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New Product Development: The cornerstone of successful strategic marketingNew Product Development is one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of marketing. Begin by reviewing your mission statement and current objectives.New product development is the cornerstone of any good marketing effort. A new product development plan should include your objective, timeline, budget, resources and risks. All new products, in all markets, solve a personal problem.The marketing strategist will seek to uncover new information during the development process.The Secrets to Success There are keys to success in a new product development process,  Keeping the original product development objective in mind.Admitting to and welcoming unexpected results.Applying unexpected results to the original development objective.The Unexpected What actually happens is that someone casually asks at lunch, "Are we on schedule and on budget to invent antibiotics?" The answer may be something like, "Yes, as long as we can find a way to grow bacteria by next week." Do you see what happened here? You are committed to grow bacteria by next week. The focus is gradually shifting away from the objective to cure infections. Personal success becomes increasingly dependent on these smaller details. The Proper Attitude Continually bring the group back to the original objective. Be creative in this, especially in the beginning. For example, you make wish to make an initial drawing of the product. This type of work helps the group to focus. Above all, use your skills to creatively look for new ways to meet the original objective. Create a Working Plan Make a pert chart and identify bottle-necks or technical hurdles which will need to be addressed. Set-up agreed approval points at different stages of development. Use more approval points for higher risk projects. You would think that approval points would waste time; but, I've found that they actually save time. Welcome new information, good and bad. Discuss how the new information will impact your plan. Don't be afraid to adjust the original plan when necessary. A weekly progress report is a great way to provide a routine document of progress. Meetings are essential, particularly at approval points. Show your plan to others. Discuss all aspects of your plan with key people.Revise your plan based on input from the group.Research existing work. Find out what development has already been done, and is being done.Talk with industry experts, inside and outside of your organization.Search the literature and patents.Carefully describe the problem to be solved by your product. Different markets will have different problem definitions. Watch out for stale dogmatic 'problems'. For example, the problem with sneezing can have infinite descriptions: The problem is that I am sneezing -- answer, tissue paper. The problem is pollen -- answer, air filter. The problem is Philadelphia, it has lots of pollen -- answer, Nevada. The problem is my allergy -- answer, anti-histamine. Each different problem definition favors different markets (paper, air conditioning, travel, pharmaceutical). What is the Objective? I've made up this silly example, just to help explain: Instead of saying "Our anti-histamine company will develop a new anti-histamine", consider ... The objective is to help with the problem of sneezing. We believe that we can promote our anti-histamine drug with the development of a new improved tissue. Each tissue box will contain two free "sneeze-be-gone" drug capsules. We will promote the new tissue during the allergy seasons. This tissue will be much softer and thicker than current tissues. The tissue will be coated with our natural herbal "sneeze-away" remedy. We will enter into a partnership with a tissue company to produce this promotion. |
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