5 Ways to Launch Your Project

Product launch is as much a science as an art. Therefore, it is as important as the whole process of conceptualising and creating the product. Statistics have it that 66% of new products fail within two years, and 99% of all innovations fail to return their cost of capital. The mode of launching the products may not be the whole cause of the failure the statistics talk about, but it definitely goes a long way to determine whether your product will succeed in the market or not.

In the past, people only depended on having a PR team to set up a tour of the product launch. On the big day, they meet up with reporters and read out a monotonous press release about the product and go back home and wait for the reporters to do the rest. This continued until social media came and then Steve Jobs revolutionised how this should be done. Steve Jobs handled each product launch for Apple in an artistically subtle way that marketers and brand experts have considered the ‘Steve Jobs’ formula of product launch. Each launch he handled is believed to have boosted the market sales for Apple products and elevated the brand.

Here are 5 ways to launch your product like Steve Jobs:

1. The Product Launch Should be about Consumers: A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall; so, if you must win the attention of customers, you must, first of all, convince them that you care about their needs and make the product launch all about how the product helps to solve their problems in one way or the other. This is very different from the way most product launches focus on the specifications of the products without analysing how the product helps make the life of consumers easier. Steve Jobs exhibit this principle in every Apple launch he managed. He never focused on iPhone’s screen resolution or its camera because these are facts that consumers will see on the manual or Apple’s website. He rather spoke eloquently about how the product affects the life of the consumer. He talked about consumer’s pursuit of simplicity, style, and productivity and how the phone fits into their deepest desires.

2. You Need Social Media Influencers: one thing Apple does best is to keep everyone talking about their products long before the launch date. This, in a way, sustains the conversation about the new product for a long time that on the day of the launch, it makes it quite easier to get press on the launch. For Apple, you will read bloggers’ reviews about what the product might do, and not what it can do. This is definitely because of the reputation Apple has for breaking new grounds. You may say, ‘Oh, but, I am not Apple’. Yes, this only means there are other ways of going around this. You can give your product to social media influences to try it for free and write a review about it. Aha!

3. Be Unique: One way of getting people to talk about your product is to revolutionise your product in a way that your competitors will be struggling to catch up with you. This way, you don’t need to pursue the press to report about your next product, because they will pursue you as they realise that your product is the real news. Apple uses this strategy in the way it has shown that it is not afraid to change the game in the industry. So when there is a press buzz around their launch, it is because the public knows that they are the real deal. Your product doesn’t have to be Apple to be unique, it just has to give consumers the picture of a future they will like to live in and the product launch will drive its own buzz.

4. Turn the Product Launch into an Event: another lesson that we can learn from Steve Jobs is the way Apple places great importance on the launching event. They don’t settle for a boring press release telling us about the product; instead, you see Steve Jobs on stage taking time to explain the benefits of the product to consumers. You should also turn your launch into an event.

5. Try Apple’s Version of a Sneak Peek: Apple is known to protect its product secret with all its might. In the past, it had even gone the length of totally denying a product it was developing because of leaks. However, one thing it has also down when they have a product launch in the offing is to release minute details about the products to whet the appetite of their customers. You too can do the same to sustain the suspense in your product launch for a long time.Above all, you can let us handle the planning and marketing strategy for your new product. 

Contact TRW Consult today.