The world of product development part 4

In the last part of our product development series, we showed you the final step in our manufacturing process – certification. Once certification has been completed, the go-ahead is given for the production of the respective product. However, successful production also requires the corresponding orders. That is why we are now taking the next step: the market launch.

The market launch at S-GARD focuses on three main steps: developing a campaign, publicising the product on our website and in social media, and promoting the new product to our retailers.

We start planning the campaign during the development process so that it can be launched at the same time as the certification is finalised. To develop a product campaign, we first analyse the characteristics of the product: what is its unique selling point and in which area of application is it used? One example is our last campaign for the RANGER 2.0 HIGH VIS, in which we focussed on the unique selling point of the 3-in-1 area of application and positioned it as the main product for forest firefighting.

When developing the campaign, we use various communication tools: the creation of a landing page, print products such as flyers, suitable advertising materials and, if time permits, an information event. We do not use all means of communication for every campaign, and there are many other options that are carefully considered and selected for every new market launch.

The next step is to add the model to our website, including all the components that each product on our website contains. In addition to putting the new model online, we plan suitable social media posts in advance, which provide new information about the new model at regular intervals, usually over a six-month period. We also promote some social media posts to increase the reach of our posts. This is usually done in parallel with the launch of the campaign.

Thirdly, we inform our dealers and our sales team about the latest news. Our dealers are informed about the new products via our partner newsletter. In addition to the partner newsletter, our partners also receive social media posts that match the CI and the new model, which can be used for communication. Our sales representatives also inform their respective dealers about the new product.

The successful market launch closes the circle of our product development.