The product launch is one of the most visible activities within a company.

Subject to intense scrutiny both internally and externally, a product launch is quickly deemed a success or failure by traditional media, influential bloggers, your competitors, and your customers as they aim their laser focus on your product and its strengths and weaknesses.

Heniz EZ Squirt Purple Ketchup

In October of 2000, Heinz unleashed "Funky Colored" ketchups on the unsuspecting world, offering food coloring-enhanced ketchups in purple, orange, pink, teal, and blue colors, perhaps as a subversive way of reminding all consumers just how synthetic the foods that we eat really are. While this may have been all the rage with the kids, children don't buy ketchup adults do.

The company decided to ignore the outcries of Coca-Cola loyalists during focus group testing, saying that they tended to skew the results, which would later prove to be a very important decision when New Coke came to market that year. While much of the soda-drinking public were fine with the change, a small, very vocal group of Coca-Cola psychos were not cool with the new formula, and made it known to anyone who would listen to them (which apparently included journalists). A psychiatrist Coca-Cola had hired to listen in on the company's customer service hotline described some callers as sounding like they were discussing the death of a family member. Within three months, Coca-Cola announced they would be reintroducing the original formula, and that people could stop boycotting Coke.

However, instead of simply pretending it never happened, Coca-Cola released "Coke Classic" as an alternative option to New Coke. But after its reintroduction, many believed that the reintroduced Coke wasn't the same as the original. And they were right: the company had changed the formula, now using high fructose corn syrup instead of cane sugar as a sweetener.

Despite this, Coca-Cola somehow managed to surpass the sales numbers they'd had before the whole New Coke debacle, taking over the number one spot from Pepsi

Aspects

WAS THE PRODUCT RELEASED ON TIME?

Product may be late due to any number of reasons: Development delays, problems with manufacturing ramp-up, financial delays, and even last minute, delays. If your launch was late, you need to determine how this affected sales, your company's reputation, and any negative press your company suffered. Also figure out why the delays happened in the first place - were these things beyond your control or can you make changes for future launches?

AS THE PRODUCT RELEASED AT THE RIGHT TIME?

Many organizations don't understand when is the right time to launch a new product and instead release it for the following vague reasons:

It's ready to go to market, even though the market might not be ready for it
It's being introduced at a major industry tradeshow

A competitor just launched a similar product, so you need a "me too" response

Once your product has been launched, go back and analyze how the market or your industry reacted to it. Was response highly favorable, or downright brutal?

If your product was in the pipeline for years, the original product strategy and Business Case may have become outdated as changes occurred in your industry, causing you to miss your market window. Did you make adjustments to these changes or forge full-steam ahead? Once your product hit the market, did it employ the latest technology or was it already a generation behind?

DID YOU ENGAGE THE SALES FORCE?

Engaging the sales force through sales training plays a huge role in the success of a product launch. As a product manager conducting a post-launch audit, you want to evaluate how sales reacted not only to the product, but the pre-launch and post-launch activities. You can easily solicit feedback from sales via the free online survey tools such as Zoomerang or Survey Monkey. Ask for feedback on the following:

Training materials Were the training materials, sales kits and other marketing collateral ready for hand out - or did they get stuck somewhere in transit Message comprehension Were you able to walk sales reps through the various marketing pieces and lead generation campaigns and the purpose/goals of each one? Did they understand the message? Were you able to communicate the value proposition of your product and how it compared to competitive products? Or did your value proposition miss the mark?

Customer feedback
Get anecdotal evidence from sales on how customers reacted to the new product. What challenges did customers bring up during sales calls? Does your product address these issues?

WERE OPERATIONAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS SET UP AND READY TO GO?

One reason product launches don't succeed is because product managers forget to manage the "unseen" operational systems, such as ensuring customer service reps can take orders for new products. At a Product Strategy workshop, for example, one new product manager confessed that she didn't know to set up the product codes and prices into her company's ordering and billing systems - hence, customer service reps and sales people couldn't fulfill orders.

For your post-audit review, evaluate the following "back-office" tasks to determine what went well and what can be improved next time: Did customer service reps have enough information to answer questions about your product? Were all support systems operational for the launch, including ordering, billing, and shipping functions? Did you run into order fulfillment delays? What caused them and how can this problem be rectified in the future?

Steps in audit
Internal audit Company analysis ( goals, culture, strengths and weaknesses) analysis of 4Ps of marketing Product : brand name , quality, packing Price: discount, payment term, discount Place : distribution channel, location Promotion:

External audit
Main competitors SWOT analysis of competitors Market segmentation PEST analysis Marketing objective and strategies for new products ( market share objective, profitability objective, sales objective)

Demographic statistics Psychographic statistics ( customer class) Behavioral segmentation Alternative marketing plan for 4 Ps