Explain a Marketing concept for MKGT 3000 - Essay Example

The introduction of a new product line conveys a great deal of time and associated costs where the most costly stage of in the process of bringing anew product to market is the product development phase. The success full new product development process depends in the ability of the company to effectively organize and manage the product development process The process starts with idea generation where a number of creative ideas can come forth that could potentially developed into a new successful product launch.

After all the ideas are gathered, an idea screening process is utilized to sift though the proposed ideas and determine which ideas require further study or research. The main goal of the screening process is to eliminate bad ideas or concepts as soon as possible in order to minimize research development costs (Kotler). After a promising idea is identified, concept development is performed by analyzing possible product ideas that could be developed and further refined. Afterward concept testing is performed where the product concept is presented to a panel of your target customer base and their reactions and comments are gauged.

After a particular product idea or concept is chosen based on customer acceptance a market strategy analysis is devised in order to devise a cost effective marketing strategy that is tailored to the targeted market segment. A business analysis is then performed in order to determine if the product meets the firm's financial goals. From then product development, market testing, and finally commercialization or product launch finishes the process. The whole product development process is one that is full of risks and uncertainty.

Costs overrun, changes in technology, and consumer behavior or preferences can have disastrous results in the success of a new product launch. I participated in an internship for a multinational consumer product where we were trying to develop a premium line of disposable diapers utilizing 100% recycled materials on the shell of the diaper and a combination of recycled cotton and organic super absorbing material for the absorbent layer of the diaper. The company envisioned that there is an untapped market of consumers that are willing to pay a premium for an ecologically friendly “green” disposable diaper.

The company was confident that they could manufacture the new product at a cost competitive with other premium disposable diapers on the market. The company had the technical expertise and experience to develop this new product line, since one of the company's most successful product lines was the disposable diaper manufacturing division. The idea was developed into a working concept using computer aided design and a number of prototypes were built in order to test material performance manufacturing processes, liquid absorption and leak prevention.

After arriving at a satisfactory working design the business analysis demonstrated that the concept would not become economically feasible unless the design incorporated readily available recycled plastics and materials. Their main problem became the procurement of suitable recycled plastic resins since the variety and availability of recycled plastics is very limited. Although recycling has become more popular the supply chain for the type and volume of materials needed at an industrial level simply not fully developed yet.

After analyzing all the available domestic alternatives for finding suitable raw materials, the search was expanded to include the possibility of importing the raw materials from abroad in order to secure a reliable constant supply of recycled raw materials for the new project. After an exhaustive search it was determined that cost effective domestic sources could only provide less than half the yearly materials requirements and the rest could be procured in China. Exorbitant transportation, sorting, and processing costs related to preparing the raw material for production made it almost prohibitively expensive to acquire the material so the project was eliminated.

Work Cited Page Kotler, P. (2003).Marketing Management (11th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.