Best practices-driven marketing and communications for innovative companies driven to achieve market dominance.

New products and their makers are being eaten alive—and not only by their competition. Sure, external factors beyond anyone’s control contribute to the alarming failure rate of products both old and new. But these are, at best, second-order effects. The primary drivers behind the American Marketing Association’s reported 70 to 90% new product failure rate? The litany of possibilities includes the better mousetrap that nobody wanted, insufficient differentiation, poor timing, an inherently flawed product, a strong and unexpected competitive response, price resistance, lack of management support, poor cost structure. As a result, revenues miss the mark, windows of opportunity close, and the alarming new product failure rate persists. At nearly 90%. Think about that. 90%.

Now think about this: How might you feel about an American Special Ops force that had a 90% failure rate? Stupid question? Well then, how would you feel about a failure rate of 50%? Incompetent, you’d say? 25%? Still too high? 10%? At what point does the failure rate become acceptable?

What is the acceptable failure rate for your company’s new products? If your answer is anything greater than 0%, then you’re putting your people, your products, and possibly your company in harm’s way. There is a better way.

As I considered the unconventional, intelligence-driven means of the Special Operations Forces, I couldn’t help but wonder what might happen if a company applied those same methods, ethics, and levels of conscious competence to their own new product development work. Can you imagine it?

Special Ops is all about gaining dominance and strategic advantage on the battlefield. If their tactics could be mapped to new product development efforts and the attendant marketing cycles, would it not mean dominance and strategic advantage on the battlefield of the marketplace? The answer is a resounding YES, it most certainly would! Come with us then as we explore a battle proven, five-step strategy that will ensure the success you need in your next product launch.

Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense. No successful mission of any kind ever began without a clear vision and statement of objectives. As Yogi Berra put it, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.” As such, the key element of this stratagem is the crucial alignment of your company’s key capabilities with relevant new product directions. A preliminary market analysis combined with an exacting self-audit will serve the dual goals of identifying the major trends and market opportunities, and more importantly, discovering your company’s point of greatest leverage within that mix. Only then will you be able to answer with confidence the who, what, when, and where of your chosen market—your mission—and what you must do to address it.

You can observe a lot by watching. This is a cornerstone of Special Ops marketing. In this step, you explore the deeper levels of market and competitive intelligence that will flesh out the preliminary investigation initiated when you defined the mission. Strategic reconnaissance extracts critical and actionable intelligence from a plethora of not-so-obvious sources that will yield a significant competitive leg-up. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is what you know that puts you on top.

A mighty maze! but not without a plan. This step examines the who, what, when, and where in much greater detail, and adds the all-important “how.” This is where the battle plan comes together in the form of a new product blueprint. Rigorous, disciplined methodologies (based, in part, on combining elements of QFD, SWOT, and other Six Sigma tools) work to process the intelligence gathered in the previous steps into sharply focused product wisdom that will, with great confidence, achieve the mission objective: market dominance. Simplicity, surprise, and speed are essential, but it’s got to be right—the first time.

The bravest are surly those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it. The commander’s (CEO’s) objective of information dominance is achieved when his level of battlefield (marketplace) visualization is significantly greater than that of his opponent’s (competition). Once you’ve attained a clear understanding of your current state in relation to your opponent, you can begin to envision the desired end-state that represents mission accomplishment. Further, you can envision the sequence of activities that will move the product to that ultimate end-state: the all-important market position.

Hit hard, fast, and with deadly precision. When you fight like this, you almost can’t lose. All the scouting, intelligence gathering, strategizing, and visualizing culminates in the actual deployment—the product launch. But as any seasoned military operative knows, taking the new territory is only half the battle. Once you’re there, you’ve got to defend it. As new challengers come online, the newly, and expertly trained Special Ops marketeer—you—will know exactly how to raise the bar once again, and thus maintain market initiative and momentum.