Concept development and testing

The third stage of the new product design phase is concept development and testing. Ulrich, 2003 state  that testing a concept is vital in the products development, ensuring the product is suitable for the market, whilst allowing developers to alter the product to consumer’s needs. Kotler and Armstrong, 2012 also state that concept development involves developing a new product into alternate product concepts by finding out how appealing each concept is to the customer.

Concept testing

Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2009 explain concept testing as a test to evaluate a newly introduced idea, namely a product or service; examining the sellable and practical determining factors of the prototype before it is introduced. Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2009 carry on to state how It is a way of measuring the enthusiasm of the products target consumers, this can be measured through the  reaction to a picture, written statement, or verbal description of the products fundamental capabilities and purposes.

Lycra, 2008 used a group of consumers to test the lycra product range, consumers were given various Lycra compression garments to use in their designated sport and then scored the product:

“Consumer response to a LYCRA® SPORT fabric concept testing:

 • 60% Extreme/Very Interest

 • 56% Extremely/Very Believable

 • 37% Extremely/Very Different

 • 73% Would cost a lot or a little more”

Lycra (2008)

In terms of the product/service of ‘collision sense’ it’s success would be determined largely in the technical development of the product, as if developed effectively it has the potential to be a multi-market product, bringing with it an entertainment element that could vastly improve sports spectatorism, consequently attracting potential contracts from television broadcast company’s. Additionally the product can be used as a development tool for clubs and most importantly used to referee a safe and fair sporting environment. As a consequence of the products potential directions it would appear the product would score highly in terms of product, pricing and promotion.

An effective way of measuring the collision sense’s potential would be through the product positioning map (see appendix). The market map illustrates the range of “positions” that a product can take in a market based on two dimensions that are important to customer. Examples of those dimensions might be:

High price v low price

·         Basic quality v high quality

·         Necessity v luxury

·         Lo-tech v high-tech

Riley (2012)

Another way of researching the target ,markets opinion o the products potential would be through the use of questionnaires this would aid developers in deciding product information such as price, promotion, feasibility, usefulness,  participation, the target market, market need, frequency of purchase and suggestions for improvement (Carlile, 2002)

To conclude concept development and testing allows a developer to realise the level of need for a product, the interest from the target market and potential development possibilities to improve the products demand.

Appendix

Reference list

Carlile, P. R. (2002). A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development. Organization science, 13(4), 442-455.

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2012) Principles of Marketing. 14th edn. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Pinnacle marketing & Lycra, 2008 http://www.lycra.com/g_en/webpage.aspx?id=963 Acessed:

24/11/2013

Riley, J. (2012). Brand Positioning & Market Mapping.

Ulrich, K. T. (2003). Product design and development. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Idea screening

 

Idea screening is defined as an evaluative process in which developers review product ideas, strategies and current market trends (Business dictionary, 2013)

The need to screen ideas using various screening criteria is important as it determines the compatibility of the chosen products with the overall business objectives of the organisation and therefore indicates whether the product(s) have the potential to be successful.

Berens (1972) suggests that using a decision matrix approach is a positive way of screening ideas as it is customer focused, this is because the various criteria are based largely on the customer. In addition using a decision matrix increases efficiency when developing a product as a consequence of the structured and precise format. Chou (2008) states how objective decision making is more effect than subjective as it allows individual attributes to be assessed this reinforces how the decision matrix allows for an easier group decision process, as it allows the group to make an objective decision. Lastly the information from the decision making process is clearly documented.

When brainstorming in the idea generation stage three products were shortlisted as potential products to develop; these were collision sense, The Kit tracker app and the home circuit trainer app, therefore these three products were evaluated using the decision matrix (see appendix) Despite the kit tracker app and the home circuit trainer app’s both appearing relatively cheap to produce it was decided in this stage that the market size was to low and that competition within both areas were already high.

It was decided that the collision sense product would be taken further in the development stage as the results showed it  had the best raw and weighted score and therefore was the obvious choice for further product development, this was mainly due to the lack of competition within this area of sport product/technology and the profit potential of the product due to the increasing numbers and investment within televised sport. This enabled the identification of the products versatility as it can be multi-functional in a holistic range of sports; it offers an entertainment element that can increase spectator satisfaction, make sports such as football fairer whilst enabling another dimension in elite sport analysis.

To conclude the decision matrix allowed for a number of areas of each product to be evaluated and allowed for an efficient decision to be made when choosing the product to develop further.

Appendix

Reference list-

Berens, J. S. (1972). A decision matrix approach to supplier selection. Journal of Retailing, 47(4), 47-53.

Business Dictionary. (2013). Available: at http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/idea-screening.html. Last accessed 19/11/13

Chou, S. Y., Chang, Y. H., & Shen, C. Y. (2008). A fuzzy simple additive weighting system under group decision-making for facility location selection with objective/subjective attributes. European Journal of Operational Research, 189(1), 132-145.