Evaluation of New Product Development Practices and Processes - Case Study Example

Institution: Name: Date: Evaluation of New Product Development Practises and Processes According to the case study of the word product stands for both tangible goods such as computers, cars among others and services such as investments. The New Product Development (NPD), which includes new services development. Successful products don’t have to be new, but in order for an organization to be able to grow it will have to find new customers for the existing products in the case of the organization not having new products to satisfy its customers example relating to this is in the case of Motorola and Nokia was persuading its customers those with mobile phones to exchange them from them with those handsets with features such as MP3 player, internet enabled, camera among other new features in order to retain their customers. The New Product Development (NPD) process is one that is a combination of goals, steps, activities or decisions that are meant to churn out new products as required by the organization (Crawford 10). The New Product Development has a structural model of processes that show sequential phases with each having a set of inputs, outputs, activities which are linear, sequential and time ordered. Generic NPD process has six stages or rather phases that are helpful in understanding important issues of each phase that provide useful understanding of analysis and decision making. The processes are mainly designed for larger and commercial organizations. Among the six phases, phase 3 entails concept definition that’s changing an idea into a concept in that the product is described what it is, the targets of the product among other concepts on the same phase assessments will be done preliminarily on commercial and technology viability in terms of concept. Phase 4 is about Product development and feasibility assessment in that the confirmation of the product’s market and technological feasibility also the business plan and prototypes are done in this phase. Phase 5 entails final testing and product launch in the sense that the product is per the customer’s desire when buying or using it. While as for phase 6 is Post launch monitoring and evaluation, in this phase adjustment or rather changes are made on the marketing strategies and product based on what is learnt. The following below is about the 3-6 phases of the six stage generic process as witnessed as a success or failure to an organization or rather organizations (Muffatto & Roveda 620). Phase’s 3-6 areas of NPD process performed well by organizations in relationship to new products development Among the evident organizations that have successfully made due to produce of new products or rather projects to their customers through the NPD process include the Sony Company which is deals with electronics. Sony as a company has been performing well in terms of sales and having a good relationship with its customers in the product and services since its able to provide its customers with what the need and as per current technology for instance as per the 3-6 phases the company has successfully been able to maintain the customers by adopting phase 3 that which entails changing an idea into a concept for example came up with the idea of portable stereo manufactured products, for example walkman hence it through the phase 3 of the New Product Development. Sony also went on to adding and applying the phase 3 New Product Development process by been able to describe what the product is to its customers and its significance to the customers thus able to target its customers of the new product and also on the note of commercializing and the technological viability concept of its product. This made the Sony sales rise significantly as compared to that of its competitors such as the Toshiba, Sanyo and Aiwa as illustrated below by the cumulative models graph Cumulative Models The graph above explain the sales difference of the different companies as to their products of manufacture with Sony leading since it has adopted and used the New Product Development in its manufacture of the Walkman. For this process or rather phases to be successful it has a number of conditions that’s; the organization or organizations in this case have to be able to target what the consumers and customers want and need intuitively, while doing so the organizations should avoid incurring cannibalism risk that is reducing customers who are already existing for existing lines. Another condition is reducing lead times in order for the organization to be able to innovate faster and efficiently than its competitors thus requiring a flexible, efficient New Products Process (Shepherd & Ahmed 170). Another organization that has been of success in terms of sales to its targeted customers is the German company by the name Frosch it’s a detergent product manufacture. Frosch was able to gain its target customer in a way that reflects the 3-6 phases of the New Product Development in that it came up with an idea that it later transformed into a workable concept that is the concrete detergent that’s sold independently of bottle of storing the detergent also used in dispensing the detergent, this can be reflected to phase 6 that is post launch monitoring and evaluation of the concrete detergent in order to be as per the marketing strategies and product based on what is learnt by the Frosch organization in the manufacture of the detergent. Another phase used by the Frosch is that of phase 5 which is about final testing and product launch in the sense that the product in this case the concrete detergent is per the customer’s desire when buying or using it, for example Frosch customers use water to mix with the concrete detergent and the same time use the mixed concrete detergent with water in the same containers just like the normal or rather ordinary detergent for laundry. On the same point of Frosch detergent using or rather reflecting the 3-6 phases is the account of considering an environmental friendly. Thus the Frosch’s got more customers who have agreed or rather considered the product friendly to the environment, furthering customer believe of the detergent to it as a direct contribution to a cleaner environment. Other