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Ready. Set. Go! 6 Product Launch Tips For ChineseManufacturers

Chinese manufacturers are great at designing and creating new products.

They may also be very firmly established in China, or local Asian markets.

But what happens when they have a big product launch coming up soon and need it to be a success in the West inorder to make progress as a company?

Here are 6 product launch tips from Oxygen 2.0 that can help you on your way to introducing your newest products toa whole new audience...

6 Product Launch Tips For Chinese Manufacturers

Now it's time to dive into the tips that could help your launch to go smoothly, especially in a foreign market that maynot be so familiar.

1. Define Your Goals

You know what they say: "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. "

Just launching a product without preparing and understanding your goals is dangerous, as it may be difficult to workout what has worked, or not as the case may be. If you don't have an understanding of how your launch has gone,how can you improve in future and get even more success?

One of the first things that we need to do when deciding to launch a product is define our goals.

If you know what you want to achieve, then following the launch you will know if you have had a success!

Most companies exist to make money and this could be your launch goal.

However since we're talking about just one product (or type of products) it's probably more practical to set thefollowing goals:

Building awareness of your company or product

Gaining market share in a new market

Increasing the size of your customer base

Now following the launch you can define if you have succeeded by measuring the data (which we will come on to intip 6).

2. Start Earlier Than You Think

One of the commonly made mistakes with product launches is leaving a lot of activities, such as outreach, pressreleases, and creation of other media, to the last minute.

The local media, such as magazines, newspapers, and blogs, are going to be a strong ally, especially when launchinga product abroad.

With the exception of a few household names, many Chinese manufacturers are still at the point where they're notwell-known abroad. So you must consider the beneficial effect that having local media introduce yourself and yourproducts can have, as local people know them better than they know you, so this word-of-mouth recommendation willbe invaluable.

But reporters are busy, and so it's crucial to give them enough time to become aware of you, your product,and yourlaunch, and then be able to write about it and publish their article.

This is why a fairly long product launch of perhaps around 2 months will be best.

You'll have time to:

Create your launch materials and have the products ready

Reach out to local media with press release, samples, and promotional collateral

Create a consistent social presence around the launch (this could be news, images, and contests)

Release blogs, videos, etc, showing the product/s in use or how they help solve problems

Just launching and leaving it to luck, or making a half-hearted attempt to do the above at the last minute will yield poorresults. It would be much better to have plenty of time to plan the above launch-related tasks in order to guaranteethat you reach your goals.

3. Know Your Audience

In China this may be an easy thing to define, but how well do you really know your foreign customers?

Plenty of time will be needed to understand your target audience.

You need to know:

Demographic information such as sex, age, education, job, etc

Their pain-points which your product can help alleviate

Where they are to be found online

All of these pieces of information are as important as each other.

Firstly, narrowing down your demographics will allow you to build the ideal 'persona.' When you know who will want tobuy your product it allows you much greater focus in creating the right content that will attract them to your launch,rather than something too general. This can also filter down as far as specific keywords for your products which arestrictly relevant for your personas and help your content and launch to be found by the right people when they'researching online for help.

Secondly, understanding your audience's pain-points will help you to offer them solutions to their needs rather thanselling to them. No one likes to be sold to any more, but people love being helped. This also builds your brand equityabroad, as you will be seen as a helpful brand rather than 'just another Chinese manufacturer.' Try writing blogsshowing how the product/s help solve common problems, or perhaps feature them in some instructional videos.

Thirdly, knowing where your foreign audience are commonly going to find you online is important. The Westerninternet is very different to that of China. Most people use Google and Facebook for example, whereas in China thesetwo channels are relatively obscure. Your product can be superb, your content and images can be top quality, but ifyou aren't to be found on the websites where your target audience regularly visit, or for appropriate keyword searchesin Google which they perform, then you will struggle to gain traction with your launch.

How to know a foreign audience?

Again, you need to give yourself time pre-launch to investigate the above.

Doing keyword research (for Google keywords) can help you to pinpoint some of the searches your ideal audience islikely to make.

Doing competitor research can help to identify some of the popular social media channels and websites thatcompanies in your sector are active. If they're there, then you have a decision to make: Should you be there too?

Understanding a foreign audience's pain-points shouldn't be as difficult as the above, because since you're makingyour products, you will already know their purpose. For example, a bluetooth headset helps users to use their phoneshands-free. People that have need of hands-free calling will benefit from this product the world over, regardless ofwhere they're from. So when creating content to help them to see how you understand their issues and that yourproduct can help solve them, the only issue that you face is making sure that it is in good English.

4. Have A Launch Concept

OK, so you're launching new products, but simply saying that product XXX is now available is one of the weakest andleast interesting launch titles imaginable. It would be much better to devise a launch concept that grabs youraudience's imagination, and resonates with them somehow.

An example a this point will be helpful.

Consider the original iPod from Apple back in 2001.

At that time MP3 players were extremely niche items and hadn't yet hit the mainstream. It was very normal for mostpeople to be using a portable CD player.

