Picture this: After investing significant resources into designing, testing, and building out a new product, you’ve finally cleared all major development hurdles and you’re ready to launch. Will you roll out the new product slowly to select customers and see how they respond before expanding further? Or will you offer it to everyone all at once? It’s a critical decision, especially in industries with high distribution costs and tough competition.
Designing the Best Strategy for Your Next Global Product Rollout
Should you go all in, or take a more measured approach?
March 03, 2022
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Summary.
When launching a new product, should you go all-in with a worldwide rollout, or is it best to take a more measured, step-by-step approach? The costs of failure are higher if you go the all-in route, but if you launch slowly and selectively, you may be preempted by the competition. The authors explore this tension with an analysis of more than 300 rollouts from two dozen mobile phone manufacturers, illustrating the importance of selecting the right strategy for your unique company, product, and target market. Specifically, the authors suggest that an early mover interested in trying a wider range of innovations should launch sequentially, beginning with challenging test markets, in order to glean more information around consumer preferences and demand in different markets before expanding. In contrast, a late mover that has already carefully determined the type of innovation that the market seems to want will likely benefit most from a simultaneous worldwide rollout.