Commercialization

Commercialization is the process of introducing a new product to the market. It includes stages such as production, distribution, marketing, sales, and customer support.

In this video, you’ll find out how companies commercialize their products.

In this article, we’ll review the importance of commercialization and its advantages, compare product commercialization and product launch, explore several steps to commercialize your new product, and see examples.

Why is commercialization important?

Commercialization is the process that allows businesses to raise and solve problems of new products and bring them to the market. It helps companies decide when to launch a certain product by reviewing various factors influencing or delaying a launch. There might be multiple factors affecting a product, like unfavorable market conditions or inquiries requiring some changes.

Firms make some critical choices and strategic decisions. One of the essential parts of the process is deciding where to launch. Companies choose whether to bring their product to a local, national, or international market. They also take into account the resources available, such as operational capacities and capital. Business leaders also conduct marketing research to define their primary consumer group.

The importance of commercialization is evident now, so it’s time to review the advantages it has.

Advantages of Commercialization

Companies create new products and services to meet unanswered customer demands. They make products that can solve many consumers’ problems and decide on their feasibility, costs, and ways to roll out commercialization strategy. Commercialization enables business owners to develop products with great benefits that people will admire. Let’s get to know some more advantages of commercialization. They are as follows:

• better choices of products and services that customers can obtain;
• increased ROI;
• efficient production process;
• thought-out decisions;
• reduced public expenses.

Now that you know the pros, let’s proceed to the next section, where we’ll make the difference between product commercialization and product launch clear.

Product Commercialization vs. Product Launch

People often use words like “commercialization” and “product launch” to define the same thing. However, these two concepts represent different processes. The two main factors that make these terms different are timing and goals.

Product launch is the process that occurs when a product is created and is ready for release. Businesses implement promotional strategies and use diverse channels to reach maximum exposure. When a company launches a product, it has already gone through the idea conceptualization stage.

At this stage, companies are ready to bring their product to the audience, and they usually need a marketing partner to present it. The main aim here is to boost interest in your product and increase customer awareness.

Product commercialization is the process that starts before the product is ready. It involves turning certain ideas and concepts into products that will be accepted by the audience and ultimately bring high profitability. The process involves production, distribution, marketing, and sales.

Commercialization enables customers to obtain a wider choice of products and allows companies to generate more revenue, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. It’s a critical process since it entails making strategic and tactical decisions. They affect the success of a product and a company in general. To succeed, business leaders create a commercialization plan.

Let’s look at the six main steps required to commercialize the new product of your company.

The commercialization process can be boiled down to six steps. They allow companies to determine production volumes and methods, choose distribution channels, and implement specific marketing techniques. Let’s discuss each of the steps in detail.

1. Define your offer. Create an overview statement that contains clear and detailed information about your product, describe the benefits customers can obtain after buying it, and mention the problems it can solve. Remember to determine your pricing strategy and decide on the price of your product for customers and other stores or companies.
2. Align the product with your business core. You should understand how close your new product is to the business core (strength and competencies) to define several strategic directions necessary for your commercialization plan. If your product is similar to those your company has produced before, it means that you won’t need new strategies for product promotion. However, if the product is more diverse than your core, then you’ll have to do more work to set up the new infrastructure.
3. Identify your target audience. Start with your current customers, and find out whether your new product will satisfy their needs. If you want to define your new audience, you can create a buyer persona to make everything clearer. Remember to include the initial customer profile in your strategic plan.
4. Promote your product. You should be active with your social media and email marketing to reach more customers. SendPulse enables your company to send personalized emails that will reach your target audience. With our drag and drop editor, you can easily create professional email templates that encourage people to purchase your new products. Define social media platforms your customers prefer the most. Consider using Instagram Stories, paid ads, power of opinion leaders, pay-per-clicks on Facebook, pre-roll ads on YouTube, and many others.
5. Use a sales plan. You should tailor a sales plan for your new product. It helps choose strategies that will enable you to reach your ideal buyer. The plan covers the aspects of business growth: target audience, revenue goals, strategies and tactics, metrics, business goals, market conditions, team capabilities, and resources.
6. Forecast the results your product commercialization can bring. One of the critical parts of commercialization is predicting the sales volume your company will reach in the nearest three years. The forecast includes your gross margin, sales quantities, operating income, capital expenditure, and return on net assets.

Now that you know the six steps to commercialize your product, let’s jump into some examples.

Examples of Product Commercialization

Many companies launch a lot of various products but only commercialize a few of them. This is because the process includes strategic and tactical decisions that take time and influence market success. Let’s walk you through the examples so that you can grab some inspiration.

Let’s imagine that there’s a cinnamon rolls company, for example. It has grown from a small startup and demonstrates promising results. The company decides to commercialize its cinnamon rolls by selling them as packaged products to local grocery stores. As a result, consumers can buy their products in more locations and drastically increase this company’s profits.

The same applies to the apparel industry. A store that sells clothes and accessories and has many regular customers can also try to reach more clients online. The store can partner with online retail services. It can become popular in different cities and deliver its goods to more people.

Hence, product commercialization entails production, distribution, marketing, sales, and other functions necessary to achieve success. It occurs when a small company has grown and is ready to reach new levels and a larger audience.

Resources:

1. This article defines the term and explains the phases of commercialization.
2. In this article, readers can find the difference between product launch and commercialization.
3. This article covers the steps necessary for launching and commercializing a new product.

Last Updated: 22.03.2023