Labeling new products key in emerging markets
/Sunday MBA provides ideas on running better businesses and succeeding in the modern workplace, this week from MIT Sloan Management Review.
Companies that launch innovative products in new industries need to understand the dynamics of new product categories. One of the elements of new categories is the name by which new product categories are known. Time it right, and you’re selling a “smartphone.” Time it wrong, and you’re trying to move a “PDA phone” or an “all-in-one device.”
Research by Fernando F. Suarez and Stine Grodal, both of Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, shows that names are no small matter. Their multiyear research finds that “a company’s labeling strategy can have important performance implications for products in nascent markets.”
