Sustaining Innovation in Your Organization – How to Handle Missing the Mark: Part 3 of 6

So now that you have your growth portfolio set up, you sit back, close your eyes and begin to envision the profits that your company will be enjoying. Shortly after the launch of your campaign, the figures come back to your desk and you realize that you have “missed the mark.” Your entire campaign, has failed to provide significant growth and profits and grumblings begin from below about all the unnecessary time spent on this portfolio.

How to Avoid Missing the Mark

Missing the mark can happen at a variety of points, from the IT Department to the Marketing Department. It is often easy to see that a product campaign has missed the mark, but identifying the location of the bottleneck can be a more difficult task. Determining where the bottleneck in innovation occurs is the first step in effective innovation management.

Ignorance is often the main factor behind a marketing campaign that has missed the mark. The target markets may have been inaccurately pin-pointed, the actual product might not be efficient or effective in the eyes of the target consumer, or a variety of other circumstances. It is important to get accurate data regarding the effectiveness of your campaign as soon as possible, so you can determine just how on target you were with your efforts.

While it may be difficult to change strategies mid campaign, you might be able to minimize losses and redirect efforts to more effective markets. Whether you change your target market, advertising focus, or marketing efforts on a different demographic, lower price to change your position on the value chain, or offer a different set of services to accompany your product, something must be done to increase your market presence and profit margins.

Missing the mark is a major problem, but one that can be remedied with prompt and accurate information regarding the effectiveness of the campaign. Next week we will delve into the proper management techniques to get the most out of your potential project’s ROI with the article Manage Your Rollouts Effectively.