Key success factors in new product success

Abstract

New product introduction is one of the most important marketing strategies, it is considered to be a costly as well as risky strategy. There are so many products that have failed in the past even after huge investments being made in marketing. To address this issue, we decided to study three new products which are not faring well in the Indian market. Colgate Plax, Diet Coke and Knorr soupy noodles are the three products that are studied. Secondary research is performed for all three products and detailed 5C and marketing mix analysis is done for each of them. This gave us insights about the performance of each of the product with respect to their competitors. Colgate Plax is facing tuff competition from Listerene, the market leader in mouthwash category. Diet coke faces high competition from its close rival Pepsi. Knorr soupy noodles faces stiff competition from Maggi. Six customer personal interviews were conducted for Diet coke, Colgate Plax and Knorr soupy noodles separately. This helped to understand the consumers preferences and likings for the new products. We arrived at possible reasons for the failure of these products from the insights from the above mentioned analysis. Also a positioning statement analysis was done by examining the existing advertisement for each product in India We came up with possible recommendations which involved changes in the product, positioning, promotion strategies and target segments. We also designed advertisement for these three products. The new positioning statement with apt target customers and Unique Selling Point is designed for Colgate Plax, Diet Coke and Knorr soupy noodles. Also fliers that depict these positioning statements is designed for each product.