China is a huge market with no shortage of new products. However, among the tens of thousands of new products launched each year, nearly 90% struggle to sell, and most end in failure. Why do products that seem good fail to sell? Although many factors and objective conditions affect a product's successful launch, analyzing the essence reveals five fatal flaws as the real crux.
Thinking of solutions only after the product is out If we only think about how to push the product to market after it's already developed, it's basically "rice already cooked." Some may protest! Due to traditional thinking, many business owners and decision-makers indeed "think of solutions only after the product is out." While they may think about methods and do things before the product launch, it's often not meticulous, systematic, or thorough. For example, market research before product development and production, analysis, and pilot testing are often not done at all, or done superficially. Brand positioning, product planning, and market selection are done hastily. It's fair to say that many rely on experience and gut feeling when developing new products. The result? Often, due to a lack of precise market positioning, products don't sell well, and distributors and sales staff become scapegoats. Habitually, many companies "follow their gut"! They like to imitate. As long as a product sells well in the market, within six months, or even less than a month, hundreds of similar products appear. Why is it that new products don't perform as optimistically as imagined? Because you haven't studied the essence of the matter, only the surface. Wanglaoji herbal tea sells like hotcakes, but if you tried it, it might not work for you. In fact, many only focus on superficial similarities, lacking differentiation and innovative marketing strategies, causing products to suffer major setbacks upon launch. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, without market research, development planning, or product innovation, they develop whatever sells well. This frantic, ineffective labor not only fails to yield benefits but wastes valuable resources. Therefore, for each new product development, it's crucial to study the corresponding market essence, conduct pre-development market research, product positioning, packaging positioning, etc. We all know there are many fruit vinegar products on the market, including strong brands like Huiyuan, but why do most sell poorly? Why hasn't the fruit vinegar market boomed? Because a fundamental issue remains unresolved: consumer awareness of fruit vinegar hasn't truly been established. Most consumers don't understand what fruit vinegar is—is it vinegar or juice? What kind of beverage? Some might think it's a condiment. The trend issue lies in the lack of consumer awareness, which stems from insufficient consumer education. Only when consumers truly understand the benefits of fruit vinegar will they be interested in trying it. But if other companies don't do this work, and you lack the resources and methods, even a good fruit vinegar product will only be mediocre.
Only talking about selling points, not buying points I've never heard a boss say his product lacks selling points. On the contrary, they always claim more and better selling points than others, yet their good products don't sell well! Why? Because most are busy showcasing their product's selling points without considering the customer's buying points. If selling points were effective, are there herbal teas with more selling points than Wanglaoji? The answer is certainly yes. But why don't they sell well? Because they lack the buying point expression like "Afraid of getting heaty? Drink Wanglaoji." Wanglaoji's success lies not in overemphasizing product selling points but in creating and catering to customers' buying point psychology. We know that Guangdong's century-old herbal teas have many functional selling points like liver nourishment, eye brightening, heat-clearing, and detoxification. But Wanglaoji, through careful refinement, took the initiative and created a new herbal tea lifestyle with the slogan "Afraid of getting heaty? Drink Wanglaoji." This lifestyle is "Drink Wanglaoji freely, savor herbal tea, experience health, and feel fashion." Therefore, Wanglaoji's effective buying point positioning is the key to its success. Its biggest buying point is a new herbal tea lifestyle. From a certain perspective, selling points are sometimes just one factor of buying points, not the whole, and selling points cannot replace buying points. Understanding this, it's easy to see why subsequent heat-clearing herbal tea brands have been slow; why too many heat-clearing herbal teas haven't surpassed Wanglaoji but instead have been paving the way for it! Because "heat-clearing" isn't the real or only buying point for the target consumer group; it was just first exploited by Wanglaoji, and Wanglaoji was the first to strongly establish the herbal tea category, so consumers naturally buy it. There's a story: A cat says it loves a bear, but the bear is in love with a dog. The cat proactively courts the bear, asking her to marry him. The bear refuses, saying, "You're too small; we're not suitable!" But the cat says, "If you marry the dog, your children will be called 'dog-bear' (狗熊), and you'll have no reputation. But if you marry me, our children will be called 'panda' (熊猫), which is a national treasure!" With his silver tongue, the cat eventually marries the bear. Though this is a fictional joke, it might inspire our business dealings. Because the cat, though lacking a good selling point, created a good buying point for the other party when presenting himself, using "panda" as a key element to win her over, successfully satisfying her psychological needs. This is perhaps the often-overlooked "buying point." I say this is like "courting." You're handsome and talented, which should be good "selling points," but why does the beauty you're pursuing not interested? Because her "buying points" aren't these; she cares whether you have a car and a house. So, a product with "a thousand good points" equals zero; it's enough if consumers remember "one good point." The consumer's "buying point" is the core driving force for product sales. Many bosses are narcissistic about their products, which is the root cause of marketing mistakes. Because they don't put consumers' true needs and interests first, their terminal sales are weak, and products don't sell well! What the product is doesn't matter; what matters is what consumers think it is!
