Success Factors of the Product Relaunch : The Influence of the Advertising Strategy on the Success of Product Relaunch Campaigns

Abstract: Introduction: The product relaunch, in terms of the recycling of an existing product lifecycle, is a common marketing tool within the consumer goods industry. Cases like the reintroductionof Mondelēz Oreo cookie and the promotion of the facelift of the PorscheCayenne are examples how relaunch campaigns can successfully introduce existingproducts in a modified version and increase their sales and brand recall drastically.Advantages like lower flop risks, and lower research and development costs make thisalternative quite attractive when it comes to the decision between the introduction ofinnovations and revitalization of existing products.Method: In order to identify promising advertisement strategies, four potential successfactors has been stated, based on existing marketing communication models: media usage,message credibility, message appeal and scheduling pattern. Related to them, a survey wasconducted which asked the respondents to choose the applied alternatives within the fourdecision areas and indicate to which extent the set success goals were achieved. The surveycould give hints, which strategy alternatives are associated with the achievement of thecampaigns goals by using the correlation analysis. Furthermore, the frequency distributionwas used to identify handling patterns in practice.Results: The results of the survey, which was executed as self-completing questionnaire,revealed that two of the assumed success factors, namely media strategy and credibilitysource, indeed show a correlation to the perceived achievement of success goals. For thethird aspect, the decision about the message appeal, a clear usage pattern could beidentified in the non-durable goods industry. Finally, the two advertisement schedulingpatterns showed no correlation to the perceived success and there was also no preferredalternative identifiable in the durable and non-durable goods industry.Implications: Based on the study results it is to summarize that the usage of TV and onlineadvertisement, as well as POS material appears particularly appropriate for the durablegoods industry, whereas the application of Magazine advertisement showed a positiverelation to the perceived success of relaunch campaigns for non-durable goods. Regardingthe creation of awareness and trustworthiness, the link to the brand and or manufacturername seems more promising than the one to the previous product version, particularly forthe durable goods industry. Finally, the application of an emotional argumentation wasused by 80% of the non-durable goods firms, whereas the relaunch of durable goods wasequally communicated with emotional and informational messages.