A company’s decision to roll out a new product involves complex considerations from how to present the product to how best to target and reach your potential customers. Integrated marketing firms like MillerWhite, LLC can help clients make the best use of what is termed “channels of communication” to accomplish
a new-product roll-out. This includes using:

• Public relations to build your brand or product identity through earned media, consumer relations and tradeshows.
• Advertising strategically placed to sustain your brand and drive traffic to your product.
• Interactive media to cost-effectively push or pull your brand through direct access to your audience. The Internet is perhaps the most versatile channel to support the rollout, make direct sales and much more.

The first step is to perform the research and analysis that will form the basis of your communications plan. The plan will almost certainly include development and implementation of a public relations program to get the product out in front of your audience by taking advantage of earned media opportunities in local, state and trade media outlets.

You would want to make a splash in your industry by introducing the product at tradeshows and/or by distributing a CD-Rom presentation that tells the story of the product. This would be followed by placement of teaser or announcement ads in those publications that target your best customer prospects.

Case in point: When Raybestos Powertrain introduced Z Pak™, a revolutionary new clutch system for automatic transmissions that solved a particularly difficult problem for transmission rebuilders, MillerWhite planned a campaign that began even before the product was available, with an unveiling of the concept at industry trade shows. This was followed by placement of stories and product information in trade publications like Transmission Digest and GEARS Magazine. Full-page, full-color ads were run in the same publications, whose readership is directly involved in transmission rebuilds. Along with the ads, the product was promoted online and in the company’s newsletter, which has a mailing list of more than 18,000. Then, timed to hit just as the product became available, a CD-Rom presentation was distributed in one of the trade publications and inserted in the company’s new catalog. Even the early PR efforts had rebuilders asking for the product and by the time it was available, demand was high.

One strategy that can be beneficial in a product rollout of a consumer-driven product taps into the power of interactive media. It involves taking online pre-orders before the actual product release date. Major marketers have the means to roll out a new product on a grand scale, and when they tie these campaigns to online pre-order offers (termed “early birding” by www.trendwatching.com), the results can be impressive. For example,

• Amazon. com received more than 1.3 million advance orders worldwide for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” in a pre-ordering program during the second quarter of 2003. Nearly 800,000 books were delivered by the U.S. Postal Service on the June 21 release date.
• When Apple introduced the iPod mini in February, it announced it had already processed online orders for more than 100,000 units, representing sales of $25 million, before the official launch.

TRENDWATCHING.COM points out that as a fully integrated marketing and customer relationship-building tool, early birding still has plenty of room to grow. So, what can a company gain by opting to try a strategy of early birding?

• An early birding campaign can create buzz in your industry.
• It attracts early adopters who might even be willing to pay a premium to be one of the first to get your product.
• It may generate pre-distribution cash-flow.
• It can bring in new customers.
• Perhaps most importantly, it can show your company the level of interest for your product.

Of course the examples above are from huge global companies with what must seem like unlimited marketing budgets. What’s the chance of a smaller player with limited markets capitalizing on these same techniques? They’re pretty good, actually, when they’re part of an integrated plan that relies on the basics of public relations to build your brand, advertising to sustain your brand and interactive media to push/pull your brand. When your company is ready for its next new-product rollout, MillerWhite can help you develop a plan that will maximize the channels of communication and help make that rollout a success.

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