The Hindu Business Line : <I>Product launch </I>

Bright young entrepreneurs are pooling their savings and taking recourse to borrowings for starting new ventures in the hope of striking it rich with new products and services. A number of outfits have sprung up on the services side which are being eagerly patronised by the public. For instance, home delivery of groceries and other provisions, supply of meals, making available drivers, nurses and the like have caught on in almost all the metros.

But when it comes to marketing new products, the entrepreneurial firms are often in the dark about the right techniques which will help them establish themselves before they burn out their resources and get into a debt trap. Many squander away huge sums of money in grandiose and costly promotional gimmicks, overlooking the mileage they can obtain from simple methods. Here is an illustrative guide which is worth trying out:

Make sure by repeated tests that the product is absolutely reliable in quality, safety and performance in every respect.

Keep the language and content of your brochures and product descriptions snappy and easy to understand. Very few have patience for exotic and long-winded bombast.

Have write-ups delivered to households along with newspapers regularly for a few months.

Write or e-mail to potential customers a brief but informative letter offering to demonstrate the usefulness of the product, and follow up by a telephone call, wherever possible.

Issue short, readable ads at short intervals, in the media.

Carefully choose the areas/centres within which to carry on the campaign for familiarisation and creating demand (by arranging road shows, participation in exhibitions etc).

Use indirect techniques of advertisement by sponsoring workshops or seminars on serious themes of relevance to business, industry, youth and lay citizens.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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