7 Steps to Build an Effective Marketing Strategy for a New Product

Building a marketing strategy for a new product is an essential step if you want to introduce your “brainchild” to the world. According to Nielsen’s “The State of New Product Innovation 2022” report, 85% of new products fail within two years of launch. Read this guide from The7’s experts and you’ll have a simple, practical playbook for building a marketing strategy for a new product.

What Is a Marketing Strategy for a New Product?

A marketing strategy for a new product is an overall plan for introducing a new product to your target market and attracting potential customers. This strategy covers the following key elements:

• Understand your product
• Identify your target customers
• Define the goals of your campaign
• Identify the factors that affect your product launch plan
• Define your marketing strategy
• Execute and monitor

Why Do You Need a Marketing Strategy for a New Product?

Building a marketing strategy for a new product is extremely important. Without one, it’s easy to lose your way, waste resources and miss the results you expect. The specific reasons below should motivate you to put one into practice quickly:

• Building a marketing strategy for a new product creates a shared direction. Everyone involved in the project aligns on the vision and gives their best effort.
• Having a strategy means you have a clear description of your goals, along with a way to achieve what you expect.
• Building a marketing strategy for a new product helps you identify consumer needs accurately. This is essential at a time when everything changes quickly under the influence of new forces and trends.
• Through the plan, you know what your budget is spent on and why. As a result, the risk of investing in marketing activities is kept to a minimum.
• Building a marketing strategy for a new product keeps everything under control.
• Small companies get more opportunities to compete, because creative and original ideas are unlimited.

Learn more about marketing in these articles:

• What Is Integrated Marketing? Its Role and How to Plan It Properly in 2023
• What Is Online Marketing? How to Advertise Online Effectively

Types of Marketing Strategies for a New Product

Marketing Strategy Based on a Low-Price Advantage

Most businesses use a low-price marketing tactic when introducing a new product. It is a fairly effective way to win a “slice of the pie” in market share and compete with heavyweight rivals that already have an established position in the same segment.

You’ll see positive results from this strategy when your competitors’ products haven’t yet earned customers’ trust and loyalty. In that situation, customers will clearly favor the product with the lower price that still delivers all the features they need.

However, when you roll out a low-price marketing strategy, you also need to be very careful about how competitors “respond.” They may launch a wave of promotions, product discounts and more to grab the attention of both long-time and new customers.

Marketing Strategy That Creates More Value for the Product

Pricing strategies carry quite a few risks for a business. So you may want to consider a focused marketing strategy built around the product’s standout features and value. When customers see that they gain more benefits by using your product, they will come to you on their own.

Example: VinFast is a newly launched electric car and electric motorbike brand under the Vingroup conglomerate. Since its debut, Vingroup has continuously created standout value for this line of electric vehicles, as follows:

• Investing billions of USD in modern manufacturing plants equipped with the most advanced technology from countries such as Germany, Japan and Italy.
• Partnering with leading designers and engineers around the world to develop VinFast models that are stylish, luxurious and packed with modern features.
• Using components and accessories from top-tier suppliers worldwide such as Bosch, Siemens and LG Chem.
• VinFast offers excellent customer service, including genuine manufacturer warranties, returns and replacements of defective products and technical support.
• VinFast has a dealer network across the country, making it easy for customers to reach its products and services.
• A warranty of up to 10 years for cars and 3 years for electric motorbikes gives users peace of mind with the new product.

Marketing Strategy That Emphasizes Promotions

If you want a price advantage over competitors without lowering your product’s price, consider running promotions for customers who try your new product. Here are some typical examples you can apply:

• “Trade-in” programs for home appliances and electronics
• Giving codes or coupons for the next purchase
• Money-back guarantee or free assembly programs
• Offering free bundled products and services

Building the Right Distribution Strategy for a New Product

For a new product to succeed, it first has to reach consumers. That is why one of the marketing strategies a business needs to focus on at this stage is building a suitable distribution strategy.

A distribution strategy revolves around activities such as displaying and presenting the product at different points of sale. Some popular distribution channels that deliver high reach include:

• Traditional sales channels: mobile stalls, markets, grocery stores…
• Online sales channels: websites, social media, e-commerce platforms…
• Modern sales channels: shopping centers, airport kiosks, supermarkets, convenience stores…

Multichannel Marketing Strategy

Building an online marketing strategy for a new product is the path most businesses follow today. In an age of explosive growth in information technology, online distribution channels play a vital role in raising customer awareness of your products and services.

A multichannel marketing strategy gives your potential customers all the information they need about the product, and then directs them to your online or offline store to buy. This tactic is mostly carried out on e-commerce platforms or through the O2O (Online to Offline) distribution model.

A 7-Step Process for Building a Marketing Strategy for a New Product

How you build a marketing strategy for a product differs from one business and industry to the next. Still, every plan starts with the core steps below. They make sure you don’t overlook any aspect that needs to be considered.

Step 1: Understand Your New Product

Knowing your product inside out is a prerequisite for building a marketing strategy. A business can’t deliver the right message without a thorough understanding of what it sells. In many situations, this is even treated as a breach of business ethics.

