Article Review

Why Most Product Launches Fail:Most of the FMCG new launches usually are not well received by people as shown in research conducted by
the consultant Jack Trout who has found that American families, on average, repeatedly buy the same 150 items, which constitute as much as 85% of their
household needs; it’s hard to get something new on the radar.
Hence the research shows how revolutionary products launched by FMCG brands often fail to make a huge impact
In some cases, they might have to be taken off the market because lack of acceptance from consumer side.
The 5 reasons that have been stated to explain the cause or product fail are:
• UNABLE TO SUPPORT FAST GROWTH: Lack of capacity in proper mass production of product might lead to deterioration of quality of product.
Nowadays with rising power of social media review the effect of selling bad product to people can break a companies reputation and force it to
take the product off the market, resulting in huge loss. Hence, in order to not fail the process of ramping up production of a product that has
been well accepted my market should be done carefully and there should be a well chalked out fool-proof plan for the purpose.
• PRODUCT FALLS SHORT OF CLAIMS AND GET BASHED: Companies should be careful of making tall claims about a new product they are
launching If they are unable to deliver, consumers are bound to express anger on social media and thereby ultimately the product has to be
pulled off from the market.
• THE NEW ITEM EXISTS IN A PRODUCT LIMBO: Here, due to lack of market research and knowing about the exact demand of people if a
company launched an innovative product , the product is bound to be not a success. The launch of such product exposes the actual demand of
the people and a re-launch is required.
• The product defines a new category and requires substantial consumer education—but doesn’t get it: Proper education or advertisement
of how to use a new category product is needed or else this will lead to massive confusion among customers and ultimately will result in untimely
with-drawl of product from market
• The product is revolutionary, but there’s no market for it.: The product is not apt for the current market and is way too revolutionary hence
acceptance rate of the product will be low among the mass despite it’s sheer brilliance in innovation
What we interpret from the article is that the axiom “ If you build it, they will come” is not always not that simple for launching an innovative
product in consumer market. A company should not just invest in R&D of product manufacturing but also invest time in analyzing the market
and know it’s target consumer and their demands properly before launching of a product based on just secondary market research. From this
article we understand the importance of primary research since consumers acceptability will make and break the success of a product.
From the first point of 5 flaws we understand that we cannot compromise with quality of the product, so before ramping up production we have
to make sure that not only production capacity is increased but also quality has not been compromised anywhere in the process.
In the second point we understand that consumers cannot be treated as a fool and we cannot push a half-made service-based product with
faults on them. Instead of assigning huge amount of money on marketing it was important to introduce a full-finished flawless product in
market. The reputation of the product could have spoken for itself and it’s key marketing could have just been it’s efficiency here and instead of
advertisements satisfied customer reviews/words of mouth would have been enough to create it’s demand.
In the third point, we understand that when the fmcg product is under food and beverage category, it is always important to directly interact
with consumers to know exactly what they want and design the product accordingly. The dire need for primary research here becomes
extremely important.
In 4th point we realize not only should we push a newly launched product through advertisements but also make sure to make the message in
advertisement is clear and crisp for the mass to understand. Otherwise due to sheer confusion a brilliant product might have to be pulled off
market. A strong educational campaign may be a better way to go. The product’s features provide the messages to build brand voice, aided by
research and development teams, outside experts, and consumers who’ve tested and love the product.
In 5th point, we answer the question who will buy the product before launching one in market. A product maybe be innovatory but if the
customers are still not ready to accept it , there is no market for the product.
The basic idea of this article hence is to make us understand the fundamental need to ask the questions who are my customers?
Why will they purchase it? What do they actually want? Do they understand my product’s usage in their daily life?. We also do understand
another thing, which is end of the day how crisp and catchy your advertisement is the quality of the product and it’s usability is what will help it
to stay in the market.