Too Late, Too Soon

The world waited, eyes fixed on lane five in the stadium in Daegu, South Korea, and then — BAM! 
Usain Bolt shot out of the blocks—only, the starter’s pistol had not, in fact, gone off.

[svenner67/Flickr]

A collective groan was heard around the globe (Bolt said something else, I believe). The fastest man on earth, the one everyone had looked forward to see run the 100 metre final, had messed up and taken himself out of the running. The false start rule meant instant disqualification. There was to be no second chance that day, no new record set, no historic performance made.

Just like Bolt, a business can make a false start when introducing a new product or service to the marketplace. (Some reports estimate that at least half of all new product introductions fail.) What your company has to offer may be truly innovative and inspired, your marketing and sales plans may be world class and your strategy may confidently anticipate global domination.

But it could all be scuttled as a result of a false start and disqualification on your part. Here are three possible reasons:

1. The officials aren’t ready for you. REDjet discovered this earlier in the year while attempting to launch their new airline service. After weeks of advertising super-low fares, taking passenger bookings and announcing start-up dates across the Caribbean, the brakes were pulled by the civil aviation authorities in Jamaica and Trinidad. The airline didn’t have the regulatory approvals needed to proceed. Months of delay ensued. Fortunately for us the traveling public, after negotiations and representations (by prime ministers, among others) the issues were finally sorted and REDjet took to the air and seems to be doing well so far.

The lesson here is that, just as in Daegu stadium, unless you’ve obtained starter’s orders for your product introduction—from the appropriate regulatory, legal and commercial authorities in your market—you could be flying out of the blocks in vain.

2. The crowd isn’t ready for you. The classic example here is, of course, New Coke. In the mid-80’s, the Coca Cola company decided that it needed to tweak its famous formula in order to meet increasing competition from other cola brands. “New Coke” was introduced and generated immediate opposition from consumers all over the US, who just did not appreciate the change in taste. The backlash was so severe, widespread and sustained that the company was forced to reverse course and re-introduce classic Coke within just three months.

RIM Playbook [khelvan/Flickr]

There have been plenty of other examples in the tech arena. The Zune personal music player has failed to get much traction over the years even for the mighty Microsoft and is little more than a footnote in the age of iPod. And when the infamous Windows Vista operating system was introduced in 2007, computer users in droves opted not to upgrade but to stick with Windows XP.

Earlier this year—wanting to catch up to the huge demand for tablet computers that Apple created with the iPad—RIM, the makers of BlackBerry, brought their Playbook tablet to market. It was met with a collective yawn by the technical press and consumers. Same thing happened to HP with its TouchPad; now it is virtually giving them away in order to exit the business.

All of these products would have had extensive audience research during their development and the most sophisticated marketing resources at their introduction. But the customer just wasn’t buying it at the time; or else the market leader had too strong a grip on consumers’ minds for the new entrant to be able to make any headway (more on that later).

The new guy tripped up and fell right out of the blocks, while the eyes of the crowd were fixed on the star-boy zooming up the track.

3. You ain’t ready. This week, the website of the retailer Target crashed after it was overwhelmed by opening day demand for a limited-edition range of products designed by the Italian luxury house Missoni. Stock that was supposed to supply stores for a month sold out in a couple of hours.

The opening of online ticket sales earlier this year for the London 2012 Olympic Games was, famously, a public relations nightmare, with many complaining that there was insufficient transparency to the ticket allocation process. The second round of sales held in June caused the ticketing website to crash, creating further embarrassment.

The chairman of Toyota has admitted that part of the reason behind the car manufacturer’s recall disaster of 2010 was that the company had been focusing too much on growth and new products and had, perhaps, let quality standards and attention to detail slip.

These are three examples of an organization putting their product out to market ahead of their capacity to properly deliver or support it. Take this approach yourself and you risk leaving a dissatisfied customer behind who may decide in the future that you’re simply a non-starter in the race for their business.

That may also be the situation for RIM and HP in the tablet computer business—that it’s simply too late for them to catch up and climb the mountain that Apple has created with the iPad.

The marketing guru Al Ries says that the company that comes to market first in any product category will usually go on to dominate it over time. And if that competitor is as dominant as Usain Bolt is as a sprinter, then—once he gets a good start and stays in form—all you will end up doing is eating his dust.