Streamlining Product Launches to Deliver Against Today’s Pressures

Heightened consumer interest in new products, competitive pressures stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a host of other forces are compelling consumer goods companies to deliver new products and the campaigns that support them faster than ever before. At the same time, CGs are bringing more of their consumer experience to the digital realm and across digital platforms. For CGs, the solution to overcoming logistical and other challenges posed by these developments lies in harnessing a digital asset management (DAM) solution — and applying it to product launches. The DAM segment is clearly growing, with a report by Mordor Intelligence citing market growth from $2.96 billion in 2020 to $9.16 billion in 2026, for a CAGR of 21.23%. This roadmap lays out a blueprint CGs can follow to deploy and leverage a DAM platform for new and more seamless product launches. Over the past year, consumers have been ultra-loyal to brands they trust but also willing to try something new, resulting in big opportunities to both reinvent the tried-and-true and bring fresh ideas to life. The rules for launching new products, however, have changed. #1. DITCH COMMON MYTHS AROUND PRODUCT LAUNCHES AND DAM SOLUTIONS CGs are clearly worried about the way consumers perceive their brand, yet common myths may cause them to address product launches — which may have a negative impact on that perception — in a less than optimal manner. One of the biggest myths about product launches is that their success can only be measured in terms of sales and consumer interest in the product. Time to market is also an indicator of success. However, it is not as simple as it sounds. For starters, moving any new product from conception to debut is a less-than-straightforward process. Digital product content and assets are siloed, rather than aligned across teams or geographies. For internal stakeholders, getting the necessary work done to launch products can be a disjointed, ad-hoc endeavor. The situation can be worse for external stakeholders, whose access to digital assets can be even more limited by geographic and other boundaries. Another myth centers around “reach” — the movement of digital assets not only across marketing channels, but to resellers, partners and sales teams involved in a product launch. CGs may mistakenly believe that adding more time or human resources for every new stakeholder group needing to participate in the launch is the best way to achieve such “reach.” It isn’t. In truth, DAM platforms offer myriad benefits, all of which impact time to market for product launches as well as digital asset “reach.” These include: Faster movement of creative content to market, fostered by removal of silos and technology-enabled collaboration across teams of stakeholders. Centralization of all creative content, improving collaboration and decreasing resource costs. Rapid creation of content to suit individual markets and channels, again spurred by ease of collaboration across teams of stakeholders and removal of silos. Consistency of brands across an omnichannel experience. Such benefits — and the expedient movement of both assets and new products to market — can’t be achieved by adding a new file server. That only creates a bigger repository for digital assets, and it won’t make those assets easier to find or facilitate collaboration, especially collaboration across teams or with external stakeholders. Adding to the creative team, meanwhile, just brings increased human resources expenditures — not to mention a more complicated collaborative process with a strong potential to extend rather than compress the product introduction timeline. #2. BUILD YOUR CASE DAM systems can clearly play a key role in successful product launches. However, CGs’ IT decision-makers may still not understand the complexity of working with the hundreds or even thousands of digital assets that come into play when new products are introduced in-store, online or both. They may question why investing in DAM technology is important not only for product launches, but for other use cases, such as re-branding and geographic expansion. That’s why it’s necessary to build a strong case for DAM in general and, when possible, to further support that case with information that ties into product launches. The steps might pan out like this: a. Assemble a team. Recruit representatives from different departments to identify and discuss opportunities and pain points DAM technology can address. For product launches, these pain points can include problems related to the sharing of sensitive product content, such as releasing information to the wrong stakeholders and/or doing so too early. They may encompass the inevitable delays and headaches that occur when stakeholders who require particular digital assets aren’t received by all involved parties because no common platform exists for circulating them. Putting together a team to advocate for DAM may prove to be a challenge. However, keep in mind that the more stakeholders from marketing, creative, sales, IT and other relevant teams you have on your side, the stronger and more compelling your case for DAM implementation. b. Identify business reasons for DAM implementation. Using your team as a resource, address the ways DAM improves marketing operations, such as better utilization of designers’ time when they aren’t forced to spend hours searching for the files they need to complete projects. Point out that when it comes to product launches, marketing teams can work faster when creative files are automatically converted and optimized for different channels using a DAM solution. Emphasize that a DAM platform coordinates activities and