Critical success factors for radical new products, focusing on their launch phase strategies

There is a substantial amount of literature on the new product development process; however, the launch phase of this process has received relatively little attention. Moreover the focus has been on incremental innovations leaving the radical innovation literature virtually unexplored. Furthermore, the roles of branding and the new marketing communications media on launching radical innovations have also received very little attention. For these reasons, this research intends to fill these gaps in the marketing literature by investigating the factors that lead to successful launches for radical innovations, thus adding value to the academic literature and potentially sparking further research into these unexplored areas. Thematic analysis of four individual case studies and a cross case analysis concluded that there are a number of similarities and consistencies between the existing literature that is not specific to radical innovations and the launch factors that lead to the success of radical innovations. Therefore, suggesting that by the time radical innovations reach the launch phase, they are not so different to incremental innovations in terms of their success factors. However, the analysis also highlighted some findings that either contrast with the existing literature or build on it, such as the finding that a higher expenditure on advertising is not sufficient; rather the actual marketing message is just as important. Additionally, the data brings to light the requirement to consider all of the launch stage factors together. This research is valuable to practising managers as it provides insights into what factors they need to consider when launching radical innovations, and it helps to build academics understanding of these issues and guide further research on radical innovation launch strategies. Keywords: Radical innovations, Strategic, Tactical, Launch, Branding, Viral Marketing, Social Contagion, Social Media