Launch Strategy and New Product Performance: An Empirical Examination in The Netherlands

Although previous research has investigated the concept and contents of new product performance, there is still no consensus about the managerial decisions that constitute a launch strategy and how such decisions impact new product performance. The research objective for the present investigation is to assess the impact of launch strategy and market characteristics on new product performance and to test the stability of this impact across consumer and industrial products. Data were collected on 272 consumer and industrial new products in The Netherlands through a mail questionnaire approach. We based our definition of a launch strategy on an extensive literature review and interviews with managers. Our conceptualization of new product performance represented two dimensions, namely, market acceptance and product performance. The market acceptance dimension reflects the new product's market position and sales levels. The product performance dimension refers to the quality and technical performance level of the new product. This richer specification of the dependent variable provides a better view on which launch decisions impact which dimensions of new product performance. The impact of launch strategy was higher for market acceptance than for product performance, overall and for both consumer and industrial subsamples separately. In line with results from recent studies, overall, market acceptance is influenced by the product's innovativeness, timing of market entry, breadth of assortment, branding, pricing, the objective of increasing market penetration, and competitor reactions. Product performance is influenced by the product's innovativeness, breadth of assortment, and by the objective of using an existing market. Analyzing the consumer and industrial products separately showed that the general picture of launch decisions and their impact on the dependent variables was comparable across the total sample and both subsamples, indicating that heterogeneous samples in new product launch research may not cause major interpretation problems. Second, the analyses revealed that some launch decisions are more important in attaining new product success for consumer products than for industrial products, and vice versa. While these decisions do not lead to contradicting results in the samples, they show that some decisions may be especially relevant for only consumer or industrial products. We discuss research and managerial implications of the results.     

Do brand names differentiate identical industrial products?

Many industrial marketing companies manufacture goods that are intrinsically identical to goods made by their competitors. When faced with this problem, an increasing number of companies attempt to use branding at the ultimate consumer level to pull their product through intermediate manufacturers and distribution channels. This paper analyses the validity of this strategy by looking at the U.K. man-made fibre market, where it has been used extensively. The conclusions are that branding alone is unlikely to be of value in the market. This hypothesis is supported by the results of a survey of industrial experts and consumers. It is suggested that the key to controlling the market in question is branding with rigid control of product end use.     

An Ecological Perspective on New Product Failure: The Effects of Competitive Overcrowding

Practitioners and researchers have carefully explored the causes of new product failures. Studies have been conducted, results analyzed, and recommendations offered. Yet despite these efforts, new product failure rates have not decreased. In fact, they appear to be increasing in some product categories. Are we missing something? Noting that most research on new product failures has focused on a firm's activities in specific projects, William H. Redmond proposes that new product outcomes might also be influenced by macro-level or environmental factors. By focusing on environmental factors rather than a firm's activities in specific projects, we might better understand why competent firms in one industry consistently experience higher failure rates than those of firms that are no more competent, but operate in a different industry. For example, failure rates for new food products are consistently higher than those for new industrial products. With no evidence that product development professionals in industrial firms are simply superior to their counterparts in the food industry, Dr. Redmond suggests that we need to look beyond specific product development projects and consider the effects of the market in which these products are introduced. Encouraged by past successes, many firms in the food manufacturing business seek sales growth through the development and introduction of additional new products. Over time, this creates a market in which customer demand is fragmented into increasingly small niches and distribution channels are flooded with product choices. As a result, the failure of a new product is more likely than it might have been under less crowded conditions. In much the same way that the population of deer on an island is limited by the available food and physical space, food products are apparently faced with the market equivalent of natural selection. In the absence of available market niches and a clear competitive advantage, a new product's chances for success are meager. In a market that is overcrowded by existing products and new product introductions, it becomes increasingly difficult and uneconomical to identify opportunities for meaningful differentiation. On the other hand, industrial products face a much different set of environmental conditions. Compared to the food manufacturing business, relatively few new industrial products are introduced, and those introductions are typically successful. In most cases, the new products are simply replacements for inefficient or obsolete products. In such an environment, failed introductions are probably the result of errors in the product development process.     

