Product development

Product development is the sixth phase of the traditional new product development process (Morrison, 2013). The product development stage is where previous agreed requirements and specification's are defined into a final design ready to be tested internally and by consumers in order to create a commercial ready ‘concrete product’ Perceptual maps can also be developed in this stage through customer feedback, this can aid the organisation's marketing program with brand positioning (Soares, Bastos, Gavazzo, Pereira, & Baptista, 2013)

Adidas’s development of the mi coach feature is an example of good sport product development. Adidas group, 2011 show how the features of the mi coach design were revolutionary in this particular field. Dogiamis & Vijayashanker, 2009 explain how Adidas evaluated the needed specifications for a sports GPS system, completing market research into the likes of Nike and there ‘Nike+’ device. After developing the product into a final design; adding more advanced features to compete with and reduce Nike’s market share; they tested the Mi coach internally and on athletes, which allowed Adidas to finalise the design into a 'concrete' product (Adidas group, 2011)

As established the product name will be ‘Collision sense’. In relation to the perceptual map (see appendix A) the product cost will be relatively high this is due to the need for a high level of quality (see appendix A), the need for high quality is due to two key factors: Firstly an accurate and precise measurement of force has to be consistent in order for the product to be successful and this requires advanced technology. Secondly the collision sense cell must be durable as it will be used in contact sports and thus the cost of the product will be relatively high and much higher than products closest to it in the current market i.e. Nike+ and Adidas micoach (see appendix B). Therefore the decided target market for the product is different to the likes of Adidas micoach whose aims were to appeal to the average consumer i.e. a Sunday league football player. The goal of collision sense however is to be an exclusive elite sport brand which provide’s a state of the art tool for broadcasting organisations and secondly to aid refereeing decisions, therefore after securing trademark protection collision sense can be promoted to large organisations such as ESPN, BT sport, Sky sports and FIFA with a focus on gaining profit through bulk sale. Meanwhile securing deals with large broadcasting organisations will promote the product and raise brand awareness.

To conclude, going forward the collision sense product will be a high cost high quality exclusive product aimed at improving elite sport and broadcasting capabilities.

Reference list:

Adidas group, (2011) http://blog.adidas-group.com/2011/12/interactivity-at-adidas-a-new-level-of-engagement/ Accessed: 20/1/14

Dogiamis, G., & Vijayashanker, N. (2009). Adidas: Sprinting Ahead of Nike. Chicago   

Morrison, A. M. (2013). Marketing and managing tourism destinations. Routledge.

Soares, D., Bastos, J., Gavazzo, D., Pereira, J. P., & Baptista, A. J. (2013). Lean Management Methods in Product Development: A Case Study. In Advances in Sustainable and Competitive Manufacturing Systems (pp. 1385-1399). Springer International Publishing.

Appendix A

Appendix B