At Oriella we have pooled our experience to develop this set of top ten tips for successful global product launches
1. Involve all country managers, PR heads and agencies right from the start. Get their input and buy-in on plans, tactics and targets. Have a regularly recurring meeting with the entire team during the entire scope of the launch
2. Make sure every country has a local story ´hook´ that will work for them. For example, if there isn’t a local customer or partner, can you develop some research statistics they can use?
3. Think about how can you ´stretch´ the story - if it is B2B, how can you make it relevant to the end-customer, if it is consumer then how can it be honed to hit the national news headlines?
4. Build in time and budget to media- and message-train the global and country spokespeople - and don’t forget to give the global spokespeople some relevant local information
5. If budget can stretch, consider flying-in selected top media to a central location for the launch so that they get the message directly from the top
6. If you are doing a media tour, build in flexibility to allow for travel, agenda changes and last-minute opportunities
7. Think beyond the launch - it is tempting to assume that the launch itself will generate all the coverage you need, but it is safer to plan for a longer term campaign. Many journalists will need to meet and/or see a new brand more than once before they write the positive article you crave
8. Be very clear on what constitutes success - no-one likes to adhere to numbers for input, output and results but if everyone buys into them right upfront it avoids ambiguity as to whether the campaign has been a success or not
9. Build in time for good quality, local translation - the business language of the world might be English but local language will give you the best results so build in time for materials to be translated well
10. Make time to get to know each other. When you choose an agency try and find the time to have a drink or meal with them early on in the relationship so you can get to know them. Everyone works better with people they know and like.
