What Is a Hard Launch?

Marketing

Companies use the term "Hard Launch" to cover a wide variety of situations pertaining to both new and previously released products. This term is usually applied to reflect how much of an investment was issued for the products development and how successful the company thinks the product is going to be once it reaches circulation.

Definition

A hard launch is a term used by large companies and other marketing professionals to describe the time in which a large business investment made by a company or other individual will begin to show profits and returns. This term is used in a number of ways by companies to describe situations pertaining to new products and will most often be used to mark the time that a new product that was previously beta tested reaches the paying customers.

New Products

Large companies use the term "hard launch" when talking about a massive launch of a brand new product that has not yet been seen or even heard about on the open market. These "hard launches" usually entail a large investment in marketing right before the launch of the product so that the product will attract a large number of interested customers and so that competitors will not have time to create a similar product before the companies product launches.

Soft Launch vs Hard Launch

A soft launch is when a minor revision is done to an already released product that is not going to consume large revenue strands like with recalls and other massive releases. Some examples of these soft launches are: software updates for various computer games or programs, changes in colors of an existing product, changing the cover of an already released book, or printing an already released book with small changes to the text like spelling errors.

Negative Soft Launch

Some companies will use the term "Soft Launch" to describe a "teaser release" in which the company hints to the media about an upcoming product. The same term is also used to describe a situation where the product is accidentally exposed or leaked to the media. If a product's design or details get leaked to the public by an employee or another source, companies will often release the information publicly to make it look like the original incident was on purpose.

Pre-Existing Products

Large companies will also use the term "hard launch" when talking about a major revision of an already existing product that is going to need large revenue strands like products with safety recalls or other significant changes to the product. Although these products are often replacing the previously existing product, the company will often look at the new launch as being a completely new product because of how much money they need to invest to get the changes made.

References

• Pragmatic Marketing