5 steps to improve your time-to-market on your aerosol project

Launching a new product is often a necessity for a company. Just by introducing one new product, your sales get boosted across your whole range of products. Your sales people find an enhanced motivation by this news. And of course, new aerosol products don’t break this rule and represent strategic issues for our clients.

Unfortunately, one of the most underrated aspects by our clients for their aerosol product launch is often one of the most critical timing and retroplanning.

The goal of this article is to be a support, for all the people involved in aerosol manufacturing, by sharing good practices and common sense. Firstly, we will give you 5 steps to be able to improve your time to market for your product launch, then we will identify the key steps of an aerosol project.

1. Start with standard products where the formula is already tested (compatibility/stability test)
2. Think about the expiry date and see if there is a real demand from the market. Is there a specific expectation from the market? Is there a benchmark with a leading and historic competitor?
3. Choose standard components, mainly for the cans (dimensions and varnish)
4. Have the artwork ready ASAP, for the can decoration. It doesn’t matter if the can goes painted or with a label. This step is often left until the last minute
5. Anticipate the whole relationship with your contract filler and have a subcontracting agreement ready from the beginning. That way you know that when the goods are delivered to their final destination, they have been manufactured and checked to your standard.
   

   For example, many of our cosmetics clients ask us for samples of the production and microbiological analysis before agreeing to the release of the goods

Why those 5 steps can make you win time ?

What are the key steps to launch a new aerosol ?

From the moment we receive a marketing brief / an enquiry for a new product from a client, generally speaking it takes 1 to 3 months to get the formula validated by the client. In order to do so, our laboratory sends to the clients as many samples as necessary to find the product answering all your expectations.

One the samples are validated, the stability / compatibility test starts. This step allows us to offer you a warranty for the expiry date of you aerosols. Generally, this phase is the longest in the project retroplanning. According to FEA standards (European Federation of Aerosol), for every year claimed on the expiry date, the aerosol has to be tested for 45 days in a stove at 50ºC.

We observe that a large majority of our clients claim 3 years of expiry date, hence 180 days or 6 months in a stove.
Then, another very important step for cosmetics products is the PIF (Product Information File). This step is to ensure that those products are sellable in the EU and don’t present a threat to the consumers. It is mainly laboratory tests ( dermatological, microbiological, allergens, etc…) and the writing of the file. Even if it is possible to launch a product without the defitinive version of the PIF, wisdom prevails and it is better have the full PIF ready when launching. The length of time needed to obtain the PIF is generally between 4 to 5 months.

Once those 2 elements are gathered, it is then possible to receive the order (at this step we know for sure we will be able to produce) and we can trigger all our process’ of purchase and production planning. For standard products, we are generally around 6 to 8 weeks for delivering the orders. When launching a new product, we are more around 8 to 10 weeks.
In total, the launch of a new aerosol is a process that can take between 13 to 17 months, by respecting all those steps.

If this article has been helpful and/or you wish to receive more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at info@proersa.com

The PROERSA Team