The following is an excerpt from a manager’s meeting for firm that manufactures pretzels (a snack food that is considered to be a healthy alternative to chips/crisps – quite popular in the USA, but not so much in other countries). In the discussion they highlight the four broad brand strategy … Continue reading...
Category: New Product Process
Changing Attributes – A Good Idea?
The following company has an idea to modify the attributes of its existing product. The goal is to try and increase sales. However, there is a risk that sales could actually decrease instead – what do you think?
ACTIVITY/TASK
Pop-ups drinks were introduced to the market just three years ago … Continue reading...
Design = Mix of Attributes
By changing a product’s mix of attributes you effectively create new products, which may provide a solution to a different consumer need. In this activity, you need to modify the mix of attributes for a table in order to meet different needs. A list of various attribute alternatives for a … Continue reading...
Designing a Product’s Augmentation
As you add more value to a product, you also increase your costs of producing the product. The question is whether your consumers actually see value in the extra ‘benefits’ that you are providing. In this activity for a banking ‘club”, you need to determine what would be the appropriate … Continue reading...
Should We Launch? It’s Your Call!
The following case study highlights the experience of two recent university graduates have gotten themselves into a business ‘mess’. They have been working hard to develop and launch a new product. But they’re now at the stage of making a major dollar investment, and suddenly they’re now so sure it’s … Continue reading...
Improving the New Product Process
Read the following case study on a hypothetical manufacturer and their product development activities. Review their new product development process. Identify what they appeared to do well, and identify potential improvement areas for the future.
ACTIVITY/TASK
Company Background
West-White is a manufacturer of white-goods (e.g. washers, refrigerators) and various other … Continue reading...
Product Development Team Structure
Below are five different examples of how firms can structure their new product development project teams. Can you identify which team structure approach would be the most effective?
ACTIVITY/TASK
- “I go to a weekly product development team meeting – and from time to time I’m allocated some tasks to do,
Speed of Adoption: Comparing Two New Products
Two products that are part of everyday life today are microwave ovens and DVD players. But they were adopted by the market at quite different speeds. DVD players became popular within a few years, yet microwave ovens faced significant market resistance and took decades to get adopted. Your challenge is … Continue reading...
New Product Evaluation Timing
The longer a firm takes reviewing a new product opportunity, the greater the cost and distraction to the business. Therefore, review the following discussion regarding a new product that never went ahead. Do you think that the firm made the right decision, or should they have spent more time, money … Continue reading...
A Great Idea, But Would You Invest?
This task relates to the new product process phase of ‘idea screening’. Review each of the following new product proposals. Which ones do you think have potential and should go ahead? Which ones have very limited potential?
ACTIVITY/TASK
- A local inventor has invented a bicycle that can fold up for
Not Enough New Product Ideas?
The ability of firms to generate new product concepts is a key factor in new product success. Some firms appear to be more successful at this task than others. The firm below is not very good at it – see if you can identify why.
ACTIVITY/TASK
John:
Good morning … Continue reading...
Generating New Product Ideas/Concepts
Firms will use a variety of methods to generate new product ideas/concepts. Review the following examples and identify what approach each firm is using. Which approach do you think would be the most successful? Why?
ACTIVITY/TASK
- “At our firm, we simply copy the competitors’ new products. I mean, we let
Aligning New Products to Strategy
Your task in this activity is to generate some potential new product ideas/concepts that would logically fit with McDonald’s overall strategy. As we know, new products should not be introduced in isolation, or just to take advantage of a market opportunity. New products should be introduced to help implement and … Continue reading...
Marketing’s Role in the New Product Process
Many years ago, marketing departments were only involved at the end of the new product process. Their task was to simply promote the new product. However, this situation has changed somewhat. Your task is to review the following list of new product development tasks and evaluate whether or not the … Continue reading...
Why New Products Fail?
Why do new products fail? Some of the answers are highlighted below in a discussion between various managers. Your task to identify a list reasons why new products fail and identify which of these factors could NOT be adequately assessed prior to actually going to market with the new product.… Continue reading...
Why Firms Introduce New Products
Most firms will have growth goals, which is one factor that drives firms to introduce new products. But there are other factors/drivers too. Review the following examples and try to identify a range of reasons for firms deciding to introduce new products.
ACTIVITY/TASK
- A firm that has been the number
What Type of New Product?
New products are more than just new-to-the-world innovations. Actually, most companies only ever introduce products that already exist in the market place. For this activity you need to identify what ‘type’ of new product the firm has developed (see list of options in the question section below).
ACTIVITY/TASK
- McDonald’s
Designing Internal Marketing
Assume you were the marketing manager for a bank and you are planning a major new product launch, with a substantial advertising and direct mail budget. As you need to rely upon the bank’s branch and call center staff to complete the sales, you will need to develop an internal … Continue reading...
Poor Target Market or Poor Positioning?
The following case study outlines a new retail store concept, which has proved somewhat disappointing for the two owners.
Your task in this activity is to evaluate, in your opinion, whether they adequately identified a viable target market and also to evaluate the appropriateness of their positioning.
ACTIVITY/TASK
The Beginning… Continue reading...
Positioning Our New Product
In this exercise you are presented with 50 alternative positioning slogans that a firm promoting an MP3 player could use. This market is obviously very competitive market and a clear positioning would assist a firm in successfully competing. In the below table there are 10 segments and you’re able to … Continue reading...
