When you walk the grocery store, you always see the same products. Why is that? It might be easy to ignore when launching a new product, but most products that are launched, don’t make it. Your favourite brands probably started out with one product, and even if you do succeed, it’s very hard to replicate that.

Analytics before launches

As much as we want to launch the next best item in a category, which is why it’s important to use the analytics and numbers to lower expectations and set budgets accordingly. Other things to consider before launching a product are the previous attempts to launch in the category. Even if you do everything right, you may only have a 5% chance of success.

Plan for 0% margin

This comes from the CEO of Wild Planet, Terry Hunt, if you are putting revenue into the plan, plan for 0% margin. Your sales team still has a number to hit, but if it is a flop, that’s what you planned for. Any profit, no matter how small is exceeding your plan.

DTC launches are also risk free environments, especially in small batches.

There’s always a leap of faith

No matter what you do, you can’t predict the future. Even when you do everything right you can still flop, you need actual sales data to predict what will happen. Velocity in the first 13 weeks is what will determine what your sales look like.

Promotions and Bursts of Sales

Promotions have a quick burst of sales, but it’s short lived. Over time, more promotions will lead to more sales because customers are used to seeing your promotions but that takes time.