New Product Launch

Organizational Engagement Results in Surpassing Sales Goals by 150%

The innovation team within a multibillion-dollar beverage company was tasked with creating and launching a product targeted to a new consumer segment. This innovation initiative was met with considerable resistance because it represented a divergence from the company’s historical approach to innovation, which focused on close-in product ideas targeted to its core consumer base. With the launch quickly approaching, many key stakeholders expressed latent disapproval of the investment being put behind the launch. Sales leadership expressed concern that they would be asked to spend valuable time on a largely unproven product and consumer category, possibly at the expense of other well-established high selling products in their portfolio.

From the outside, it seemed that this misalignment would ultimately result in a failed launch. In an effort to quickly and effectively galvanize a divided organization, management worked with leaders from Okos to employ a proven process for creating organizational engagement, buy-in and collective ownership of the product’s launch and success.

The process began by engaging over 2,000 internal and external stakeholders in gaining a deep understanding and support for this new product. Then, key stakeholders were brought together to identify needs, concerns and hesitations of the initiative’s greatest critics. The launch team then helped the client craft and deliver a message that addressed the many concerns, and one that appealed to the desires and interests of the key stakeholder parties. Accountabilities were set in place to further motivate multiple functions in playing an active and supportive role in the launch and growth of the brand.

As a result of this eleventh-hour effort to avoid a failed launch, the brand not only successfully launched nationwide in the first three months, but the product became recognized by leading industry publications as one of the select few top new product launches in the category that year, surpassing its annual sales goal by 150%.