success to the Frosch is the significant sales of its product at a profit in both retail and wholesale levels thus the concrete detergent been above its competitors at the market level. Another organization that has been of success in terms of manufacturing or rather producing new products and having a smooth time with its customers and also the target customers in the market as result of a new product is that in Asia of snacks, food and beverages after undergoing the New product Development process that of scanning market and recognizing what can be of potential in terms of getting and maintaining more customers. The Asian snacks, food and beverage organization came up with a new product that is the citrus flavored and herbal tea that became popular in some parts of the continent of Asian this led to more customers and hence more sells for the organization and not only the organization manufacturing the tea products but also the tea farmers and also the fruit flavored producers thus breaking the continued consumption of the traditional black tea in Asia. This can be reflected in the third phase that’s is of concept definition, changing an idea into a concept like in the case of the Asian organization converting the idea of flavored tea into a concept, another New Product Development witnessed in the Asian snack, food and beverage manufactures in the part of Scanning or rather looking into customers desire and coming up with the flavored tea as a new product to its customers that can be reflected as that in phase 5 whereby it entails final testing and product launching as per customer desire when buying and consuming. Phase’s 3-6 areas of NPD process performed poorly in organizations Among the organizations that have failed or rather performed poorly in refection to New Products Development is that of ski resorts in Australia that introduced bushwalking tours during the summer among other nature outings, that are popular during the summer season since skiing and other related snow holidays are not offered. Thus these products of the summer are perceived as new builders of the market since they have made or rather pushed for the organizations entry the segment of new products. Now the poor performance comes in the part of the activities are seasonal buffers and are the income generators for the ski resorts in Australia thus for a season their activities come to halt since their customers are not available because the season is not as per their business. This in turn renders most of the ski resorts in Australia fixed assets that is land and trails in a given period lie idle thus a loose to them in terms of monetary value and customers. This based on the New Product Development process opposes some of the phases, like that of phase 4 is about Product development and feasibility assessment in that the confirmation of the product’s in the market and technological feasibility also the business plan and prototypes are done in this phase (Kotler P, 2006), As for the Australian ski resorts the poor performance can be reflected in the part of confirmation of the product that is their activities of ski in this case, in that they can’t be able to maintain their customers and place their assets into work fully since their business is not continuers thus performing poorly during the off season of snow. Another poor performance in the Australian ski resort as reflected to the phases in the New Products Development is the part or rather the phase of post launching, monitoring and evaluation, in this phase adjustment or rather changes are made on the marketing strategies and product based on what is learnt. Something is not evident or more so corrected by the Australian ski resorts thus enhancing poor performance in the seasons ski and other related activities are not happening due to the season in place. As per the New Product Development it should have been noted and some changes based on what is learnt on basis of the market strategies as explained in phase 6 in the New Product Development process (Kotler et al. 155). Thus a poor performance in general for the Australian ski resorts organizations. Another organization or rather manufacturer in the production sector that performed poorly is that of the razor that at start, it had a good start but later dropped due some issues that can be compared as per the New Products Development process that is as explained and expected in the 3-6 phases in the process of coming up of a new product for its customers that is the targeted ones. In 1993 razor sales as per Kano categories the design contributed to 10% of the sells due to its design quality that was able to attract a number of customers thus boosting the sales of the razor, but in the same year noise level of the razor brought a 5% down fall on the sales of the razor thus a number of customers were lost by the razor manufacture since their desires were not met in the new product. Later on in 1997 the razor manufactures decreased marginally due to noise level of their new product that is the razor thus losing more customers to other better razor manufacturers in the market. On the point of development of new products or rather in the New Product Development process as explained or more required in the 3-6 phases, starting with that in phase 4 that stipulates the following product development and feasibility assessment in that the confirmation of the product’s market and technological feasibility also the business plan and prototypes are done in this phase (Constant 220). The razor the manufacture poor performance is as result of not conducting the feasibility assessment and confirming the products technology to that in the market or rather as expected in the market, in this case the issue of noise that’s a technical or rather a technological issue that made the sales of the razor drop since it’s not as per the customer desires as need thus bring out another issue or requirement as recommended or needed in the phase 5 that entails final testing and product launching in the sense that the product in the market is as per the customer’s desire when buying or using it. Unlike in this razor case whereby the noise produced is not as per the customers’ desires when using it. Thus having the targeted customers for the new