New Product Launch Marketing Guide Part 2 – Messaging

We’ve learned a lot about launching new parts and accessories over the 17 or so years we’ve been in business, so we’ve put together a multi-part guide as a reference. This is the second article in our series, and it’s focused on message development and testing.

New Product Launch Step-By-Step

This is the second article in a series that addresses the seven key steps in the product launch process:

1. Competitive Analysis and Benchmarking
2. Developing and Testing Messaging (this article)
3. Pulling Together Essential Content
4. Web Content and Content Strategy
5. Generating Reviews and Testimonials
6. Awareness Advertising
7. Refine, Revise, and Retarget

Most Manufacturers Fail At Product Messaging

With no intent to offend, we find that the vast majority of product manufacturers have a poor understanding of why people buy their products.

• Most manufacturers do not have good systems or processes for gathering end-user feedback
• Manufacturing experts tend to focus on what end users should care about
• Fundamentally, it’s hard for people working at a company to see their products the way an outsider does

Because most manufacturers don’t understand why consumers buy, their product messaging often ends up focused on the features instead of benefits. For example, manufacturer X might use copper instead of aluminum for their heat sinks. Product features and benefits may include a statement like “Copper heatsinks for superior thermal conductivity,” but that’s not a great message because:

• Will end users understand what “superior thermal conductivity” is?
• Why is “superior thermal conductivity” important to an end user?
• Would a consumer who understands the concept of “thermal conductivity” have a preference for copper over some other material (like aluminum)?

NOTE: One of the many ways agencies help manufacturers is to bring an outside perspective. If you’re looking for an outsider to help your company with product messaging, contact us.

How To Create Messaging That Works

The best way to develop effective messaging is to:

1. Make a list of all the features you could possibly list for your products
2. Write a benefit statement for each feature

The benchmarking and analysis you completed in the previous step of the process is key, as you’ll want to go over the list of features that competitors are mentioning and explain the benefit(s). Then, you’ll want to go over your list of features and benefits with your product engineer or development team for feedback.

Once you’ve got feedback from engineering/product development, you need to generate 7-12 feature and benefit messages for the product you’re launching:

• Each message should be 10 words or less
• Messages should be punchy but not overly promotional
• It’s OK to borrow messaging from other products

If you have more than 12 messages, you’re getting too granular. If you have fewer than 7 messages, you’re overlooking some benefits. The more effort you put in here, the better your launch will go.

Rewrite Every Message, Then Test

Now that you have 7-12 messages, your task is pretty simple:

1. Rewrite every message you’ve come up with. Ideally, you’ll find a better or shorter way to say the same thing.
2. Test messages against one another

At Spork, we use a polling process to test messaging. We poll several hundred auto enthusiasts and ask them to rank our messages as “important” or “not important,” and then net the important/not important votes to come up with a ranking for each message. We’ve benchmarked our testing process against consumer product survey data, and in general, our approach identifies the messages that cause consumers to buy.

However, there are plenty of ways to test messaging that don’t require polling:

Survey previous customers. Your survey can show a photo of the product, and then ask respondents to pick the 2 or 3 most important messages from a list. The survey can then show a different photo and ask respondents to pick the 2 or 3 least important messages.

The only problem with surveys is that they work best when the respondents have bought the product. If you’re launching a new product, you probably don’t have anyone to survey.

Test messaging in Facebook or Amazon ads. Testing messaging with advertising is work, but it’s straightforward:

• Create a bunch of videos or graphics for your product in whatever size/format is compatible with the ad network
• Put all of your messaging ideas in these graphics and videos in a way that lets you identify which specific message is working (one message per video or graphic is one option, but you can do multi-variate testing too)
• Setup an ad campaign that includes all the graphics and videos, and see what gets the most engagement

Customer interviews. Interviewing actual end users is always a great way to gather product messaging data. The trick is to remember that one person’s responses aren’t indicative of the opinions of an entire customer base. Interviews should be 15 to 30 minutes long, and should ask open-ended questions as much as possible:

• When choosing a [product] to buy, what do you look for?
• How do you like to use [product] on your vehicle?
• What would you say is the difference between a good [product] and a bad one?
• If someone asked you for advice buying a [product], what would you tell them?
• What advice would you give us about our [product]?

The answers to these questions can vary greatly from one interview to the next, but if you conduct enough interviews you can find patterns. Be sure to take detailed notes, and if you can record interviews, use an AI tool for transcription and summarization. The more customers you can interview, the better.

Review and Next Steps

At the completion of this stage of the process, you should have a stack of messages that performed well in testing and a stack of messages that didn’t perform well. Review everything in the “stack that didn’t work” and look for patterns. Part of the value of this process is to figure out what NOT to say, and ideally to show stakeholders data for your best and worst performers.

With messaging out of the way, it’s time to read our next article about pulling together essential product content.