Guidelines for marketing a new industrial product

This article presents an illustration of what evaluations and obstacles a new product can face in an industrial market. Guidelines are also suggested which will hopefully better prepare industrial marketers for more success in marketing new products.     

Launch Decisions and New Product Success: An Empirical Comparison of Consumer and Industrial Products

Many articles have investigated new product development success and failure. However, most of them have used the vantage point of characteristics of the product and development process in this research. In this article we extend this extensive stream of research, looking at factors affecting success; however, we look at the product in the context of the launch support program. We empirically answer the question of whether successful launch decisions differ for consumer and industrial products and identify how they differ. From data collected on over 1,000 product introductions, we first contrast consumer product launches with industrial product launches to identify key differences and similarities in launch decisions between market types. For consumer products, strategic launch decisions appear more defensive in nature, as they focus on defending current market positions. Industrial product strategic launch decisions seem more offensive, using technology and innovation to push the firm to operate outside their current realm of operations and move into new markets. The tactical marketing mix launch decisions (product, place, promotion and price) also differ markedly across the products launched for the two market types. Successful products were contrasted with failed products to identify those launch decisions that discriminate between both outcomes. Here the differences are more of degree rather than principle. Some launch decisions were associated with success for consumer and industrial products alike. Launch successes are more likely to be broader assortments of more innovative product improvements that are advertised with print advertising, independent of market. Other launch decisions uniquely related to success per product type, especially at the marketing mix level (pricing, distribution, and promotion in particular). The launch decisions most frequently made by firms are not well aligned with factors associated with higher success. Additionally, comparing the decisions associated with success to the recommendations for launches from the normative literature suggests that a number of conventional heuristics about how to launch products of each type will actually lead to failure rather than success.     

Estimating Market Growth for New Products: An Analogical Diffusion Model Approach

There has been a lot of interest in diffusion models as a basis for prelaunch estimates of the sales of new products, and indeed there have been several models developed that have achieved fairly good acceptance by new product managers. One of the limitations of such models, however, has been the requirement that a sales history for the new product, even a short one from a test market, for example, be available to derive the parameters of the model. For some types of products—consumer durables, services, industrial products, for example—a sales history isn't available. In this article, Professor Robert Thomas suggests some steps toward the development of models that incorporate the attractive features of diffusion models. His approach is to use, in a systematic way, the sales histories of products that can be considered to have analogous features from a buyer's point of view. He illustrates the approach by forecasting the sales of a new service.     

Competition Among Middlemen When Buyers and Sellers Can Trade Directly

This paper examines competition among middlemen when sellers and buyers can trade directly. Direct trade alters the supply and demand facing the middlemen, making them interdependent, and reduces the market power of intermediaries. However, it does not alter the Stahl [1988] result that middlemen may have an incentive to “corner” the market if demand is inelastic. The model is applied to market making in financial markets, vertical integration in goods markets and to the question of bypass in utilities. This discussion suggests that cornering is most likely in markets for essential inputs and that it may enable seller collusion.     

产品异质条件下市场势力估计与垄断损失测度——运用新实证产业组织方法对白酒制造业的研究

作为政府经济管制和反垄断的基础,市场势力的定量测度以及福利损失的有效估算是至关重要的基本问题。由于产品异质性带来的模型设定陷阱,之前陈甬军,周末(2009)使用的新实证产业组织模型仅适用于测度少数产品差异很小的产业的市场势力。本文在Klette和Desouza的基础上给出了一种更具一般性的,可以在异质性产品市场测度市场势力和垄断损失的方法,克服了不可观测的产品异质性和技术冲击导致的影响。随后,采用全国规模以上工业企业数据库数据,估计了产品差异非常大的白酒制造业市场势力溢价,并以此为依据,计算了由于市场势力溢价带来的福利净损失,验证了模型的有效性和稳健性。计量结果证明尽管白酒制造业市场结构较为分散,但是具有极强的市场势力,2008年白酒制造企业运用市场势力带来的福利净损失高达180.97亿元。     

Identifying industrial new product success: Project NewProd

What is the key to success in industrial product innovation? This question is frequently posed, and many authors and managers have speculated as to which critical factors or variables decide the fate of new industrial products. What is missing in the debate is evidence based on actual new product successes and failures. Project NewProd is an investigation that was designed to fill this void. In this article we report the results of a study into a large number of successful and unsuccessful new products, project NewProd, whose goal was to identify the determinants of commercial success in industrial product innovation.     