product that is the razor opting for other razor products of other competitors more the key competitors in the razor market, this leads to poor performance of this razor manufacturing organization (Shepherd & Ahmed 163). Improvement that can be done in phase 6 Among the improvements that can be done in phase 6 based on the poor performance by the Australian ski resorts include that of Post launch monitoring and evaluation, in that this phase adjustment such as those in the activities of the resort or rather changes are made on the marketing strategies and product based on what is learnt and the product launched in a sense that the product is per what the customer’s desires when buying or using it (Cagan & Vogel 200). That is the fixed assets in the resort can be transformed to serve all seasons in that during the snow seasons skiing can be the core activity thus targeting the customer of that particular season, while in the season where there is no snow customers can still be targeted by other recreational activities like kids playing points thus some or rather a number of the fixed assets of the Australian resorts won’t be lying idle and more so like a waste of resources and space in the form of land (Keller 245). Also on the same note some of the changes can be achieved based on what is currently in the market and can be performed on the same location even if it might require a few changes here and there but not costly and same time fulfilling the new product to launch by meeting the customers desires and needs when using it this can improve the Australia ski resorts performance by a good margin hence capturing more customers and sales of its products in either goods or services. On the same issue based on phase 6 monitoring and evaluating the customer and market strategically can be of useful since the organization plans and budget is to a directed channel in the aim of fulfilling the desires and needs of the customer, to what the customer will be using and also to a monitored cost on the organization part that maximizing its sells in term of goods and services to its targeted customers and the same time at good income (Cagan & Vogel 195). Conclusion The New Product Development process, is a process made up of a number of phases ranging from phase 1-6, the product term refers to goods and services provided by different organizations across different customers and a times same customers. The New Product Development (NPD) process takes in account each phase with its well defined activities that collectively come up with a complete New Products Development process. Briefly on each of the phases 3-6 or rather generic stages is that as for phase 3 it’s a concept definition phase, phase 4 is about development of products and feasibility on the same, phase 5 is on final product testing while for the last stage that is phase 6 post launching and monitoring the new product before released in the market for use or consumption by the customer (Constant 230). On the same note of New Product Development process some of the organization have been witnessed perform well in relationship to the 3-6 phases of the New Products Development process, among them is the Sony company that is in an electric based manufacturer in this case the manufacture of portable stereo product that is the Walkman device that boosted the Sony organization in terms of sales of this new product to is targeted customers this also made Sony among the top sellers’ of the time compared to its key competitors in the same market the likes of Toshiba, Sanyo, Aiwa among others. This success can be reflected in the New Products Development especially in the 3-6 phases whereby the customers desires and wants or rather needs are fulfilled in the products they are buying for use (Keller 250), another notable point in relation to the phases that is the 3-6 phases is the marketing strategies and product based on what is learnt, Sony can be said to be keen on this that’s why it was able to conquer or rather dominate in the market since it was able to strategically places its new product in the market and be able to win a good number of customers in that case thus performing well. On the same they are those organizations that performed poorly in relationship to the New Products Development Process for example the Australian ski resort. Its poor performance was as a result of seasonal activities thus not able to hold on its customers throughout the seasons this poor performance went down to even its resources that is land and other fixed assets lying idle since no activities are taking place (Crawford 5). This can also be reflected in the New Product Development process whereby assessment and evaluation of the market is not taken into account as per the phases in the New Product development thus leading to poor performance. Among the proposed for the improvement of the poorly performed organizations is looking into market strategies and products in order to come up with changes that will lead to customers having a desired new products that is as per their needs and wants thus improving the performance of the organization Works Cited Cagan J and Vogel C M. Creating Breakthrough Products: Innovation from Product Planning to Program Approval. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. 2002. Print. Constant, E. Recursive Practice and the Evolution of Technological Knowledge. In: Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process. J. Ziman (ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 219–33. 2000. Print. Crawford, Di Benedetto, ‘Defining the charter for product innovation’, MIT Sloan Management Review, vol. 22, no. 1, 3–12. 2003. Print. Keller R T. A resource-based study of new product development: Predicting five-year later commercial success and speed to market. International Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 243–260. 2004.Print. Kotler P, Brown L, Adam S, Burton S and Armstrong G. Marketing, 7th edn, Pearson Education. Sydney. 2006. Print. Muffatto, M. and Roveda, M. Developing Product Platforms: Analysis of the Development Process. Technovation 20(11):617–30. 2000. Print. Shepherd, C. and Ahmed, P.K. NPD Frameworks: A Holistic Examination. European Journal of Innovation Management 3(3):160–73. 2000. Print. Read More