The Eight Stages of Product Development: An Outline
Improving and updating product lines is crucial for the success for any organisation. Failure for an organisation to change could result in a decline in sales and with competitors racing ahead. The process of NPD is crucial within an organisation. Products go through the stages of their lifecycle and will eventually have to be replaced. New product development has eight stages.. These stages will be discussed briefly below:
Stage 1: Idea Generation
New product ideas have to come from somewhere. But where do organisations get their ideas for NPD? Sources include:
Market Research
Employees
Consultants
Competitors
Customers
Distributors and Suppliers
Stage 2: Idea Screening
This process involves shifting through the ideas generated above and selecting ones which are feasible and workable to develop. Pursing non feasible ideas can clearly be costly for the company.
Stage 3: Concept Development and Testing
The organisation may have come across what they believe to be a feasible idea, however, the idea needs to be taken to the target audience. What do they think about the idea? Will it be practical and feasible? Will it offer the benefit that the organisation hopes it will? or have they overlooked certain issues? Note the idea taken to the target audience is not a working prototype at this stage, it is just a concept.
Stage 4: Marketing Strategy and Development
How will the product/service idea be launched within the market? A proposed marketing strategy will be written laying out the marketing mix strategy of the product, the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy sales and profits that are expected.
Stage 5: Business Analysis
The company has a great idea, the marketing strategy seems feasible, but will the product be financially worth while in the long run? The business analysis stage looks more deeply into the Cashflow the product could generate, what the cost will be, how much market shares the product may achieve and the expected
Stage 1: Idea Generation
New product ideas have to come from somewhere. But where do organisations get their ideas for NPD? Sources include:
Market Research
Employees
Consultants
Competitors
Customers
Distributors and Suppliers
Stage 2: Idea Screening
This process involves shifting through the ideas generated above and selecting ones which are feasible and workable to develop. Pursing non feasible ideas can clearly be costly for the company.
Stage 3: Concept Development and Testing
The organisation may have come across what they believe to be a feasible idea, however, the idea needs to be taken to the target audience. What do they think about the idea? Will it be practical and feasible? Will it offer the benefit that the organisation hopes it will? or have they overlooked certain issues? Note the idea taken to the target audience is not a working prototype at this stage, it is just a concept.
Stage 4: Marketing Strategy and Development
How will the product/service idea be launched within the market? A proposed marketing strategy will be written laying out the marketing mix strategy of the product, the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy sales and profits that are expected.
Stage 5: Business Analysis
The company has a great idea, the marketing strategy seems feasible, but will the product be financially worth while in the long run? The business analysis stage looks more deeply into the Cashflow the product could generate, what the cost will be, how much market shares the product may achieve and the expected