Marketing Launches: Risks to Avoid

Launching or transforming a corporate brand carries a great deal of risk and uncertainty, and its ultimate success or failure often falls into the lap of the internal marketing team.

So, how can you safeguard yourself? Before building your marketing communications launch plan, here are just a few typical launch traps you should look out for:

Wearing rose colored glasses – Often, feedback from audiences or internal groups raises a red flag. It is viewed as an obstacle to achieving business goals and unfortunately, this warning is often ignored. According to Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge blog, CEOs, often dismissive of marketing, are discovering a dangerous reality: aggressive marketing and brand-building can boost stock prices by raising customer and investor expectations. But the penalties for not delivering on marketing promises are fast becoming as significant as not meeting quarterly earnings targets.

Message Dartboard - The absence of testing the advertising messages is like playing darts. Maybe you’ll hit the target, maybe you won’t. Marketers are often guilty of spending too much time focusing on the how (the medium being used to transmit their message) and not enough time focusing on the what (the message itself.) An effective marketing message will be effective no matter what medium is used to transmit it.

Short changed - A lack of sufficient financial resources to adequately support the effort. Budget goes hand-in-hand with measurable results. Your CEO MUST see a return on marketing investment so have a plan in place that provides the numbers to keep ‘em writing the checks. Nirmalya Kumar, in his book Marketing as Strategy, writes, "Today, many CEO's of major companies are disappointed by marketing's inability to produce measurable results. Increasingly they view their marketing department as an expense, rather than an investment.” So how do you get your CEO to see you as an investment? MarketingProfs argues that marketing must have a visible financial impact, must have a visible impact on the CEO, and campaings must be memorable.

Remember, launching a brand brings a unique set of risks, expectations and pressures that differ greatly from any other type of marketing communications efforts. The key is knowing the risks early on, and developing a smart marketing plan that overrides every risk you face.

JC Penney Launches New Brand After Two Months of Declining Sales

In the midst of a significant slowdown in consumer spending, JC Penny is not going out without a fight. The 105-year-old company has given the green light for its biggest merchandise launch in the company’s history in an effort to capture greater market share in a tense retail atmosphere.

The American Living launch is supported by JC Penney’s largest ever media campaign. The company will be the official retail sponsor for the Academy Awards with new ads being introducing during the live television broadcast. In addition, Penney will run American Living ads on Spanish-language television network, Univision. It will also place ads in magazines, on the radio and in movie theaters during previews for PG and PG-13 rated movies.

To highlight the new line, Penney is building separate American Living shops within many of its new stores in hopes of enticing new shoppers and drawing attention to the exclusive brand.

The launch comes as shoppers have cut back on spending amid the housing market slump and rising fuel costs. Penney's same-store sales fell in both December and January.

JC Penney’s chief marketing officer Michael Boylson was quoted as saying “Rather than pull back when it is tough, you've got to give customers a compelling reason to prefer you over someone else."

Finally, someone who gets it.

In what can best be described as hovering consumer recession, many retailers are cutting back on their advertising and marketing efforts in an attempt to keep costs down. But, as Boylson put it, now is the ONE time when you need to give consumers a reason to shop.

According to this article in the Financial Times, it is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.

So will the biggest merchandise launch in JC Penney history pay off?

I think the FT said it best: Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.

Cocaine is back in business

In a crowded engergy drinks market, one way to get your brand to stand out from the crowd is to name it - well, Cocaine.

Originally marketed as the "legal alternative", the Redux Beverages had to call a halt to its launch when the FDA made it pull the product from store shelves. This time the brand promises to remove the tagline, add an anti-drug warning label on the can and remove FDA-unapproved health benefits from its web site.

Redux is promoting the new Cocaine with everything from a Valentine's Gift Pack to a social networking site, which lets Cocaine fans upload videos, develop their own Cocaine profile and blog, and meet other Cocaine addicts. According to this article in Markeitng Daily, the brand will also be promoted through sponsored rock concerts, radio and television advertisments and viral marketing through banner ads and other co-marketing viral campaigns with heavy metal rock bands and video game companies.

Let's hope the Cocaine launch makes it to the party this time around. Cocaine deserves at least a few good months before the FDA sends the brand back to rehab.

Your Mom May Be Your Best Launch Secret

I was reading Guy Kawasaki’s recent blog on the marketing power of regular folks. The blog highlights a recent article in the December issue of the Journal of Advertising Research which claims that despite lots of time and money being spent by marketers trying to influence key bloggers and other social influencers, the best marketing tool is word of mouth.

The article quotes a study co-authored by James Coyle, assistant professor of marketing in Miami’s Farmer School of Business and of interactive media studies; Elizabeth Lightfoot of CNET Networks; and Ted Smith and Amy Scott of MedTrackAlert.

The study reinforced that consumers respond more to messages that are unique and trusted, and consumers who believe they are capable of performing the advertised behavior are more willing to pass along information to friends and relatives within their social networks.

Just think about the sheer number of forwarded emails you get from your mom, your brother or your best friend in one week. For example, my neighbor sent me an email just before the holidays encouraging us to shop at Sears this Christmas. The reason – he had received a forwarded email claiming that Sears is paying salary differences and maintaining benefits for its reservist employees even though it is not required by law to do so. He called Sears to check the legitimacy of it and sure enough, it’s true. What a great way to reach your customers and do something good at the same time! Plus I got the same email from about 5 people in one week.

Word of mouth is an extremely fast and cost-effective marketing tool. In today's wired world, an email sent to a contact list of only 20 people could potentially end up in the inboxes of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of "friends" around the world. So next time, you’ve got a new product, service or brand to launch – don’t forgot to send the info to your mom and let her email do the rest!

Britain's Busiest Supermarket Eyes Success with US Launch

Tesco, the UK’s biggest retailer, recently announced its quarterly earnings have soared due in part to the launch of 15 Fresh & Easy stores in the US.

In its first attempt to break into the US market, Tesco pulled out all the stops to ensure the neighborhood markets were a welcome addition by donating $1000 to a local non-profit. Even better – the retailer put the power in the hands of the community by asking them to nominate the organization they think best fits with Fresh & Easy values.

Tesco seems to be doing everything right as they launch their brand in the US including giving customers a forum to speak their minds about the new Fresh & Easy markets. The website also gives consumers content that is important to them such as articles on cuisine and recipe ideas (using Fresh & Easy products of course). They even have a blog to further engage its core audience and used YouTube to introduce the Fresh & Easy concept.

Tesco also makes it very easy on American media to get the information they need with a press kit equipped with downloadable photos and logos, fact sheets, latest news and quote sheets.

Get ready, the British Invasion is coming to a supermarket near you!