Abstract:

Marketing research does promote product and service innovation. The key is development of tools and techniques that direct managers to the ‘source’ of emerging customer needs and wants - the kinds of needs and wants that if fulfilled have the potential to excite customers promote brand preference and loyalty and keep a brand or firm a step ahead of its competitors. One such tool is attribute life cycle analysis. To date a method introduced by Kano and his colleagues has been the primary technique for attribute life cycle analysis. While the Kano method furnishes marketing managers with some important benefits it has some limitations that warrant development and application of alternative attribute life cycle analysis techniques. This paper describes two alternatives to the Kano method. It reports research indicating that these alternative techniques yield highly comparable results. Also presented is a recommended approach to and case illustration of how managers can use attribute life cycle analysis to identify opportunities for product and service innovation.