3 Smart Steps to Gaining Speed to Market

Leave Your Competition In the Dust

Does it take you for ever to get a new product to the retail environment? Or perhaps you’ve got a target season and you need to start gearing up months before it’s here? Most companies spend so much time and energy planning, that any bump along the way will turn their projects into grueling events. This does not help the team involved to keep the interest to try again. Here are three tips to avoid that situation altogether and gain speed to market with your products:

Plan FaR in Advance

Take a look at your calendar for next year. Highlight the holidays, seasons, or events you want to pair with. This may be a surprise, but the events I’ve listed repeat themselves each year! I know that seems crazy, but it’s true. If you know the time of the year you want to have your product launched in the retail environment, you should begin to set up a timeline now, rather than waiting until it’s too late. Share your plan with your outside resource so they can plan ahead as well. It will guarantee that you have their production time when you need it.

Take Advantage of Down Time

Now that you’ve planned out your year, talk to your suppliers. They may to have a seasonal environment. If your peak season isn’t aligned with your Corrugated Display Provider, your Contract Manufacturer, or your Supply Chain Services Company, you may have a hard time staying on course with your plan. They are going to “fit you in”, and that’s not a recipe for success. With the proper planned downtime, you can have your products run when they are not at peak. This will allow you to leverage better pricing, reduce the risk of quality issues, and ensure that your product arrives on time.

Outsource, Outsource, Outsource!

You’ve got the next big thing that consumers are just going to eat right up, and it’s going to change to world! Or it’s something that you have a strong belief in. You’ve got a business to run.  Are you willing to disrupt the everyday flow of your business to get a new product to market? All too often, projects die because of this. How do you do it? Packaging and producing your displays to ship to the retail outlets is not your core competency. This is where you should look into 3rd party outsourcing. Contract Packagers have the proper infrastructure set up to get your products into the retail environment a lot faster, and much more cost effective than you can, allowing you to focus on your core competencies.

Getting products to market can seem like a daunting task, but you’re not alone. Break the process down into small steps…Who, How, Why, What, When, answer all 5 of the ‘W’s and lay out a plan for success. This will provide understanding and alignment across your team and your partners as to who will deliver the products to the right space so it has the highest chance of success. You only get one chance to make a splash with the retail consumer, make sure it happens right the first time.

Talk to our Outsourcing Team and plan your next project!