It always amazes us how companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars researching, developing, and testing new products only to discontinue them a year or two later due to poor sales. Of those new products that survive, many never achieve the sales they should — or even the sales on which their ROI calculations were based.
The reasons for this type of disappointing sales performance are many, but almost all of them boil down to lackluster advertising and promotion.
Consider a typical product life cycle curve; it looks very much like a normal bell curve. The curve peaks — at greatest sales and, for most products, greatest profits — for only a very short time.
A less typical but far more desirable life cycle curve rises steeply and then levels off for a number of years before falling away again. With this type of product life cycle, maximum sales are achieved much more quickly and the period of sustained high sales and profits is much longer.
Reshaping and extending your sales curves is something over which you can exert considerable control. The key is the speed with which you drive your new products in to the market.
While it may sound self-serving, we are convinced that you should never whisper a new product into the market. To achieve maximum success, you must maximize promotional and selling activities during the introductory and growth phases of a new product. By driving sales up quickly, you can significantly extend the profitable life of the product. And, the increased profits will more than offset the increased costs of the advertising, promotional, and selling efforts.
At Norris & Company, we have been involved in many successful new product introductions, and we understand the critical role advertising plays.
If you would like more information on this subject, or a reprint of this and other ads in the series, please contact us: (508) 510-5626 • info@norrisco.com
