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PRODUCT LAUNCHES
Kantar launches a new post-launch evaluation tool for marketers
By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2025
Aim is to quickly spot potential issues and identify gaps, tension points, blind spots and opportunities to course-correct after launches.
Marketing data and analytics company Kantar has unveiled a post-launch evaluation tool called LaunchEvaluate. This aims track the progress of new products and services in the marketplace.
According to Kantar, almost two-thirds of new launches are ‘dead’ or ‘declining’ by the end of their second year, and a reliance on surface-level financial metrics leaves many marketers struggling to understand why performance hasn’t met expectations.
Photo by form PxHere
“A well-executed launch does more than drive sales – it builds brand equity and establishes a foundation for long-term growth,” the company says.
Among other things, LaunchEvaluate is designed to quickly spot potential issues such as low awareness of the new product or trial-to-repeat gaps.
It can also tailor launch strategies to counter potential threats from competitor activity, and identify gaps, tension points, blind spots, and opportunities to course-correct. This is done by using diagnostic insights and recommendations based on consumer feedback.
“Understanding not just how new products perform, but also what sits behind this, is crucial,” comments Nicki Morley, Global Innovation Lead at Kantar.
“Existing tools often fail to connect the dots between consumer behaviour, brand impact and sales performance, leaving brands with gaps in their strategies for what to do next.”
No market for the solutions
Svafa Grönfeldt, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says many new product innovations fail because they introduce products or solutions without there being a real need for them. In other words, there’s no market for the solutions they’ve created.
“Some of these failures arise from a lack of empathy on the part of the organisation, with those in decision-making positions not taking the necessary time to study and understand the customers’ true needs … it’s often too late when they realise there’s no market for their solutions,” she states in a blog post published by MIT.
Among the most famous product launch failures are the Google Glass project, which received millions of dollars in investment but quickly disappeared from view, and Coca-Cola’s launch of New Coke, which lasted only about three months before it was taken off the shelves.
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