How to Launch Your Next CPG Product: A Step-by-Step Guide

In today’s market, there are innumerable choices in food, cosmetics, and other CPG products. At the same time, consumers are also ready for innovation and willing to change to innovative new retail products.

How can you distinguish your new product from the masses? Standing out requires an understanding of consumer insights and consumer engagement strategies. 

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to understand consumer motivations, create a market strategy for your new CPG product, understand digital marketing, and navigate retail channels.

Crafting Your Go-To-Market Strategy

Once you have your product, you need to let people know about it. The first step in launching your new CPG product is to develop a sound marketing strategy.

When you’re crafting a go-to marketing strategy, use these steps. 

1. Define the objectives of your marketing strategy
   First, determine why are you are undertaking this marketing campaign. Is it to develop brand recognition in a certain segment of the population or to develop excitement about your new product before it launches? 
   
   
2. Consider your target audience
   Talk with your customers to see what they need, and create a buyer persona focused on your target audience or audiences.
   
   Do research such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups. This helps you understand what motivates your costumers. Where are their pain points, and where does your product fit in? For instance, parents want simple, healthy snack foods for their children, but these often need to be allergen-free. If your product first that niche, then those parents are one of your target audiences. 
   
   
3. Create key messages using consumer insights
   Using information about your potential customers, their needs, and their pain points, create your key messages about the product. Develop your product positioning statement, which succinctly describes what your product is and how it stands out in the CPG market.
   
   Plan the different phases of your marketing strategy and think about the different platforms that you might use, such as digital media or print media. Develop content that you would like to use during each stage or on each platform. Each stage and each platform may have slightly different audiences that require different messages. 

The Role of Digital Marketing in Product Launch

Digital marketing can develop pre-launch buzz about your product. It can also lead to a successful product launch and continued brand engagement over time. 

How do you set up a successful CPG marketing campaign for your product launch? 

First, understand the many potential digital marketing channels and strategies. Since you know about your target audience, you can choose the channels that will reach out to that audience specifically. Some effective marketing channels are: 

1. Email marketing, particularly segmented email lists that allow you to target specific product promotions and personalize emails to your audience 
2. Social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest advertising
3. Influencer marketing, collaborating with those in your niche to highlight your product through sponsored posts or reviews  
4. Affiliate marketing, working with affiliates who promote your products in return for a percentage of the sales 
5. Customer reviews, encouraging satisfied customers to leave positive reviews about your product 
6. Google advertising, which targets those searching for particular terms or which uses banner advertising to target specific markets 
7. Content marketing such as blogs or Youtube videos 
8. Mobile advertising that targets specific local audiences for CPG promotion 
9. Sponsored content on platforms where it fits the audience’s needs while promoting brand engagement 

Navigating Retail Channels

In spite of the rise of digital marketing, traditional retail channels are still promising. Some people connect best with items like cards and flyers. They have established credibility and a local audience that will connect to your product in local stores. Traditional retail channels also have a relatively wide reach - instead of targeted influencer advertising, this advertising reaches a breadth of potential customers. 

It is harder to track consumer engagement through traditional channels, which can limit your ability to respond quickly to modify products, packaging, and messaging. 

A compelling product and a strong brand might get your product into stores; however, getting your product onto store shelves also involves the traditional work of relationship-building. You can partner with wholesalers who already have relationships with many businesses, or you can create a sales pitch that convinces individual stores to carry your product for your CPG product launch.

Understanding and Leveraging Consumer Behavior

To encourage consumers to try out your new product, you will need to be convincing. 

This means that you will need to: 

• Have messaging that speaks to customers’ pain points 
• Continuously gather information about customers’ needs and flex your messaging accordingly 
• Work with those your audience finds reliable such as influencers, or create incentives to encourage word of mouth referrals  
• Create offers to encourage customers to purchase your product, using consumer insights to determine what incentives match your audience   
• Create programs that encourage your customers to return, such as rewards programs 

Measuring Success and Consumer Engagement

It can be difficult to measure the success of a digital marketing campaign. To measure success, you need to understand what you want to get out of the campaign. Do you want to build excitement about a product launch? Do you want to help people understand how your brand connects with their needs? The metrics that you choose will need to reflect your objectives. 

Some potential metrics for digital marketing campaigns include: 

• Tracking key performance indicators such as the conversion rate, click-through rate, and return on investment not only helps you understand how consumers engage with your marketing, but it also helps you plan more efficient and successful future campaigns. You can also measure the bounce rate, session duration, and abandoned cart rates to understand how customers engage with your website. This allows you to trial strategies to improve bounce rate and reduce abandoned carts.
• A/B testing of advertising confirms what messages work the best for your prospective customers. 
• Google Analytics can track web traffic, user behavior, and conversions.  By setting up goals within Google Analytics, you can look closely at behavior related to your campaign.
• Social media metrics, such as likes, shares, comments, and click-throughs, showing what types of products and posts build your brand engagement.  
• Email marketing metrics. These are often found within your email platform and track elements such as click-throughs and conversions that occur due to your email.  
• Customer feedback on social media and review sites can give you consumer insights about how your customers perceive your products. This can work into future product improvements.  

Leveraging Brand Activation for Continued Success

How do you keep interest in your brand active after your brand’s launch? 

• Continue with your successful launch advertising, such as influencer marketing and incentives 
• Develop content on an ongoing basis, reaching out to your audience 
• Create a following on email or social media, continuing to learn from marketing campaigns to refine your email and social media content 
• Solicit customer feedback to continuously refine your product and your marketing approach 
• Develop your brand story, adding to it over time and adjusting it to better reach your target audience 

By using a Consumer First® approach to your CPG product launch, you can catch customers’ attention, connect, and communicate clearly with your audience, encouraging them to try your product. When you’re planning a CPG product launch, talk with us at Hangar 12: Take a look at our services and review our extensive CPG marketing library.