What is New Product Development and its Stages
New Product Development comes in handy when a company wishes to launch a new product. NPD is the process that should be followed when a new idea or product needs to be launched in the market.
Stages Involved in New Product Development are:
Idea Generation
It is the first step; for the idea generation part, one should focus on customer problems because when you are aware of the issue, it becomes easy to come up with ideas to solve those issues. For the idea generation part, customer suggestions should be encouraged; one should conduct surveys, brainstorm new ideas, and examine what competitors are offering.
Idea Screening
You might come up with plenty of ideas but are they what your business needs? One should ask questions like is it really important to launch the product and how the product will benefit the organization.
Concept Testing
Here, you put your ideas in front of people, and you will get to know whether you should actually pursue these ideas or not.
Product Prototype
A handcrafted, 3-D replica or a digital product is required in this stage of New Product development. Refine the prototype and make it fully functional.
Beta Testing
The new product should be given to trusted customers for beta testing. Based on the feedback from users, make amendments to your product. Beta testing is great for reducing costs as trusted customers test the product and tell you where it needs improvements.
Design and Production
The design needs to be perfect to go through production. It’s a great chance to make improvements and enhancements to your product. During this process, end-users should be kept in mind to design the product that is needed by customers. For the production part, the organizations should pay attention to potential issues and solutions.
Marketing
The marketing team should run campaigns to raise awareness about the product to generate leads and increase demand. Before starting with the marketing part, everything from trade marketing sales collateral must be planned.
Commercialization
After the success of test marketing, introduce your product at a higher level. Make use of radio, print media, television, and digital marketing.
Post Launch Activities
You are not done with the new product launch after launching it. Post-launch activities are crucial. One needs to recognize common problems and eradicate them.
Review the Performance
Work doesn’t end when the product is on the market. Getting to know how customers feel about your product is a great opportunity for customer research. You must find out if your product is well received by customers, if are competitors offering similar products, is the marketing team happy with the revenue, are middlemen happy with the commission, etc.
Wrapping it Up
The new product launch requires a lot of research, ideation, prototype testing, beta testing, final product launch, before and after launch activities, and so on. While doing the research and producing the product, always keep in mind your customers and their wants, and you will be successful in launching a product that is well-received by customers.