产业链类型与产业链效率基准

在现代经济中，产业链控制策略已成为市场竞争的重要手段，相应的经济规制也是产业组织理论中的热点论题．但现有理论对于市场绩效及经济规制的研究是建立在单个市场效率基准的基础上的．因而严重削弱了其对经济现实的解释能力和政策指导意义。本文首先根据产品本身特性与技术条件对产业链类型进行划分，进而在此基础上建立起以产业链整体效率为对象的产业链效率评判基准。这将为基于产业链的市场竞争策略以及相应的经济规制的理论研究提供概念性基础。     

Risk factors in accepted and rejected new industrial products

Faced with limited and increasingly expensive resources, managers in most industrial product companies are constantly confronted with the difficult task of choosing which new product opportunities to accept for development funding and which to reject. Their decision is made even more difficult because of both the high failure rates and high development costs typical of high-technology industrial products, both during development and after market introduction. This research identifies some critical dimensions of risk in potential new product opportunities. This is an important step toward identifying the most relevant dimensions of government incentives for research and development assistance, as well as an aid to managers attempting to recognize and deal with the greatest risks in the new product opportunities they face.     

Patterns of market research timing for new industrial products

The importance of market research to new industrial product ventures has been widely noted, and some evidence has suggested that failure of managers to carry out effective research can increase the probability of new product failure. In planning for market research, a problem facing managers is when market research should be done during the new product development process. In this study, patterns of timing of market research resource expenditures in 112 industrial new product situations were measured, and differences in these patterns related to seven major situational characteristics, marketing task similarity, distribution complexity, competitive advantage, buyer risk, development complexity, project downsides and project payoffs.
Data analysis using MDA revealed significant differences between the patterns of research timing in different new product situations, and related these differences most strongly to marketing task similarity, competitive advantage, and buyer risk. The findings have important implications for managers involved in planning market research activities and resource allocations in new industrial product situations.     

A descriptive model of the trade-show budgeting decision process

Spending decisions for industrial trade shows are studied here. A discriminant analysis procedure identifies those factors that separate products that use trade shows from those that do not. The product category, fraction of sales made to order, industry sales level, importance of the product to the customer, and purchase frequency were found to be most instrumental. Another model evaluates the level of spending for products that use trade shows. The sales of the product and stage in the life cycle are shown to be most important in the budget-setting process. The potential use of these results for industrial communications and promotional planning and evaluation decisions is discussed.     

The Survival of New Products

We study the survival of new products in a market with horizontal product differentiation and rapid product turnover. Our data set consists of monthly sales for all new products in the Swedish beer market during 1989–1995. Results show that products with low and decreasing market shares have high hazard rates. The hazard rates are also dependent on firm characteristics; products from firms with the largest market shares face a greater risk of being withdrawn. We argue that high hazard rates of new products can help to explain high failure rates of new firms.     

Heading for new shores: Do service and hybrid innovations outperform product innovations in industrial companies?

This study investigates the financial outcomes of product, service, and hybrid innovations in industrial markets. To date, empirical research has focused on product innovations, yet industrial firms are increasingly competing with innovative services to maintain their competitive edge. This study assesses the financial impact of service and hybrid innovations compared with more traditional product innovations. We develop a unique data set that combines information on companies' innovation activities with objective financial data. From a sample of 348 German industrial firms, the analysis reveals that service innovations do not outperform product innovations in industrial markets. A focus on service innovations only pays off in highly price-conscious markets. In contrast, hybrid innovations, referring to the simultaneous market introduction of new products and services, have a positive effect on firm performance above and beyond pure product innovations. This effect is particularly pronounced in competitive markets and under conditions of high customer concentration. In sum, this study demonstrates that hybrid innovations outperform both, pure product and service innovations in industrial markets.     