Of course Apple already had a large cult following by then, but to launch this product they made it quite clear just howrevolutionary it was.

Since most people hadn't been introduced to digital music at this point, the ability to hold not just 12 or 13 songs fromone CD, but around 1000 in the one device was absolutely groundbreaking!

As is normal for Apple the iPod was designed in a modern and exciting way, but the most attention-grabbing pointwas its ability to hold more music than could almost be imaged in those days.

The TV commercial makes it even clearer how easy it is to use, transfer music, and take music with you anywhere:

As you can probably remember, changing CDs in your portable CD player was a laborious process, and having tocarry them with you was annoying and bulky. Apple used this commercial to point out that this pain-point is now gonein a fun and evocative way.

You may be thinking, "But my company and product isn't as 'exciting' as Apple!"

That may be so, but this doesn't mean that you can't also be revolutionary in your industry. Your launch should have aconcept which convey something that makes your company and product stand out when compared with thecompetition. This could be design, cost, or unique features and benefits; but always remember that it needs to focuson the customers, and painting a picture of an easier or better life for them in the future if they have your product.

Being a Chinese manufacturer doesn't mean that you can't inspire prospective customers with your revolutionaryideas for the future, so thinking carefully about your launch concept like Apple did, will go a long way to getting plentyof foreign media and customers to take notice of you regardless of the fact that you may not be a well-known brand intheir countries yet.

5. Hold An Exciting Event, Offer, Or Contest During The Launch Cycle

So you know your target audience, have a really cool concept for your launch, the local media are on side, and you'veplanned ahead and prepared your marketing materials, advertisements, etc. You're ready to launch, right?

Not so fast!

One final thing to consider is how to add a little more excitement or urgency to the launch when you're in your launchcycle period.

Launch Event

Arranging a launch event, where local media and delegates can come and hear from your company about theproduct/s that you're launching, and why they're being launched (the concept) is a great way to get local press and beable to introduce your offerings in person. Media representatives will then write about the experience which helps thelaunch gather pace.

To arrange a launch event you will likely need:

Information online to let people know that it's happening

A location, such as a hotel conference room

Local PR experts to help you to arrange the event and invite the right people

If this happens when you launch then you give media reps time to write about and publicise the launch, and becauseit was a live event it seems more 'real' to the public than just blogging and having a launch day on your website. Sincea big part of launching products abroad is to gain credibility in these new markets, by having a local event where you(or your representatives) appear will be helpful for building your brand's equity there.

Offer

A very standard business practice is to give people an offer on your new product/s around the time of launch.

You don't want to devalue your products, but you want to create a buzz around them. So although offering a discountis certainly a possibility, you may instead wish to add value by offering more for early adopters when they place anorder.

For example, if you're selling a new kind of food processor you could offer customers a free set of kitchen knives andcutting board with it at launch. These related items add value to your product, and also help the customer to use iteven more effectively, but they don't necessitate a reduction in price.

Contest

A final way to add polish to a launch is to create a contest.

This could be in a sweepstakes, giveaway, or photo share format. Actually it doesn't really matter what kind of contestthat you run as long as:

It can gain you interested leads in that location (so be sure that a condition of entry is to have to sign up to anemail list)

It is ready to be shared by local media who can help support the contest

It is simple, easy to enter, and offers your new products as prizes

If it is connected to social media, you should urge people to tweet, like, share, and comment on the contest in order togain momentum in those channels which lead to further entries.

Your goal is to build an email list and excitement about your launch, so after the contest has closed you should assessits efficacy by checking your email list numbers against the cost of the contest (if any). This should then give you yourROI in the form of cost per acquisition of lead.

See this as an investment,because in the future you can email these people with more information about newlaunches, products, and offers from your company and you know that they are interested in your products.

6. Measure Your Progress

Finally when the launch is over it's time to look back and assess if we have achieved our goals.

It's likely that the best way to measure your progress is weekly, tracking weekly changes, and month by month also.

In these weekly measurements you should divide the data into sections based on the main channels that you havefocussed on, and be tracking data such as site visits, page views, social referrals, and anything else that you deemcontribute towards getting orders. For example, these may be your website, Google Adwords, and Facebook.

It should soon be quite clear which ones are providing you with the best results, and then you will have a decision tomake about whether to re calibrate your efforts in future launches in that area to focus on the most effective channelsin order to get even better results.

Have Your Say...

Have you launched any products in Western countries?

What was your experience? Did you follow any or all of these product launch tips?

Do you have ay advice to add?

Let us know your thoughts by joining the conversation and leaving a comment below...

Launching new products abroad can be tough, especially if you don't have much experience in doing so.

The preparation and marketing work that goes along with it is detailed and time-consuming, not to mention in English!

There is away that Chinese manufacturers can get help.

At Oxygen 2.0 we are dedicated to helping Chinese manufacturers become well-known brands in overseasmarkets! Click below to get your free website, brand and marketing assessment so we can help you understandwhere you're currently succeeding,and where you may like to make some changes!