Effectively Launch New Products

Bringing products to market is the most expensive activity of the product development process. Successful launches of new products and services have clear financial benefits, but also support your organization overall in delivering value to customers.    

Studies have shown that, for most companies, only 1% of new ideas become product concepts and of those, only 25% become profitable products. This means that most new product ideas fail to create value for customers. Even though many companies use a Stage-Gate process to manage the risk of new product and service development, many have delivered disappointing results. 

To identify best practices regarding product and service innovation, Gelb worked with the American Productivity & Quality Center to conduct several benchmarking studies. Gelb conducted site visits and interviews with several innovative Fortune 500 companies such as 3M, Xerox and Sony. The insights from these benchmarking studies have helped us see how world class companies use market information to understand customer needs, develop valued products and services, and nurture innovative cultures.

The process of commercialization is often complex as there are internal pressures to make something happen. The temptation is to rush to market, rather than develop the right strategy. Companies who fail to plan, plan to fail.

Our approach to helping clients bring products and services to market builds on the philosophy of understanding customer needs and market dynamics. We begin by helping our clients define their concept in customer-centric terms (e.g., focusing on benefits as well as features). These concepts are then evaluated by decision-makers and industry experts to help guide refinements for greater market acceptance, and to identify key market segments. This allows you to identify critical success factors for market entry.  

Using this guidance, our process concludes with the development on a business case, the potential market risks and benefits during the launch. We then support your efforts in developing a launch plan with both marketing and operational components.