The Product Launch

SAM

PLE

Andy Boon

CREATIVE EDUCATIONThe Product Launch

PLEby Andy Boon

Book 9SAM

Pocket Reader Series

C R E AT I V E E D U C AT I O N1

The Product Launch

Pocket Readers Overview

SAM

PLE

The 10-book business reader series tells
the story of your first year working in
the product marketing department ofABC Convenience Stores. The series
looks at skills and strategies for being
successful in interviews, the first week
on the job, giving presentations, taking
part in meetings, writing emails,
entertaining business clients, goingoverseas on business, dealing with officeconflict, launching new products, andmentoring new staff.

2

The Product Launch...... 4

PLE

1. The Beginning...... 93. Successful:- The Successful Product Launch..... 32

4. Language Focus & Tasks..... 52SAM

2. Unsuccessful:- The Failed Product Launch

3

The Product Launch

1. The Beginning

SA

M

PLE

The story begins with you. In April,
you started work in the productmarketing department of ABC Convenience Stores. You had a good firstweek on the job (See Book 2). You dida successful business presentation(See Book 3). You chaired a successful
business meeting (See Book 4). You
attended a training workshop. You
learned how to write better business emails (See Book 5). You looked
after and entertained two important overseas speakers from the U.S.
(See Book 6). You went on your firstbusiness trip overseas, attended
an important conference, and met
Mary Benson from the ABC U.K.
team (See Book 7). There was also a4

1. The Beginning

big office conflict with Mr. Ogawa
and Mr. Ogawa was fired (See Book 8).

PLE

It is now November 1st. You havebeen working for ABC Convenience
Stores for seven months. It is Monday morning. Ms. Tanaka calls you
over to her desk.

SAM“Thanks for your presentation toSally Harrison and John Turnbullof Underground Sandwiches lastweek,” she says. “It was really successful. They want to go ahead with
the new partnership deal. They’ve
agreed to sell Underground Sandwiches’ hot soup in our stores.”“That’s great!” you reply.
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The Product Launch

PLE“We’d like to launch the soup in
our stores for the new year – inearly January,” Ms. Tanaka says. “Iknow you’re very busy dealing withthe first partnership deal with Underground Sandwiches. The sales of
their sandwiches in our stores is going really well, isn’t it?”SAM

“Yes, it is,” you reply. “We achieved
all of our sales target for the thirdquarter. We’re going to continue
selling the sandwiches next year.
They’re really popular with our customers.”“Well, I’d like you to be in charge ofthe product launch for the soup,”
Ms. Tanaka requests. “Mr. Ogawa
was responsible for this area, but6

1. The Beginning

he’s gone now. Until we hire somebody new, I need you to help out.”

PLE“Sure,” you reply. “I can do it.”
“Okay,” Ms. Tanaka says. She smiles.
“And….”

M“And?” you reply.

SA“Please don’t make the same mistakes that we did a few years ago.”
Ms. Tanaka looks very serious. “Welost a lot of money on the last launchfor soup.”“What mistakes?” you ask.
“You should speak to Mr. Oga… I
keep forgetting. He’s no longer with7

The Product Launch

PLEus. I mean speak to Ms. Igarashi,”
Ms. Tanaka replies. “She’ll tell you
what happened. She’ll give yousome good advice about what NOTto do.”“Okay, thanks. I’ll talk to her,” youreply.

SAM“Then, make a plan and share it withme tomorrow,” Ms. Tanaka says.
“Tomorrow? Okay,” you agree.

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2. Unsuccessful

2. The Failed Product Launch

PLE“Ms. Igarashi, do you have sometime?” you ask. “I need to speak toyou about the product launch we
did a few years ago at ABC. It was alaunch for soup and it failed.”

M“Ah! You mean the soup pods?” Ms.
Igarashi replies. “I remember it well.”SA“Pods?” you ask.

“Yes,” Ms. Igarashi says. “Let me talkto you about it later. I’m a bit busy
now. I’ll book the meeting room forafter lunch. I’ll have time to talk toyou then. Should we say 2:00 p.m.?”“That’s great,” you say. “Thanks.”
9The Product Launch

2.1 The Product

PLE

You enter the meeting room withMs. Igarashi at 2:00 p.m. You bringyour notebook, so you can take lotsof notes.

M“So, tell me about the failed productlaunch,” you say to Ms. Igarashi.

