PERCEPTION MAKER MOMENT: 4 Areas to Effectively Achieve Your Desired Perception For a New Product!

When an established company discovers a true new market need and develops a product or service that can meet this new need (and is first to market), this can quite literally shape the future of your entire company. Not just with the promise of a potentially new growth engine for the organization, but with how the company will be perceived in the market place.

How you launch this product or service will dictate if the market sees you as unique, innovative, “manipulative” (there really wasn’t a market need – you just are forcing it down their throats type of thing), visionary, responsive and on and on. This perception may lead to how you can launch all future products that you develop. It may drive how you learn/discover market needs. So the key is to get it right (or as close to right as possible).

It all starts with Perception Management. When you were discovering and/or identifying this new market need, how did you do it? If you reviewed all the available published data, did primary research with a core group of existing customers and a group of perspective customers, developed product scenarios and tested those as well, then you were certainly traveling down the right path….BUT, that isn’t enough anymore. That is too old school. In today’s 15-second attention span theater, you must kick this process up a few notches.  

4 Key Areas For Ensuring Your New Product Launch Achieves Desired Results

INTERNAL PERCEPTIONS: Learn exactly how your company is perceived by it’s employees (this means what do they believe about your culture, your company’s vision, company leadership and all products and services). Why is this important? Because whether you are a company of 20 or 2000, every employee is a walking/talking piece of marketing collateral. If employees have a strong understanding of the “who you are” and the “why you exist” they are much happier in their roles and will speak positively to others about the company, products and services. Super important that everyone is on the same page here.

CURRENT EXTERNAL PERCEPTIONS: Take the appropriate time (and spend of resources) to learn exactly how your company, products and services are currently perceived in your market areas. This is vital and serves as an excellent baseline for growth. If you already have a perception that is counter to what you are trying to achieve as a company, then you have a possible uphill battle when it comes to launching new products.

I was in charge of Marketing for a company that was seen as “old school” – great quality, solid product mix, but no exciting innovation when it came to the way their products looked or were packaged for consumers. I learned that it wasn’t only distributors of our products that believed this but also actual consumers who used our products for years held this same belief. You can imagine when my team developed a completely new and innovative line of products, the challenge we had in convincing the market that we “changed” our way of thinking around product development but didn’t compromise our quality .  

NOTE:  If anyone wants the specifics on “how” I was able to accomplish this – contact me directly, I am happy to share.

PERCEPTUAL MAPPING FOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: Internally decide how you want your products or services that you are launching to be perceived in the market. NO this isn’t as simple as creating a “value proposition” and go to market strategy. Again, times have changed and to be successful, you must evolve along with them. First clearly define exactly how you want to be perceived, then map out an exact process on how you will get there. This requires a few strategic steps:

• If you do have a clear market opportunity already defined, develop a product or service that specifically meets this need and test the specs repeatedly through primary market research. Be sure you cover every area that could be “misperceived.” As questions around the look, feel, performance, packaging (colors, textures…literally everything). This serves as your baseline for moving forward and tweaking as needed.
• Develop messaging based on all the data inputs you learn so that you can be perceived the best and closest way possible to your goal and desired outcome. Then develop the right type of collateral to communicate this messaging (and again, do your research and learn how folks like to be communicated with. Involve your sales teams since they are the front line. Ask them what tools work best for them). And super key here: consistency of message, look, feel and frequency.
• Message testing follow up – at 60 days, test your messaging and ensure what you want to be perceived is in fact, being understood that way. Tweak as necessary to be sure you remain on track. Do again at 120 days and then at the 180-day mark post launch. Do this properly ensure a strong recall for your message and that you have the right communication out in the market for how you want to be perceived. I am always stunned that very few companies do this step well or at all.

PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT – RINSE AND REPEAT: Once you see the adoption you want for your product or service, you will want to quarterly do a spot check on how things are being perceived.  Make tweaks appropriately to keep on the perception course you want.  It is also a good idea to do this internally as well (if not quarterly, semi-annually). Being sure your employees and your market are always on the same page adds to your credibility. And, you get an added benefit of having your employees have extra pride in working for a company that communicates so well.

Folks, these steps are dynamic and follow a proven methodology that has worked for literally hundreds of products and services I have been involved with. It works whether you are developing something completely new and are first to market or if you are essentially a “me too” type of product in a mature market. 

Want to learn more? Want help with your next product ideation or market launch? Contact me directly  linkedin.com/in/drosenbergperceptionmanagement   Let’s connect!

Change your market perception and your change your product outcome!