Rapid Prototype Blog

Posts Tagged ‘launching a new product’

Launching a new product is the need of the hour of companies if they want to survive in today’s competition. The need of a new product arises out of the changing needs of the consumer as well as new trends prevailing in the society. A company which develops a new product is the one following a path of innovation – the key to success and sustainability.

New product development is a mammoth task in itself and may not be as easy as it seems. It involves a lot of expertise and a detailed study if you really want your product to be accepted by the consumer. New product development involves engineering as well as marketing expertise.

Product relevance is the key

New Product development arises from an idea generated based on the user’s need. An idea needs to be transformed into a concept and has to be tested to evaluate the product characteristics, production cost, target market, feasibility etc. Once this is done, it is importance to forecast the sales based on the customer feedback. A product can be the best in the market but may not necessarily sell if the customer does not need it. Also it is important at this stage to evaluate the profitability. Once the above are done, a prototype should be created and market tested. After a series of iterations, the prototype will be transformed into a benchmark for the end product. Now the production can begin based on the final study of operations, logistics, resource requirements etc. Production will be followed by Marketing activities of distribution, advertisement, promotions etc. Easy as it sounds, the process is actually very difficult especially if you have not done your research properly.

Research is the key

New Product Development is a process which is more research oriented than business oriented. A business oriented approach alone may prove lethal as you are focused only at your profits. But a research oriented approach is holistic; is a systemic way of doing things where in you see a bigger picture. So, many companies prefer having a separate Research & Development team to do this job for them. This happens with the behemoth companies who can afford to wait and spend millions. But for companies which are comparatively smaller in terms of revenues, it is advisable to outsource a process to some consulting firms. If you have an idea in place, you can approach such companies which can handle the process and help you decide if you really want to go ahead or not. The advantage of outsourcing the task is that you are not required to permanently hire highly skilled resources as they may increase your overall cost. Outsourcing the new product development to some expert firm will help you focus on your core operations so that they are not affected at the same time saving millions of dollars. One of the companies offering new product development consulting services in Australia is Design Industry. This company has a variety of services available, right from Idea generation to actual product design, outsourced production as well as marketing analysis. For more info visit www.design-industry.com.au.