testing using quantitative research methods.

Stage 4. Reinforcement finished product

The finished product is reinforced through branding, packaging and other elements of the marketing mix. This stage of entering the market involves testing the name trademark, packaging and other elements of the company’s communication policy, as well as determining customer sensitivity to price.

Stage 5. Comprehensive brand testing

Before the product is directly launched into the market, final testing is carried out, which gives the company the opportunity to make a final decision on whether to introduce the product or not.

Possible reasons for failure

• “Inadequate idea” of management - sometimes the head of an organization overestimates his knowledge of the market, and employees do not draw his attention to negative factors and possible problems;
• The product does not meet the needs of consumers - a typical situation for technically complex products: technical specialists direct all efforts to improve the product using new technologies, without taking into account the needs of the target audience;
• Lack of preliminary research - entering the market without marketing research or its low quality leads to the company receiving irrelevant information and, accordingly, erroneous management decisions;
• Lack of control or insufficient control;
• Expectation of immediate effect from launching a new product on the market;
• Incorrect selection or implementation of elements of the marketing mix;
• Delay in market entry

Features of bringing a product to market in Russia

The process of introducing a new product to the market in Russia is specific, which is expressed in the following:

• The short deadlines are explained by the instability of the economy and market, as well as the low level of strategic planning. Getting a product to market quickly allows you to stay ahead of your competitors, but increases the risk of failure.
• Voluntarism - the creation of a new product is initiated by management, and not by market necessity;
• Priority of the product over the consumer - when developing a product, insufficient attention is paid to the potential consumer;
• Orientation to Western models - when developing new products, the experience of Western companies, foreign technologies, imported raw materials, etc. is used.
• “Pseudo” products – products made from other, cheaper analogue ingredients or components are sold under a well-known brand, which allows them to reduce production costs.