The Perfect Launch
From: Jon LaClare
Subject: How do you know the best way to launch your product?
Launching a new product is hard. Even with the perfect product, if you make a misstep with the pricing, the messaging, the packaging or the advertising, it may never get off the ground.
We developed the Perfect Launch system that combines our experience from 15 years of launching products that now total over $2 billion in sales. When you follow this approach, on average, your results can be 20 times better versus traditional marketing campaigns. Read on to learn the 9-step Perfect Launch System and to see how it was implemented in two example case studies...
It wasn’t always this easy. I left my career in public accounting when I figured out that my true passion was marketing. One of the first classes I took while earning my MBA at the University of Chicago was called New Product Marketing. When I enrolled, I had grand visions of learning how to invent a product and bring it to market. Unfortunately, I only learned techniques that could be used by big companies with bottomless pockets. It was heavy on theory and light on real-world applicability.
I took my first marketing job with Kraft/Nabisco, and I quickly moved into a new product marketing role. I had some success relaunching Planters Almonds, bringing $3 million in incremental sales to that business the first year. Then I helped launch the Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs that eventually became a $100 million business. I was “classically trained” in new product marketing, but I still hadn’t figured out how to launch a product without a big organization behind me.
My next step was as a Brand Manager for Orange Glo (the OxiClean company). This was a much more entrepreneurial venture, and it was here that I really started to hone the Perfect Launch System. While managing OxiClean new product launches and running the Kaboom! business during the Billy Mays days, I finally developed the skills necessary to help inventors and entrepreneurs launch their products.
That’s when I left OxiClean to found Harvest Growth. Since 2006, we have launched hundreds of products on TV, online and into retail. In the traditional infomercial launch process, there is a lot of luck involved. Even the best companies in the infomercial industry, the ones that launch 50 to 100 products per year and have been marketing on TV for 20 to 30 years, have a 5% to 10% success rate. They make enough money from their rare home runs, that the successes more than pay for the failures. And their $50k to $75k launch budgets are small to them as they look at their businesses as a whole since a successful TV launch can generate $20 million to $300 million or more in revenue.
A “classic” retail launch like those done by Kraft Foods and P&G costs $2 million or more just to get off the ground. An infomercial launch costs much less, but it’s still at least $50,000 or more. And both approaches have a success rate of 10% or less. That’s a lot of risk for an inventor or entrepreneur to take on. The Perfect Launch System that we developed at Harvest Growth costs an average of $15,000, and our success rate has been 60%. There is no other marketing platform that delivers a scalable marketing program with that high of a success rate, and I’ll teach you exactly how the system works.
But first, let me share a couple of examples of the Perfect Launch system in action.
Pony Up Daddy is a saddle that dads or moms wear to take their kids on “pony” rides.
Over the past 30 days, the campaign has reached over 5.5 million people, and more than 2 million have engaged with the marketing campaign (they have liked, commented or shared). In a pure social media campaign, those are great metrics, but in our Perfect Launch System, ROI is the most important data point. We analyze the ROI, or Return On Investment, by calculating the total revenue earned per dollar spent on marketing. A campaign is considered successful when at least $2 in revenue is earned for every $1 spent on media. This is a business that is scalable. When you make money with your marketing expenditures, you can funnel those dollars back into marketing and harvest the growth potential of your product. Pony Up Daddy is a privately held business, so their revenue figures are confidential, but if you spend much time on Facebook, it’s likely that you have seen the Pony Up Daddy marketing campaign, and that is because the campaign is very profitable so they are able to achieve a very wide reach with their audience. When profits aren’t earned, a business can’t afford to scale up to that level.
I’ll share another example without revealing the company name so I can share their detailed results. It’s a household good priced at $14.99. This client had a limited budget, and they just wanted to prove the concept in order to get a license deal. We spent $2,000 on media and generated $4,621 in revenue, an ROI of 2.31. That means that for every $1 they spend on marketing, they will generate $2.31 in total revenue. With that return, you can quickly grow this business because every dollar you spend on marketing is profitable.
The website conversion rate was 8.99%, significantly above the 3% to 5% normally achieved for this type of product. We reached 118,812 people and had 3.4% of them click through to the website, generating a Cost Per Click of $0.49. 1,570 people “liked” the page, 49 people commented, and 354 shared, and that helped generate total engagement of 60,396 people, with over 56,000 of them watching the video. These are very strong results, and after this small test, we were able to secure a license deal for this client with one of the largest As Seen On TV marketers that is now taking the product on to TV and into retail.
These successes were brought about by our Perfect Launch System, and neither of them would have achieved the same result under the traditional retail or infomercial models by themselves. There are 9 simple steps to follow in the Perfect Launch system that help to maximize results in a product launch:
Product Immersion: We kick-off the process with a deep dive discussion where we get fully up to speed on every important detail of your product and your business goals. Our team then tests out the product (when available) to fully understand the consumer experience.
Industry Intensive Category & Competitive Review: After launching hundreds of products over the past 10+ years, we are able to tap into our experience to gain insight on any best practices for your product. We then execute a category and competitive analysis to discover how to position your product best in front of your most sought after customers.
Consumer Insights: This very crucial step in the process is where we often learn the most by going straight to consumers to ask questions that help us define each important piece of the marketing mix. This quantitative research is executed via a paid online survey to 100+ consumers of your likely target audience.
Offer Development: We put together a campaign P&L and 2-year pro forma tailored to your product so there is a clear vision of financial growth and how to get there.
Messaging Mastery: By applying learnings from our preparation steps, we now get into creative development including the video script and/or story board, ad copy/headlines, and call to actions.
Video Production: Once the messaging is approved, our team produces a 30-60 second professional product video.
Launch Campaign: The initial phase of the campaign is now live and setup on Facebook, Instagram, and third party apps/websites with your end goal in mind to maximize growth towards that direction.
Optimize Campaign: This is where we get detailed. We will execute and monitor 5-10 phases of paid Facebook/Instagram campaigns while continuously applying adjustments in order to further perfect the target audience, ad copy, placement, and any other levers that positively impact results.
Harvest Growth: Develop a roll-out strategy aimed at accomplishing your business goals including one or more of the following most common paths:
Grow Online Revenues
National TV
Retail
HSN/QVC
License Deal
International Distribution
The Perfect Launch process is perfect for improving the odds of success for a new product launch, for turning around struggling launches or for generating incremental revenue for existing marketing campaigns. TV is still the goal for many of our clients because it does a better job of driving retail sales, but the Perfect Launch System is a great option to start with even if TV is your ultimate goal. We learn so much through this process that the odds of success for your TV launch go way up when you start with the Perfect Launch System.
Contact our office today to learn how the Perfect Launch System can help your business grow. We are happy to answer questions, or we can help you implement the entire 9-step process to ensure a flawless execution.
To your success!
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