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June 15 2009 Issue
Consumer Feedback a Must in New Product Development
 The folks at HFN magazine called me about a month and asked me to write a guest column. In case you don't subscribe to HFN or haven't read the June 15 issue of the magazine, here is what I wrote:
Most executives in the housewares industry would agree that one of the most important critical success factors is new products: the development and introduction of a steady stream of new and/or improved products and line extensions.
Housewares manufacturers certainly introduce a steady stream of new products. According to a survey I recently conducted with housewares manufacturers, 60% of the survey respondents reported that their companies had introduced more than 75 new products in the past five years.
But, housewares manufacturers are not introducing a steady stream of successful new products. Less than 10% of the more than 75 new products introduced by each company in the past five years met the company's success criteria.
Research shows that successful new products offer unique benefits/features to the consumer and are superior to competing products in the eyes of the consumer. It's no wonder so many of the new products introduced by housewares companies do not succeed. There is nothing unique about many of the products relative to all the other similar products that are already on the market, nor does the consumer perceive many of these new products as being better than the products that are already on the market.
It is not enough to develop and introduce a steady stream of new products. That steady stream of products must offer unique benefits to the consumer and must be superior to competing products in the eyes of the consumer.
It's all about the consumer. If you want to increase your new product success rate, you've got to systematically integrate consumer feedback into your new product development process.
Not just a product concept test at the beginning. Not just a home-use test at the end. You need to bring consumers into the process throughout new product development. From start to finish.
- At the pre-development stage, even before you've decided what new products you are going to develop.
- At the new product ideation stage when you are coming up with new product ideas.
- At the product definition stage, when you are deciding what features the product should have, figuring out the most compelling product benefits (the key reasons why consumers will buy this product), and determining the optimal price point.
- At the product concept stage, so you can find if consumers like the product before you've invested a lot of time and money in product development.
- At the prototype stage before you've spent thousands on tooling.
- At the off-tool sample stage to make sure that the manufactured product works as it is supposed to when it is used in real-world situations.
- At the package development stage so you come up with the package design that is the most effective salesperson for the product.
It's not easy. It's not fast. It's not cheap. But it's necessary ... unless you are satisfied with a new product success rate of less than 10%.
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