Innovation Process – Plan, decide, and launch new products

Clearly, brands have a range of innovation options starting with product extensions which are most straightforward and lowest risk, but likely lower gains. Importantly, at the other extreme, blue ocean exploratory is the highest risk and challenging, but it could bring the highest gains. 

Product extensions: 

First, identify new consumer needs that your brand can handle. Broaden portfolio to neutralize competitors or gain a share of shelf. Admittedly, use product extensions to keep the brand fresh with new benefits, flavors, and sizes.

Product improvements: 

Identify where you are losing consumers. Consequently, help isolate flaws and gaps in your brand that need fixing so that your brand moves ahead or catches up to competitors.

New formats: 

Stretch brand into new subcategories/adjacencies or parts of the value chain to get into new parts of the store, new distribution channels, or new usage occasions.

Brand stretching: 

In short, take brand assets into new business opportunities—bringing loyal users and brand idea.

Game-changing technology: 

Briefly, these are R&D-driven inventions matched up to fit the changing needs of consumers.

Blue ocean exploratory: 

Indeed, these ideas combine your technical capabilities, matched to pure unexplored consumer need states to create game-changing launches to move into fully protected blue oceans.

Our Marketing Plan presentation template has strategic slides that cover the brand vision, purpose, key issues, and strategies for the organization. And, we offer marketing execution slides that include: advertising, social media, search, event marketing, sampling, new product launches, or new product pipeline. 

Our marketing plan template provides formatted PowerPoint slides with key definitions where you can insert your own ideas. We include a fully completed marketing plan that is easy to follow along and ready for you to tailor with your plan.

New Products Pipeline: Five-year map of product innovation ideas categorized based on product extensions, product improvements, new formats, brand stretching, game-changing, or the blue ocean ideas.

New Product Launch Plan: Go-to-market plan for the launches coming to market in the next year.

Sales Forecast: Our marketing plan template includes various financial pages for a sales forecast, marketing budget, or profit and loss statement.