What You Need To Know Before Your New Product Offering is Launched
The hardest work of a new product offering happens before the launch itself. The research and conversations you have before your brand enters the market or a new product offering hits the shelf are critical to your success. Yet, when you’re new to the market, you might feel like you don’t have enough information to get the strong start you want.
Fortunately, that’s a lot easier when you have the right data. The more you know about your product category and the overall market, the better you can make informed decisions that set yourself up for a successful product launch and lasting relationships with retailers.
When you find the right data partner—and get the data you’re looking for—you can find the answers to 3 important questions every brand needs to answer before their new product offering is launched.
Identify the Market Trends That Affect Your New Product
When you’re just entering the market, you don’t have historical data to show your own product velocity. However, that doesn’t have to be an obstacle. Instead, you can look to the current market landscape to understand where your brand fits in and where there is blank space to claim territory.
One way to gain these insights is to look at similar item performance in retailers across several markets. You can look at the product velocity of competitors, the overall velocity of the category you’re in, and what attributes seem to be driving these trends.
For example, many shoppers are reducing their sugar intake and opting for products with no sugar added or that use sugar alternatives. You can start to understand the market by analyzing products by attribute, which is a combination of ingredients, label claims, and nutritional information. Looking at the sweets category at the attribute level shows that items with monk fruit, for example, are growing quickly.
You can then look at category growth to see if monk fruit is outpacing the category as well, which would suggest it’s a hot trend that any brand and retailer would want to be part of. Similarly, you can see how these products are selling region to region and identify locations where you’re best suited to resonate with shoppers or reach an underserved audience.
Calculate the Right Price Point for Your New Product That Works for Shoppers and Retailers
Setting the right price point is a crucial component to a successful launch: Set your price too high and you’ve taken yourself out of contention. Set your price too low and you’re eating into your profits and establishing a baseline that customers will get used to. That’s why successful brands rely on data to make an informed decision and establish the most beneficial price point.
As you look at market trends, you can also monitor the average retail price (ARP) for existing products to understand what price ranges are selling well and which are outliers. Working with a data partner you can overlay the attributes data and see which product attributes align with certain price points. For example, monk fruit could be in products that command a higher APR, which then helps you figure out what price your products can command.
Create a Data-Based Brand Story That Appeals to Retailers Before Launching
Before you can sell your products, you have to sell your brand to retailers. To get your product on shelves, you need to convince retailers that your business appeals to shoppers, you have a growth strategy, and you will boost their business. A compelling brand story can do that work for you and open doors with retailers. Luckily, you can bring together the above data—market trends and pricing insights—to bolster your story.
Recently, SPINS worked with detergent company HEX Performance to help craft their brand story for their retail pitches. As Brian Allen, head of sales explained, “We needed to uncover some nuggets of information that allowed us to stand apart. We have to be able to create an incrementality story with the retailer, so they view us as meaningful for their business.”
SPINS worked with the HEX team to form that story using multiple data points that proved they had done their research and were a brand ready to make a splash in the market and help retail revenue in the process.
“We needed to uncover some nuggets of information that allowed us to stand apart. We have to be able to create an incrementality story with the retailer, so [the retailer] views us as meaningful for their business.”
Find the Right Data Partner (and Strategic Support) when Going to Market
Before you launch your brand or your next product, follow the lead of other successful brands and let data simplify your life. When these brands come to SPINS, we are determined to uncover the crucial data they need to understand the market, set themselves up for long-term success, and move quickly.
SPINS Product Intelligence uncovers the performance insights and attributes that establish a strong foundation for your launch. Our team also uses our Jumpstart program to create an effective brand story that resonates with retailers and trains the brand team on how to effectively pitch it. Together, a data partner like SPINS can make sure you’re ready to enter the market in the best possible position.
