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Fans have been anticipating J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for over six months. In reality, they've waited much longer, but the official book announcement came out on December 21, 2004, when the publisher revealed the book's release date.

Whether you are talking books or more complex products, the timing of release dates can be critical to your success—especially if those products or bundled services are being sold to businesses instead of consumers.

So when do you announce a new product's release? See what readers have to say.

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Top Secret: Announce a New Product or Keep It 'For Your Eyes Only'?

We're a small company in a niche market and we're doing well in the industry. At a user conference, we introduced new product concepts to get feedback from our target market. The audience responded positively to our presentation, so we're moving forward with installing the products at select client sites.

So what's the problem? Our marketing team wants to move forward with launching the product and spreading the word to our markets. However, Mr. Bigwig, spy wanna-be, wants to keep it under wraps because he doesn't want enemies to find out about it. What strategies do you take when it comes to bringing a new product to the marketplace and communicating that to the market?

—Laurie, Director

Since timing is critical to the success of a product launch, the majority of the marketers who responded say it's best, before launching the product, to take some factors into consideration—such as how much your competitors know about the product and how long it actually takes to produce the product. Once your plan is in place, there's no reason to keep your secret any longer.

Their advice falls into three categories:

1. See how much your competitors know.

2. Look at timing for production.

3. Announce it immediately.

1. See how much your competitors know

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hank Stroll (Hank@InternetVIZ.com) is publisher at InternetVIZ, a custom publisher of 24 B2B e-newsletters reaching 490,000 business executives.