Crude distribution recruitment methods Traditional methods like sugar and wine trade fairs, exhibitions, and taking brochures to get orders can hardly solve the successful launch of new products. In the modern market, some industry insiders call distribution recruitment the first step in new product marketing, because if distributors don't take the bait, it's all in vain. Some companies' distribution recruitment methods are crude because their recruitment systems are incomplete, and their models lack innovation, failing to attract distributors effectively. For example, in distribution policies: if you give a minivan, I'll give a Santana; if you give 2% rebate, I'll give 5%... Looking at market support, we ask manufacturers: Do you know who you should support? Do you understand what distributors really need? First, understand that selling products to distributors and collecting payment isn't the end of sales work. Instead, you must assist intermediaries and retailers at all levels to sell products to consumers and ensure consumer satisfaction to complete the marketing task. So, "profit-only" isn't the true intention of distributors! Only by finding what distributors truly want can you leverage their channel advantages to quickly expand the market; otherwise, "win-win" is just a fragile "colorful bubble." From current distributor product selection, they generally focus on these factors: first, product awareness; second, product selling points; third, terminal market pull; fourth, advertising support; fifth, profit margins. These five factors are exactly the biggest headaches for manufacturers. Conversely, we ask: If all five points are covered, why do we need distributors? But there's a premise: we must convince our distributors; otherwise, why would they sell your product? Thus, besides a reasonable plan for market, channels, and policies, a good distribution recruitment method is especially important. "Sichuan Dian Shi Cheng Jin" (a company) in its recruitment services for sub-brands of Wuliangye and Sichuan Lanjian, used "target market new product promotion meetings" to help distributors analyze product market potential and development space, existing problems and solutions, from a win-win perspective, thereby dispelling their concerns and achieving genuine willingness and synergy for new product promotion. Meanwhile, with the emergence of composite channel models and intensifying market competition, we should recognize that a single recruitment model can hardly solve manufacturers' recruitment problems. Online recruitment, regional recruitment, activity recruitment, and other beneficial methods need to complement each other. Traditional sugar and wine trade fairs typically exhibit a transactional model, where manufacturers and distributors weigh interests rather than engage in deep communication, making such relationships unstable and unreliable! Of course, from another angle, as trade fairs evolve from weakening to transformation, although future recruitment trends show refinement, specialization, regionalization, and personalization, both online and activity recruitment have their shortcomings. With continuous changes in distribution channels and strategic transformation of distributors, recruitment will increasingly diversify; establishing strategic target regional markets and combining various recruitment tactics will be the development trend for manufacturers! That is, only by adapting to local conditions and combining various recruitment forms to achieve complementary advantages can we build a "fast track" for product circulation. Therefore, our recruitment work should adopt different models and strategies based on the new product's consumption characteristics, regional competitive environment, and corporate operational strength. Additionally, in commercial advertising, manufacturers should combine mainstream regional media with industry-specific media based on the audience, creating a new recruitment situation with strong advertising media combinations.
Lack of intensive market cultivation Typically, our companies don't expand from point to area, gradually advancing; instead, they launch new products nationwide at once. As a result, due to a lack of intensive cultivation, many fail to keep up with capital, manpower, marketing, and other related aspects, causing new products to fade like a flash in the pan and die out. The root cause is that our companies don't rationally observe the market, don't seriously weigh their own strengths, and often develop markets arbitrarily, shipping wherever there's demand, without setting a target market suitable for new product promotion based on product characteristics and corporate strength. Thus, many developed markets have sales but no volume, and many exist in name only. First, in market development, we need to analyze market opportunities, then select target markets and position them. Market positioning is about creating distinctive features and personality for your product, establishing a brand image in the target market, and meeting the physiological and psychological needs of the target consumer group. Many companies spread themselves too thin, trying to bite off more than they can chew, resulting in insufficient strength and poor market performance. Lack of intensive cultivation also manifests in excessive market segmentation and insufficient cultivation. Market segmentation is the process of dividing a product market into several consumer groups based on significant differences in consumer needs, desires, purchasing behavior, and habits, through market research. Nowadays, some companies over-segment, leading to a hollow consumer base. For example, in the liquor industry, there are all kinds of wedding liquors, exclusive supply liquors, etc., especially in the mid-to-high-end consumer market. Consumers care about brand effect, but it's not necessary that weddings must have "wedding liquor" or soldiers must drink "military exclusive supply" liquor. Even if you name your product XX liquor, if it lacks brand quality and awareness, consumers will still buy other famous liquors. That is, some consumer markets haven't formed a unique classification climate. The commonality of consumer groups determines that over-segmentation only leads to a hollow consumer base, or the segmented consumer group doesn't exist at all. If you launch an entrepreneur-exclusive liquor, will entrepreneurs identify with it? Some entrepreneurs might say they prefer Erguotou! Of course, many companies only develop products without cultivating the market, which is also a significant reason for new product failure.
Capital shortage as a blow Today's market competition is an era where strength speaks. Many companies have good product quality, features, selling points, and market potential, but in market competition, they often face capital pressure and watch competitors encroach on their territory and nibble away at their fruits. Sometimes, when you've finally developed a product, strong brands seize the opportunity and quickly gain the upper hand with their strong financial power. No matter how excellent your product is, when faced with various distributor costs and brand promotion expenses, you have to bow out. Because there are too many products like yours; if you don't provide support, someone else will, and distributors can simply ignore you. That's the reality! Capital shortage is a blow, and it's the most painful distress for many companies. Therefore, to successfully launch a new product, we must not only solve practical issues like market positioning and customer buying points but also reasonably solve the corporate capital chain problem through financing platforms. Only then can the rear be well-supplied and the front can fully exert itself. To alleviate corporate capital pressure, it's suggested that more bosses avoid greed for big and complete, but concentrate advantages and funds, spend money on the blade's edge, and do one market well before moving to another; otherwise, capital shortage, poor turnover, and market constraints will occur. In the food industry, some brands started from small counties and gradually expanded, growing stronger. The above are the main reasons I believe hinder new product launches. I hope our companies can put more effort into these areas, and I believe it will be beneficial. This article is for reference only.
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