Marketing is, at its core, the bridge between a product and its customers. Its main purpose is to make more people aware of what a business offers. It also encourages consumers to take action and reach a purchase decision. Advertising can be polished and glossy to make a product shine. But it all has to rest on what is true in reality, such as:

• Uses.
• Features.
• Ingredients…

If you don’t know the product well, your advertising may fall short or be over-embellished. The more you understand, the higher your chance of success in building a marketing strategy for a new product. Marketers should be there throughout the entire creation and development journey. Would customers trust something that even the seller doesn’t know in detail?

Step 2: Identify the Audience That Matters Most

Marketing is not an all-purpose tool that serves a chaotic market. You have to define clearly who your target customers are. Every product needs to connect with a specific group where it delivers the most value. This should be made clear from the moment the idea for the product takes shape. When you have a marketing plan, the brand will define criteria in even more detail, such as:

• Age, occupation, income level and so on.
• Psychology.
• Lifestyle habits.
• Purchasing behavior…

When building a marketing strategy for a new product, you need to review all of these characteristics. That way, your plan is carried out in a systematic, well-focused way.

Step 3: Analyze Your Competitors

Building a marketing strategy for a new product is an internal job for your business. Still, you need to look outward and analyze your competitors too. Learn from the strengths and weaknesses in how they market. That way, you gain experience without paying the price for mistakes.

On the other hand, you can’t simply copy what already exists. Marketing is, by nature, creative and expresses each brand’s own identity. So use competitors only as a reference and a source of lessons to find your own direction. Building a marketing strategy for a new product needs to ensure distinctiveness. That way, customers will notice you more and you won’t be lost among millions of other businesses.

Step 4: Set Your Marketing Goals

Every action needs a goal, and building a marketing strategy for a new product is no different. A plan can’t be complete if you don’t know where you’re headed. On top of that, the results you expect need to be made concrete through questions such as:

• How many customers does the business want to know about its product?
• What level of sales should the first quarter after launching marketing reach?
• Should product awareness cover the whole country, the globe or just a particular locality?

However, goals that are too high or too granular can become an invisible source of pressure. They make a business easily disappointed when it misses the exact target even though it performed very well. So setting goals also calls for careful calculation and sensible adjustment.

Step 5: Choose Your Marketing Tools

This is often described as the soul of building a marketing strategy for a new product. Tools are becoming more diverse all the time, and a business can choose one or several options at once. Online formats can help thousands or even millions of people learn about you at the same time. Some of the standout platforms include:

• Website marketing.
• Social networking.
• Search engine marketing (which includes two types of tools: Google Ads and SEO).
• Email marketing.
• Mobile marketing.
• Viral marketing.

Step 6: Set Your Budget

Budget is always the main factor shaping how you build a marketing strategy for a new product. In your plan, you need to spell out how much you can allocate. Big, bold marketing comes with big costs. Still, every option has its own effectiveness and value. If you calculate carefully, you’ll get results that far exceed what you put in.

At the same time, a business should balance its spending against its real situation and company size. The advertising channels mentioned above make marketing easier. Even freelancers and solo sellers have a chance to break through with modest capital.

Step 7: Execute the Plan

Once your new product marketing strategy is complete, the business gets down to execution. Some brands have a dedicated PR department that will carry it out independently. If you don’t, hire a reputable online marketing agency like The7. Beyond handling execution well, if you run into difficulties creating a marketing strategy for a new product, our team of experts is ready to work alongside you to research, plan and deliver the best solution.

[DOWNLOAD NOW] Excel Template for a New Product Marketing Plan

Businesses should look at a marketing plan template for a new product. It helps you picture more easily how execution works in practice, along with the requirements involved. Typically, this file includes the following basic sections:

• Marketing goals.
• Marketing initiatives.
• Analysis of aspects of the target market.
• SWOT application.
• Positioning strategy.
• Marketing mix…

To finalize it, a business needs time for comprehensive research. In addition, testing is the best way to arrive at the most successful marketing strategy for a new product.

The7 – A Trusted Partner for Building a Marketing Strategy for a New Product

The7 is one of the leading agencies specializing in designing and building full-service marketing strategies for businesses. Our new product marketing strategies are trusted by hundreds of companies in Vietnam and abroad. The7 offers customers a diverse range of service packages, including:

• Full-Service Online Marketing
• Digital Marketing Services
• Marketing Strategy Consulting
• Online Advertising Services
• Google Ads Services
• Website SEO Services
• YouTube Ads Services
• Facebook Ads Services
• TikTok Ads Services
• Content Marketing Services
• Ad Copywriting Services
• Website Design Services

The7 has more than 7 years of experience in marketing. That is why we are confident we can deliver the most optimal and comprehensive solutions for your business. The7 is always eager to partner with you and provide consulting on marketing strategy for new products, corporate identity design and stronger brand communications. That helps your business stand out and be different in customers’ eyes.

Final Thoughts

That covers everything we wanted to share about marketing within a business. Your brand and revenue will grow strongly if you take the right steps. With support from The7, success will come to you faster. Contact us via hotline: 084.397.77.77 or website: https://the7digital.com to build the most optimized marketing strategy for a new product.

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