Bob Domenz, founder and CEO of Avenue, reveals what marketers can do to ensure product launches don’t fail

Introducing a new product or service can boost sales and market share, and fuel growth. Yet most studies of product launch success reveal 60–70 per cent of new product launches fail.

Companies end up making two fundamental mistakes that reduce their likelihood of a successful launch:

1) They focus so much on developing the new product, that by the time they hand it off to marketing to launch, there is not enough time to complete the work necessary to get the product ready to market.

2) They assume the marketing strategy and launch strategy are one and the same, so overlook the need to develop a holistic strategy that accounts for the requirements and roles across the entire organisation – beyond marketing.

At the source of these scenarios (and their related missteps) is this: a total launch strategy was not developed. Instead, the launch strategy was thought of as ‘something marketing does’ after the product is complete.