streamlines processes across functions and with outside collaborators. Discuss how anytime, anywhere access to an entire digital asset collection eliminates bottlenecks and silos that delay time-sensitive projects. c. Delve into the numbers. Using a DAM system can translate into cost savings, some of which stem from a reduction in human resources. For example, Groupe SEB, an international domestic appliances and cookware manufacturer whose brands include Tefal, All-Clad, KRUPS and Rowenta, saved the equivalent of 10% of a full-time employee with the deployment of a DAM platform. The platform enables sharing of and collaboration on digital assets, including, but not limited to, those used by Groupe SEB’s e-retailers. #3. ENSURE THAT YOUR DAM SOLUTION HAS A COMPREHENSIVE SET OF FEATURES AND CAPABILITIES THAT WHOLLY SUPPORT PRODUCT LAUNCHES Product launches require involvement from stakeholders across CG organizations, but these stakeholders aren’t likely to be well-versed in how to use DAM solutions to perform their role in the process. Not surprisingly, The Forester Wave: Digital Asset Management for Customer Experience, Q4 2019, cites an intuitive user interface as being among critical features of DAM platforms. Other key attributes named in the report include enterprise platform integration and brand-name recognition. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. CGs need a DAM solution whose scope is such that it does more than serve as a repository for digital assets and instead accommodates the way brands go to market in terms of internal and external collaboration, adjusting content to fit individual channels, and more. They will reap the full benefits of harnessing DAM technology for product launches only if the solution they select has features and capabilities that enable them to: Effectively manage sensitive content The ability to grant stakeholders access to digital brand assets based on their role, as well as to control content usage rights in line with that role, supports secure collaboration at all stages leading up to product launch. Such collaboration can occur without fear of allowing excessive or unnecessary access to certain digital brand assets, especially because access is given on a case-by-case basis. It can also move forward without concern about shutdowns by the IT department. The security element of DAM solutions is of utmost importance. Consider the numbers: In a Varonis Data Lab report, the security technology and consulting firm says 58% of companies have more than 100,000 folders of digital data “open to everyone” at any single point in time. A whopping 41% of companies have 1,000 or more folders “open to everyone” simultaneously. Secure storage of digital assets of any kind is essential to safeguarding brand integrity. Enable collaboration by external stakeholders Successful product launches never occur in a vacuum. Rather, entire networks of stakeholders from outside the organization — like media and marketing entities, advertising agencies, resellers, partners and sales departments — must “pick up” product launch stories and carry them forward, for example, creating appropriate promotional campaigns with appropriate digital assets and devising sales strategies. External collaboration features, such as segmented, categorized portals, let these stakeholders quickly obtain the specific digital assets they need, but keep them away from those that have no relevance to what they are trying to accomplish. Other options, such as the ability to add watermarks, ensure the integrity and safeguard the security of shared assets. Keune, a manufacturer of hair care products headquartered in the Netherlands, is seeing positive results from harnessing the overall content management and external collaboration features of a DAM solution. The company, which distributes its products to more than 60,000 salon partners in over 80 countries worldwide, implemented the technology in a move to empower not only internal stakeholders but external ones — to find, customize and independently share up-to-date brand assets and marketing content. The solution centralizes and organizes all brand, product and campaign assets in the Keune Brand Portal. Additional modules, such as creative workflow, brand templates and brand guidelines, promote smoother collaboration among external partners, along with brand consistency. Additionally, Keune’s global and regional teams have on-demand, role-based access to the assets they need. This has led to increased utilization of content and a faster time-to-market for both product and campaign launches. Auto-create channel variations Fitting content to channel ranks among the most time-consuming steps in any omnichannel product launch. When a DAM solution has auto-generated derivatives and templating modules, channel-specific variations on content can be put together using the master asset. Consequently, marketers can achieve the goal of “create it once, use it everywhere.” This, of course, contributes to faster time to market. Supporting New Product Launches Faster than Ever Before CGs will continue to face challenges as they bring products to market and as they use digital assets to support product launches as well as promote their brands going forward. While some CGs may see this as a roadblock, others are using this as an opportunity to grow their businesses. Leveraging a DAM platform with the right features — rather than investments in servers and human resources — can be instrumental in overcoming these challenges going forward. Brands can distribute and integrate this on-brand content quickly during launch, so they can use it as an opportunity for a more frictionless product launch process.

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