Abstract:

It would be convenient, not only for the purposes of this chapter but also for marketing companies generally, if new products were developed by a logical step-by-step approach by surmounting a succession of hurdles which remained constant from product to product, so that new product development could be ‘learned by rote’. The facts, of course, are quite the opposite. The majority of new products are developed by a series of fairly unordered steps, the order and the degree of attention paid to each varying from company to company and from project to project. There are many reasons for this lack of formality. Principal amongst these are: (a) the large contribution which is undoubtedly made by sheer creativity to most new products which have much chance of success; (b) the interaction of all the elements in the total ‘marketing mix’ (product, price, pack, name, advertising, etc.); (c) the cost and time-scale pressures which are ever-present in most competitive situations.