IDeas Big Blog

Improving the effectiveness of new product launches is of critical importance to most companies and brands as development costs can be stratospheric, coupled with extremely high failure rates. Some estimates of new product failure as high as 90%! Certainly the new product development process is complex and multi-functional—not just marketing—but typically involving many departments such as engineering, operations, purchasing, executive management and others.

The scope of this checklist does NOT address the many product development processes. Rather, the focus of this New Product Launch Planning Checklist are the marketing activities required to improve product launch effectiveness. No question that different markets or product types will require vastly different new product launch approaches, and have different budget resources. So a New Product Launch Planning Checklist should allow for a range of market and budget scenarios. This planning checklist is based on a typical business-to-business (B2B) market scenario.

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B2B, checklist, IdeasBIG, Marketing, planning, product launch, strategy

Developing effective taglines is a disciplined process that melds insight with positioning strategy and creativity. So what is a tagline, and how can tagline development deliver a breakthrough? Sometimes called tags, positioning taglines, slogans, jingles, unique selling propositions or descriptors, taglines distill your corporate or brand position to a few simple and memorable words—ideally from one to five words, and never more than seven words.

Taglines are flexible, persuasive, differentiating, extendable and very often, more memorable than the corporate and brand names they modify. Why? Many names are legacy names, likely descriptive and sometimes over time, less relevant to positioning due to changing markets. With years of equity, it can be difficult to change names, but taglines can change with new campaigns, or to target different audiences.

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Advertising, B2B, Branding, creative, Fusionb2b, IdeasBIG, Marketing, Naming, tagline

A company’s corporate or brand identity is one of its most valuable assets. Consequently, periodic evaluation is recommended to ensure this asset remains relevant, progressive, and reinforcing of desired positioning. By defining identity to include not only logos, but messages, graphic themes and images communicated by a company using numerous mediums and vehicles, it’s clear that without integration, brand equity is compromised. Reasons for considering or revisiting an identity include acquisition or merger, new product introduction, or a need to react to competitive marketing activities. Often corporate or product repositioning is required to revitalize a brand or address a neglect situation. In any case, brand equity must be carefully evaluated, and completely understood. At least five steps should be considered when undertaking an integrated identity program: audit, benchmarking, planning, creative development and implementation.

Step 1 – Identity Audit

First, evaluate your current identity for consistency, continuity and positioning. Identify corporate identity issues and problems. Evaluate Corporate, Masterbrand and Sub-brand architecture: logos, typefaces, graphics, messages, tag lines, theme lines, and the standards system. Visit the implementation process and identity usage. Evaluate all company materials, e.g., advertising, websites, sales materials, stationery, signage, trade show booth, packaging, vehicles, press materials and multimedia tools. Survey customers to identify perceptions of your identity and to determine your positioning.

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Advertising, audit, B2B, benchmarketing, brand identity, Branding, communication, creative, IdeasBIG, Marketing, planning

Before jumping into brand name development, it’s important to understand the different types of names. Why? Because without this knowledge, there is a tendency only consider certain types of names. In addition, mapping competitor’s name types supports positioning strategy.

IDeas BIG categorizes names into three (3) basic types: Literal, Synthesized and Metaphorical. Please note that hybrids or combinations of name types are not uncommon.

Most names fall into literal name types. Literal names describe a company or product with key words or terms common to the category. Another type of literal name is an acronym based on keywords or terms. Yet another type of literal name is when companies use the founder’s name. Examples of literal names include Computer Associates, IBM and (Michael) Dell respectively. In competitive analysis, most names uncovered will fall into literal name types. Positives of literal names include ease of understanding, and in the case of a founder’s name, trademark and domain name availability. Negatives are lack of differentiation (common keywords), and lack of depth or meaning.

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B2B, Branding, IdeasBIG, literal names, Marketing, metaphorical names, Naming, positioning, strategy, synthesized names

Naming a business or product is one of the most important and strategic decisions ever made. No other marketing decision can have as great an impact on success, the level of marketing investment required, or is more expensive to change. In addition, naming is becoming more difficult with record trademark filings and domain registrations. Despite these issues, more often than not, name development is relegated to internal committees untrained in disciplined naming processes, subjective whims of executives, or assigned to advertising agencies without skills required for effective naming.

So what can a business owner or brand manager do to ensure name development gets its due attention? A new book titled Branding Best Practices: A Guide to Effective Business and Product Naming details a complete naming process called Name Optimization™, along with supporting case studies and reference information. The 84-page paperback book ($29.94), downloadable version ($9.94) and free preview, is available at www.lulu.com, reference 2625656 or ISBN 978-0-6152-2146-1.

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Branding, IdeasBIG, Naming, product naming