Marketing Research on a New Product
Generally, new product development (NPD) is very common in the field of business and engineering. This is the process of bringing new product to the market. And, there are two courses that involved in the new product development; one course is composed of idea generation, product design and detailed engineering. The other course involves market research and marketing analysis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_product_development)
If I want to launch a new unique product in my new company; let’s say I want to launch a particular shampoo, first I should do the data generation about the new product that am I going to launch in the market. I should conduct SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats) of the launching of the product. The market and consumers, company’s R & D department, competitors, employees, sales people, corporate groups, trade shows these are marketing strategies and approaches that my company should taken into account in order to launch successfully the new product line in the market. After gathering various ideas about the new product; it must be followed by brainstorming on the new product and service or store concept techniques. Second step is to screen the ideas carefully. This process aims to eliminate trivial concepts from the essential concepts; and focus my resources to those high potential concepts that highly significant to the marketing strategies that I am going to implement. And, in order to do effectively the downstream of ideas, the screeners should evaluate those ideas through several relevant questions such as:
1. Will the customer in the target market benefit from the product?
2. What is the size and growth forecasts of the market segment/target market?
3. What is the current or expected competitive pressure for the product idea?
4. What are the industry sales and market trends the product idea is based on?
5. Is it technically feasible to manufacture the product?
6. Will the product be profitable when manufactured and delivered to the customer at the target price?
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_product_development)
Furthermore, in developing my concept and testing process for the new shampoo product that I am going to launch in the market , I should come first with the investigation on the intellectual property issues and search patent data bases. In the same way, I should determine also who is the target market of the shampoo that I am going to launch; partly, include the decision maker in the purchasing process in case I start to market the product to the consumers, supermarkets, groceries and other stores. Equally important is the product features that I must incorporate with the product. I must include also the benefits that product can provide to the consumers if they will buy my new product. The production cost is very essential in the making of the product. How much will it cost, and how much will be the cost of the product in the market? After determining all these factors, a feasibility study should be done through virtual computer in order to visualize all the ideas clearly. And if there is need for necessary modifications, it can be easily done. Then after setting the product concept, I must proceed to the testing of the concept, this can be done through promotions, giving free sample items to the consumers in the market and evaluate their personal idea on the tested product. This can also more effective through utilization of choice modeling. After doing this part, it is time for me to determine what should likely be the selling price of the shampoo based upon the competition and customers feedbacks. Then, doing estimation of sales volume, again based upon the size of the target market. Lastly, I can estimate my profitability and break-even point. Correspondingly, in launching a new product, beta testing and market testing are taken into great account. This can be done by producing a physical prototype or mock-up procedure, by testing the product and its packaging based on normal usage conditions, by conducting focus group customer interviews or by introducing it in a trade show. After hearing feedbacks from the customers, it is time for me to make necessary adjustments and changes for their own benefits as well as mine. Assuming that I have already accomplished this part; it is time for me to initially run the product and sell it to the market area to determine if the consumer will patronize my new shampoo. Commercialization greatly helps in launching any product to the market through advertisements and other promotions, and new low or affordable product pricing is very important to attract the customer to try the product.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_product_development)
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_product_development
http://www.solve-itmarketing.com/faq.htm
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment