With more than 30,000 consumer products introduced to the market each year, there’s certainly no shortage of new items lining the physical or virtual store shelves. Keeping the pipeline of innovation going and continually looking to improve their offering and provide a better experience for their clients is the only way for companies big and small to stay ahead of the grueling competition in their respective industries and keep up with consumers’ fast-shifting needs and expectations. 

However, many of the goods that different providers develop in the hope that they might capture new customers and increase their revenue never make it into the spotlight, while another considerable share is discontinued or taken out of circulation soon after launch. It is estimated that as many as 95% of all new products end up failing, wiping out all the time and resource expenditure put into creating them. 

If you think larger companies are somehow exempt from this phenomenon, you’d be wrong. Bigger players simply have more funds available that allow them to gloss over these types of blunders and move forward. Google Glass, Samsung Galaxy Note 7, Microsoft’s Zune, Windows Vista, McPizza, and New Coke are all examples of big companies getting it terribly wrong with their new launches, proving that no business is immune to product failure. 

But the untimely end of so many products shouldn’t be in vain. There are some hard lessons to be learned here, so if you don’t want your future products to suffer a similar fate, you need to understand why failure happens and what you can do to avoid it. 

Inadequate market research 

A classic rookie mistake that even versed companies make is conducting hasty or superficial market research. While startups and smaller enterprises might be new to market research and not know the ropes yet, larger companies that have been through this process in the past tend to become complacent and start cutting corners. 

This stands as the root of (almost) all evils in product development as it branches out into numerous issues that eventually lead to failure. Some of these consequences include the inability to identify customer needs correctly, creating products that don’t solve any real problems, launching too soon (or too late), setting the price wrong, underestimating the competition, and so on. 

Since you can’t build a strong and successful project on a frail foundation, the obvious solution here is to invest as much time and focus as possible into market research. This means you have to employ the right methods and strategies to collect relevant information and gain a thorough understanding of who your target audience is and what they need and expect from you so you can spot gaps in the market and achieve product-market fit. You might also want to consider letting a third party handle the market research process if you don’t have the means to carry out a thorough assessment yourself. 

Production issues 

Another capital sin in product development is not being able to deliver the level of quality that customers expect due to production issues. The journey a product takes from concept to completion is long and riddled with many challenges, so issues can arise at every stage of the manufacturing process. Left unchecked, minor errors and inconsistencies can turn into major problems and jeopardize the success of the project. 

Even if your plan seems perfect on paper, you need to make sure everything runs smoothly when you put it into practice. For that, you need to implement a robust and goal-oriented quality management system (QMS) that can ensure efficiency, safety, and quality at every level and across all operations. Many companies in different industries adhere to ISO 9001 standards to consistently meet customer expectations and deliver quality products. The first step in this direction is to familiarize everyone with ISO 9001 principles and procedures, which can be done via ISO courses online. Adequate training guarantees all parties involved in the production process understand their tasks and responsibilities in upholding ISO standards and are able to keep your QMS running smoothly after implementation. 

Ignoring customer feedback 

Effective market research can help you start off on the right foot and increase the odds of a trouble-free launch. But one shouldn’t assume that just because a product was well-received, it’s going to continue on a positive trajectory indefinitely. Problems can appear even along the way and ruin what seemed to be a success initially, so you can’t afford to rest on your laurels and turn a deaf ear to customer feedback.   

Listening to your customers is just as important during the development phase as it is after launch. You need to keep in touch with your audience so you can stay up to date with how your product is doing and make the necessary adjustments or fix errors in due time. Moreover, if you didn’t do your homework as required before rolling the product into the market, you still have a chance at righting the wrongs if you simply pay attention to your audience’s feedback and respond accordingly. 

Ineffective marketing 

You can create a great product that checks the boxes for quality, efficiency, value for money, and timeliness but still fails to grab customers’ attention and convince them your product is worth it. That’s because the intrinsic qualities that all items possess are just half of what makes them stand out from the crowd. The other half is marketing and sales prowess. 

You should focus on making your products known to the world by emphasizing their unique features and the benefits they provide. You also need to employ a variety of marketing channels, such as direct email, social media, influencer marketing, paid advertising, and so on, to ensure your message reaches the right ears. 

Always keep in mind that new products are particularly vulnerable and have many points of failure. So, you have to be extra careful and make sure you cover all your bases when getting ready to bring a new product to the market. The more thorough you are, the higher the chances of achieving a successful launch.

Published By: Aize Perez