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Six
Critical Pillars of New Product
Success
By David Clark, New Business Development
Manager,
the Malco Design & Deliver Group
There is nothing more important to the success of a new
product,
or a product redesign, than solid pre-design
preparation.
In this
series of newsletters, we will discuss six significant
"pillars" of the new product process. While there
are many
different aspects of new product development to consider,
and
there are hundreds of books and articles published every year
which demonstrate this, the six pillars we will discuss stand
out to us as being the most critical. Let's take a brief look
at
the first pillar, Market Research.
Market
Research is by far the most fundamental building block
of a successful new product. There is nothing more critical
than understanding your target customer, and size and scope
of
the opportunity. Market research is the process of gathering
both quantitative and qualitative information about your
markets
and intended customers, and is used to answer basic
questions, such as:
- How
many potential customers for this product
are out there?
- What
exactly is it they desire to buy?
- How
much should I sell it for?
- Where
will my customers learn about, and buy,
this product?
We recommend
you start with qualitative research.
Understand
the problem your customer needs to solve, how
much
they are willing to spend to solve it, the strengths and
weaknesses
of competitive solutions, and if there are any fatal
flaws to your solution. Then switch over to quantitative
research
to determine how large the total market is and how
much of that market your solution could capture. Market
research
doesn't have to be a massive undertaking. Even a
small
amount of well thought research can make a big
difference.
While
the staff at The Malco Design & Deliver Group may be
best known for our product design and development
capabilities,
we are skilled and experienced in a variety or
market
research techniques, and can help answer these
important questions.
For more
information on Market Research, please feel free to
call a member of our staff.
Next
month, the second pillar: Performance
Requirements.
Go
back to Malco Newsletters
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