MARKETING DEBATE—Whom Should You Target With New Products? Some new products exp
ID: 371626 • Letter: M
Question
MARKETING DEBATE—Whom Should You Target With New Products?
Some new products experts maintain that getting close to customers through intensive research is the only way to develop successful new products. Other experts disagree and maintain that customers can’t possibly provide useful feedback on what they don’t know and can’t provide insights that will lead to breakthrough products.
To address this debate, identify and explain a few advantages and disadvantages to each of the two positions.
Identify and discuss variables that might make one position or the other more attractive. Variables might include items such as industry type, product life cycle, product adoption rates, etc.
Now identify a company that you work for or are interested in. Articulate your recommendations regarding the role that research would have for new product development in this company.
If you feel that customer research is not appropriate for this company, identify the research processes that you would use.
If you feel that customer research is appropriate for this company, identify the research processes that you would use.
Explanation / Answer
Advantages of Customer Research
1. Any product to be introduced in the market requires extensive money to be invested in developing and marketing the product till it gets accepted or rejected. Research helps controlling these costs by refraining from products which might not be accepted by the customers
2. Research helps in understanding the market and marketing the product in areas where substantial demand is estimated
3. Research helps in designing the product exactly as desired by the customers
4. Sometimes few modifications in the existing product is more than enough and can save time, cost and efforts than going for an entirely new product and introducing it from scratch
Disadvantages of Research
1. This doesn't work for innovative products where the customer doesn't know what is about to come
2. Research doesn't help when the customer feels there is no necessity of a product but once the product is in the market, it can change the lives of customers in unimaginable way - these are called disruptive products
3. Research has its inherent biases where a certain hypotheses is verified and sometimes unknowingly the researchers tend to focus on groups which validate their theories and can generate skewed data
4. Research may restrict the research and development personnel to pursue only marginal changes in the products based on the customers' suggestions and expectations and limit their potential in seeking for far reaching products which comes through imagination of new products
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In technolgical industries where a new phone, computer, laptop, software etc come every second, month or year research will not be very helpful in gaining stronghold in the market. Here the customers like to buy a new product every other day and by the time the research study results come in hand, the whole mindset and desire of the customers will have changed. In such industries the R & D team has to be constantly at war with the new technologies and improvize constantly.
On the other hand lets take the example of household products industry and mattresses specifically where a customer buys a product only after there is considerable positive response (word-of-mouth response) and where the product lifecycle is greater than the technological sphere. Today in market there are a whole gamut of mattresses available for variety of needs, for back ache, for sciatica, for muscle cramps etc with many types of fabric and fillers like foam, coir, memory foam etc. To come up with a new mattress which addresses a specific issue/need, it requires extensive research. First identify where the customer is facing problem then look for ways in which it can be addressed. Then test the results by inviting few customers to use the product and give feedback, based on the feedback certain improvements could be made. In such industries, research is inevitable and will lead to better customer acceptance rates.
Let us take the example of Apple. Here research sure has its role but is not the key. If apple waited for people to form ideas as to what they need for better music hearing experience, there would never have been i-pod at that point in time. They went for innovative and breakthrough products without waiting for the customer wanting it. However as mentioned earlier, research does play a key role here as well in identifying issues/needs of customers which would need products with improved features and instead of going for marginal improvements, the new product development team has to look for only insights from customers and develop breakthrough products.
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