ABSTRACT
Most companies put a lot of money and careful attention into development of a new product. They do the same with the development of the advertising and the promotional program to back it up. They pre-test the advertising and the acceptance of the product concept and try to put everything in place for the launch to succeed. Many new durable products fail because early sales do not come up to expectation. Pessimism then spreads within the company and often results in management 'pulling the plug' too early and abandoning the product. Instead of looking for ideal product formulations, the urgent need is more often to address the level and fine tuning of the marketing support for new products. To ensure that these are adequate and functioning as they should require that companies closely monitor their launches, making appropriate adjustments, fine tunings and corrections as required.
