Abstract:

Over the past 15 years, the author has monitored the success or failure of more than 2000 new products from three different professional perspectives: academic, manufacturing and new product research consultation. This experience has convinced me that most of these failures could have been avoided by a clearer awareness of the reasons behind them. The causes of new product failure fall into two broad categories, which 1 will call tangible and intangible. Tangible reasons are those that a non- marketer of the new product, e.g., outside marketing professionals or even consumers, can detect. They include such readily perceptible factors as poor product quality and competitive reaction. Intangible reasons are the subtler problems resulting from counterproductive corporate situations and attitudes toward new product development. The former type of factor is often the result of the latter.