NEW PRODUCTS MANAGEMENT Merle Crawford Anthony Di Benedetto 10th Edition McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter 19 Launch Management 19-2

Launch Management Concept Showing Remedial Action % aware who have tried As of now Goal With action Without action Plan Actual Launch Now 6 months Time 19-3

The Launch Management System Spot potential problems. Select those to control. Consider expected impact/damage. Develop contingency plans for the management of problems. Design the tracking system. Select variables. Devise measuring system. Select trigger points. Adage: in driving a car, it is the potholes you don’t know about (or forget about) that cause you damage. 19-4

Spotting Potential Problems Problems section from the situation analysis. Role-play what competitors will do. Look back over all the data in the new product's "file." Consider hierarchy of effects needed to result in a satisfied customer (A-T-A-R). 19-5

A-T-A-R Hierarchy: Where Does the Problem Lie? Aware Unaware Tried Not Reused Not R. Does the problem lie in awareness, trial, or repeat? 19-6

Decision Model for Building Launch Control Plan 19-7

Select the Control Events Of all potential problems, Which have enough impact to warrant investigation? Which of these ought to be given special consideration?* Which of these should be given contingency planning? And which of these need to be tracked? *Basis: Consider potential damage and likelihood of occurrence. 19-8

Develop Contingency Plans "Is there anything we can do?" e.g.: competitive price cut or product imitation. Base contingency plan on type of problem: 1. A company failure (e.g., inadequate distribution) 2. A consumer failure (e.g., low awareness or trial) 19-9

Designing the Tracking System Select the tracking variables Relevant, measurable, predictable Select the trigger points Consider the nontrackable problems 19-10

Questions from New Product Tracking Study Category Usage Questions In the past six months, how many times have you bought (product category)? What brands of (product category) have you ever heard of? Have you ever heard of (brand)? (Ask for 4 to 6 brands) Have you ever bought (brand)? (Ask for 4 to 6 brands) About how many times have you bought (brand) in the past six months? Advertising Awareness Questions Do you recall seeing any advertising for (brand)? (ask all brands respondent is aware of) Describe the advertising for (brand). Where did you see the advertising for (brand)? 19-11

Questions from New Product Tracking Study (continued) Purchase Questions Have you ever bought (brand)? If "Yes": How many times have you bought it? How likely are you to buy (brand) again? What did you like/dislike about (brand)? What do you think of the price of (brand)? If "No": Did you look for (brand) in the store? Why didn't you try (brand)? How likely are you to try (brand) in the future? 19-12

A Sample Launch Management Plan Potential Problem Salespeople fail to contact general-purpose market at prescribed rate. Tracking Track weekly sales call reports (plan is for at least 10 general-purpose calls per week per rep). Contingency Plan If activity falls below this level for three weeks running, a remedial program of one-day district sales meetings will be held. 19-13

Another Problem Illustrated Potential Problem Potential customers are not making trial purchases of the product. Tracking Begin a series of 10 follow-up calls a week to prospects. There must be 25% agreement on product's main feature and trial orders from 30% of those prospects that agree on the feature. Contingency Plan Special follow-up phone sales calls to all prospects by reps, offering a 50% discount on all first-time purchases. 19-14

After Action Review Designed to capture the events leading up to product launch. Identify what went right (so it can be duplicated) and what went wrong (so it can be fixed in the future). Contains planned versus actual results, what has been learned, and outline for next steps. 19-15

A Sample After Action Review Objectives: Send customer sample by end December Send revised samples by end February Reduce test time in half (from 60 to 30 seconds) Results: Objective 1 missed by one week, other objectives achieved Reasons for variances: New product did not achieve performance requirements spelled out in the product spec. Too much time (six weeks) lost in redesign and remanufacturing as a result. Not enough time allocated for hardware or software changes. But, team was able to reduce test time due to newly developed efficient testing. Lessons learned: Relied too much on off-the-shelf processes. Testing procedure turned out to be more complex than expected, which should have been accounted for in the plan. Source: Ken Bruss, “Gaining Competitive Advantage by Leveraging Lessons Learned,” in A. Griffin and S. M. Somermeyer, The PDMA Toolbook 3 For New Product Development, Wiley, 2007. 19-16

A Stepwise Product Deletion Process Recognition of the product to be deleted Analysis and revitalization stage Evaluation and decision formulation stage Implementation stage 19-17