SA“It was a few years ago and we did adeal with Cook’s Soup,” Ms. Igarashi
begins her story. “They had thisnew, exciting product – ‘soup pods’.”“Soup pods?” you ask.
“Yeah, ‘soup pods’,” Ms. Igarashi says.
“You know, like coffee pods? There’s
one serving of soup in a plastic pod.

10

2. Unsuccessful

You put the pod in a special machine.
You add water to the machine. Youpress ‘start’ on the machine. It makesa cup of hot soup.”

PLE“Okay,” you say, “I got it. I’ve seen
the coffee pod machines on TV.”

SAM

“Well, we launched the soup podsin all of our ABC stores in themonth of December,” Ms. Igarashi
explains. “We wanted to offer ourcustomers an interesting snack itemfor winter. Our key message was:“A hot snack that stops you feelinghungry between meals.” We wanted to position the soup as a light,
low-calorie snack. We wanted totarget customers who feel hungry
between breakfast and lunch, lunch
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The Product Launch

PLEand dinner, or after dinner. They
could go to a local ABC store, buy thesoup, eat it, and not worry about getting fat. The soup was a healthy snack
option. We had a special soup pod
machine in each store. Customers
buy a pod, use the machine, and thentake the soup away in a special cup.”

M“So, what went wrong?” you ask.

SA

“Well, there were many things
wrong with the product itself,” Ms.
Igarashi says. “We did a consumer
survey with 10,000 customers. We
found out lots of useful information about what went wrong. The
first thing was that we only sold twoflavors of soup – chicken noodle
and vegetable noodle. So, customers

122. Unsuccessful

PLEsoon got bored of this. They wanted different flavors. They quickly
stopped buying the soup pods. Theybought canned soup from their local supermarket instead. In the consumer survey, customers said thatthe supermarket had a better choiceof soup.”

SAM“I see,” you reply. “Two choices ofsoup weren’t enough.”“No, we needed more flavors”
Ms. Igarashi agrees. “The second
problem was the serving of soupin each pod. It was just too small.
We positioned the soup as a lightsnack between meals. However,customers actually bought the soupfor their main lunch. It just wasn’t
13The Product LaunchPLE

big enough. So, they got hungry.
In the consumer survey, customers complained about this. It was areason they quickly stopped buying the pods.”

M“So, the customers misunderstood
the positioning of the product?”
you ask.

SA“Yes, right,” Ms. Igarashi says. “Thethird problem was the calories. Thesoup pods were positioned as alow-calorie snack as I said. However, they were actually quite high incalories. The vegetable noodle soup
was about 130 calories. The chicken
noodle soup was 195 calories. Thiswas much higher than canned soup.
So, some customers in the survey

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The Product Launch

4. Language focus and Tasks
4.1 Vocabulary #1

PLE

Read the following sentences. Whatdo you think the words in bold mean?

SAM

1. I would like you to be in chargeof the product launch for the Underground Sandwiches’ soup.
____________________________________________________________________________________
2. A few years ago, our launch
failed, and so we stopped selling
the product.
____________________________________________________________________________________

52

The Product Launch

4.2 Vocabulary #2

PLE

Read the definitions to the words in
Task 4.1. Did you guess the meaningsof the words correctly?
Product launch: (Noun phrase) This is when a company starts selling something new. To
launch a product is the action (verb)of starting to sell something new.
(adjective) To describe somethingthat is unsuccessful. A failed launchmeans few customers bought thenew product. To fail is the action(verb) of being unsuccessful.

SAM

Failed:56

Pod(Noun) A small round containerthat may contain food or drink. For
example, people use coffee pods.
They put the pod into a special machine. It makes a cup of coffee forthem.

Key messages:(Noun phrase) The main points
about the product that a company wants its customers or target toknow and remember.

The Product Launch

4.4 Reflection Questions

PLE

1. Why was the product launch forsoup pods unsuccessful?

M

2. Why do you think the productlaunch for Underground Sandwiches’
soup was successful?

SA

3. Talk to a friend. What other things
could happen to make a productlaunch unsuccessful?
4. Talk to a friend. What other things
could you do to make a productlaunch successful?

60PLEThe Product Launch

Pocket Readers - Business Series------------------------------------------------------2018年5月1日 初版発行

著者： アンディ・ブーン

M

発行者：ハリディ・ダーレン

SA

発行所：HALICO株式会社〒103-0027 東京都中央区日本橋3-4-15
八重洲通ビル5階
電話：03-6870-3512
ホームページ: https://www.halico.jp------------------------------------------------------Copyright © Andy Boon
ISBN 978-4-909730-08-4

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by anymeans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places,events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s
imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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