A new product or service can open, for some corporations, the way of re-conquering a tired clientele, or attracting a new one. The Catalonian Automobile Club (Reial Automdbil Club de Catalunya), looked at itself, until 1985 and after 80 years of history, as a "club of automobile drivers", with a strong accent on sports sponsoring, and offering its members a variety of services with a rather unsatisfactory result. The institution was perceiving a slow but progressive fatigue in interest for membership, while automobile assistance corporations were growing in the marketplace. In early 1986 the RACC decided to act as a marketing- oriented company. A marketing research was undertaken among members and non members, and a new positioning objective was lined out: the Club would become a high-level, full-service company, targeted to automobile owners.
The objective of this paper is to illustrate the validity of qualitative research as a predictive tool. The predictive value of qualitative research and its possibilities of anticipating problem-solving is presented here as based on its own foundations. The predictive value of qualitative research stems from the methods used for both data collection and analysis of the information obtained. In this paper, the authors set up a theoretical framework for what they assert. But the actual illustration of this is to be found in the presentation of a case, which describes some of the actions undertaken in order - to introduce a network of automatic cashiers of an important savings bank in Barcelona.
The paper defines product-concept and the importance of its identification in new-product development. Whether consumer- or industrial-oriented, new-product success relies to an important extent on what the purchaser perceives in it as satisfactory for his or her needs. This specific meaning the purchaser endows the product is called product-concept.