New product launch: Marketing action and launch tactics for high-technology products

Abstract

The new product launch is a critical stage of any new product development process. The success of the product is likely to depend heavily on how well marketing managers deal with the launch. Very little has been written on the kinds of tactics marketers use to launch their products. This article aims to rectify this by presenting the results of a detailed investigation into the actions and tactics marketers employ to launch high-technology products. A framework of 22 tactics, based upon 103 different marketing actions, is presented. The circumstances in which the tactics are used are described in terms of technological maturity. The results show that for revolutionary innovations, marketers tend to emphasize the technological component of their products and concentrate more on positioning and attack tactics than on market preparation or targeting.