New Product and Service Development

Brief Description

More than ever before, new products and services have become an absolute necessity for every company. Developing and launching new products and services successfully can result in growth and provide – in many cases - a competitive advantage which will lead the company ahead of its competition. Given that a significant number of new products will fail – many of them will not even reach into the market – understanding in depth and being able to apply the theoretical framework of developing products and services, becomes a critical competence for all marketers. This module studies the theory and the practice of developing and launching new products and services. Particular emphasis will be given on planning of a new product/service from idea generation to the launching. Fundamental concepts will be analyzed and real life cases will be discussed thoroughly in an attempt to link research findings and theories with application. Students will be exposed to the strategic approaches of developing products, the identification of the various opportunities, the concept generation alternatives, as well as in testing, development, launching and all other aspects of introducing new products to the market place. However, this module provides the managerial approach to acquaint students with the necessary steps and processes involved in product development which can be applied to products and services as well as to consumer and industrial products.

Topics Addressed

• Introduction to innovation and new product development.
• The new product development process.
• Opportunity identification and selection: Strategic planning for new products.
• Concept generation and problem based ideation: Finding and solving customer problems.
• Developing services.
• Analytical attribute approaches: Introduction to perceptual mapping and trade-off analysis.
• The concept evaluation system.
• Concept testing.
• Sales forecasting and financial analysis.
• Product protocol.
• Product use testing and development.
• Strategic launch planning.

Expected outcomes

• Understand and apply the process of new product development and management.
• Appreciate the role of multiple functions in the process of developing new products (. research, design, marketing, production, finance).
• Learn how to integrate the end-consumers into the process of NPD.
• Apply processes to identify opportunities for new products and services.
• Develop and apply various testing tools used for evaluating product concepts.
• Enhance your teamwork skills.