A new product launch is always a cheerful news for both the customer and the marketer, alike. The amount of efforts and hard-work required in launching a new product is humongous. In some cases, it could take years between the planning and execution of a new launch.

However, not all new launches are successful! History is testimony that there have been products that have failed to make even an initial impact in the market that they’ve been launched in. This could be devastating for the company, its resources and its brand image.

According to research, the failure rate of newly launched products in India is between 25-45%. Now, this is a huge a number considering the amount of resource and time deployed between product ideation to building a prototype and finally launching. So why do product fails?

Top Reasons as to Why Products Fail in India?

While different people have varying reasons for the failure of a newly launched product in India, the most important ones can be summarized as following:

• Lack of Adequate Market Research: One of the most important reasons that lead to the failure of a product is the inadequacy of market research. Every groundbreaking idea needs to be backed with and founded on a robust research about the market, its target consumers, its competitions and its hypothesized potentiality. An in-depth research is critical for decision like effective resource deployment, determining the product specifications and how well the product solves a given problem.
• The Actual Need Is Different: Most often products are developed based on a perceived problem. The initial assessments, to develop such product, is either by gut-feeling of the promoter or through a minimum-most research amid the of the 1st/2nd contact network of the promoters. This is a surer way for a product to fail. There needs to be a systematic way of evaluating the target user’s needs & user adaptability before developing a product.
• Lack of Consumer Involvement: You have an excellent idea, your initial market research showed a huge potential for growth, but still the product you developed is not selling. Why?

Clearly, you’ve not had your ear to the ground!

The key to a successful product is to involve the target users during the development phase. Asking them the right set of questions at right times can give a brand the much needed direction for developing and launching their most effective product. It is important to remember here that this has to be multiple-interaction process and not just a one-time chat. 

The Final Word

While there could be more reasons for a product’s failure, these top three reasons could account for most of the failures of new products launched in Indian market.

It is time that Indian companies understand the value of 'Unbiased Feedback' and adopt 'Inclusive & Agile Market-Research' if they want to build world-class products that sell for a long time to come.