Differences between industrial and consumer product managers

Marketing decision areas and general background characteristics of industrial and consumer product managers are examined in this article. A discriminant analysis identifies those marketing decision areas that separate industrial and consumer product managers. The position of industrial product manager was found to be more of a marketing coordinator while the consumer product manager was found to be a more active decision maker.     

Interaction based market segmentation

Purpose of this article is to evaluate the significance of market segmentation in situations of selling complex industrial products. The notion of “interaction based segmentation” is developed in this study.     

Product Change Intensity, Product Advantage, and Market Performance: An Empirical Investigation of the PC Industry

Product change decisions, such as the frequency of new product introductions, can impact product performance characteristics, sales, and market share of several generations of products and, therefore, a firm's long‐term survival and growth. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a firm's product change frequency, also referred to as product change intensity. A conceptual model linking a firm's product change intensity to its product advantage—and, in turn, to its market performance—with strategic product change orientation and technology competence as moderating effects, was used as a foundation for the study's hypotheses. These were tested using hierarchical and linear regressions, based on survey data collected from 55 U.S. companies in the personal computer (PC) industry. The analysis confirmed that a PC firm's product rate of change is positively associated with its product advantage and that its product advantage, in turn, is positively associated with its market share and growth performance. However, the hypothesized moderating effects were not confirmed. Rather, a firm's product change orientation and its level of technology competence are more likely to have a direct impact on product advantage. The implications of these findings are that, in general, firms that release new products frequently will have them viewed more favorably by the market than products with lower change intensities. Also, firms with higher levels of competence in the product technology domain tend to create products with greater market attraction. Finally, more radical changes to PC product architectures may pay off better than relatively minor changes. These results may not apply to other industries due to the specific design of personal computers and the nature of this fast‐paced market. Neither do the findings necessarily apply to all firms regardless of those firms' specific product and market strategies. More research is necessary to understand how a firm's adopted strategy, and the industry in which it operates, affect the relationships demonstrated in this study.     

Exploring Mediating and Moderating Influences on the Links among Cycle Time,Proficiency in Entry Timing,and New Product Profitability*

Development cycle time is the elapsed time from the beginning of idea generation to the moment that the new product is ready for market introduction. Market‐entry timing is contingent upon the new product's cycle time. Only when the product is completed can a firm decide whether and when to enter the market to exploit the new product's window of opportunity. To determine the right moment of entry a firm needs to correctly balance the risks of premature entry and the missed opportunity of late entry. Proficient market‐entry timing is therefore defined as the firm's ability to get the market‐entry timing right (i.e., neither too early nor too late). The literature has produced divergent evidence with regard to the effects of development cycle time and proficiency in market‐entry timing on new product profitability. To explain these disparities this study (1) explores the mediating roles of development costs and sales volume in the relationships among development cycle time, proficiency in market‐entry timing, and new product profitability, respectively; and it (2) explores the moderating influence of product newness on the relationship between development cycle time and development costs and that of new product advantage on the link between proficiency in market‐entry timing and sales volume. The results from a survey‐based study of 72 manufacturers of industrial products in the Netherlands suggest that development costs mediate the relationship between development cycle time and new product profitability and that sales volume mediates the link between proficiency in market‐entry timing and new product profitability. In addition, the findings indicate that new product advantage strengthens the positive relationship between proficiency in market‐entry timing and sales volume. The results provide no evidence for a moderating effect of product newness. These results have important implications because to maximize new product profitability managers need to distinguish between costs and demand side effects of development cycle time and market‐entry timing on new product profitability. Keeping this distinction in mind should help them to better determine the relative profit impact of investments in cycle time reduction or improved entry timing. Moreover, the findings suggest that highly advantaged products that enter the market at the right time may have a highly attenuated sales volume. It also implies that new products with lower advantage may have very little leeway in hitting the “sweet spot” in market. The message is that “doing the right thing” (i.e., to develop a highly advantaged new product) may be at least as important as correctly balancing the risks of premature entry and the missed opportunity of late entry.