Monday, September 2, 2013

How to advertise your product on Television


Tv advertisement production: Tips for Success!


Okay, so you’ve made it this far.  You have an amazing product that only needs access to 1) a big audience and 2) to major retailers.  You’ve gone to www.PowerOfMarketing.com and have submitted your application to showcase your product on national TV.  You wait a while and finally the Power of Marketing TV show lets you know that your application has been reviewed and your product is accepted to go on TV.  So what’s next?

We know that it can be nerve wrecking to present your product on national TV.  As an inventor or owner of the product, you’ve had HUGE dreams of marketing your product nationwide.  You’ve spent years and lots of time energy and effort in getting it ready to go to market.  So when the big day comes to showcasing your product on National TV, you feel nervous… you don’t want to “screw it up”.


We’ve interviewed many on TV and have put together a few tips for TV advertising success:
1.    Prepare an outline or key points of what you want to discuss and show on TV
2.    List out the main features and most importantly, discuss the benefits of the product
3.    Rehearse it in front of family and friends or at least in front of a camera
a.    Ask for feedback on what you can improve on
b.    See what you look like on camera

You probably think that it is time consuming to go through all these steps before going on TV, but because you know your product best… you may skip over the details that the audience may not understand, which means you may be selling your product short.

 

How to Sell your Product on TV: A few Preparation Questions:

You will want to practice answering the following questions when you are on the Power of Marketing TV Show.  Preparation is crucial to the success of your product selling on TV.  Remember that the opportunity to sell on national television could mean thousands of units selling during airtime.

The following are some basic questions that you should prepare for the Power of Marketing TV Show:
  1. What is the name of the product and what does it do?
  2. How did you come up with the idea?  (perhaps you can explain in a “human interest” story format, where you make it personable and relate-able for others).
  3. Is there anything dramatic or interesting about why the product was developed?
  4. Explain in detail the benefits of this product over existing products on the market.  What does it replace?  Why?  How exactly is it better?  Is it smaller, lighter, waterproof, better quality, more durable, environmentally friend, more safe… etc.
  5. Who are the ideal customers for this product?  (male, female, children, pets, athlethes, dancers, students, senior citizens?)
  6. What are existing customers saying about your product? 
  7. Is there a warranty?  What is the shelf life of the product?
  8. What are the variations that the product comes available in?  (sizes, shapes, colors and etc.)
  9. If it is to your benefit, please go into detail of where your product is made and where it is shipped from.
  10. Please have the pricing details of your product ready; retail, wholesale and the price for Power of Marketing TV Show.

Before the TV advertising Production:

We at the Power of Marketing TV Show are here to make sure you do your best on camera.  Come prepared with the answers to the above questions.  Make sure that the product you will be showcasing will be it the best shape for camera action. 

 

How Power of Marketing TV Show will help you:

 




We will have someone that you will do a quick rehearsal with you before the video production takes place.  We want to help you by ensuring that your presentation makes sense to the TV audience.  Again, make sure that you are well prepared in advanced with all the information on your product before you come on set.  The most successful infomercials are profitable, because everyone has rehearsed their presentation and therefore are comfortable discussing and expanding on their product.   

Additional, the Power of Marketing TV show also has a TV show host to guide you through the series of questions to make you feel comfortable on TV.  Our friendly TV show host will ask take you through the a series of questions so that you have the opportunity to engage with someone on TV to better describe the features and benefits of your product.
Another “Sell your Product on TV” Tip: Make sure that you dress in “camera friendly clothes” so that you look sharp on TV.   There are some colors that you need to avoid when getting in front of the camera.  Click here to learn more about what you should wear on TV.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Why Sell on TV? Product Marketing Insights Revealed



Selling on TV is Inexpensive
Yes, people have the misconception that video production for selling on national TV is too expensive.  While in the past it was typical that airtime on television could cost thousands of dollars per minute to product, it no longer is the case.  Our TV Show has arranged a bundle with Time Warner Cable and Cox Cable and is bringing extreme savings to you! 
Airtime on national TV now costs entrepreneurs, inventors and product owners only a few hundred dollars for a chance at real success! 



The Right Audience
With an at home audience looking for a solution, exposure of your product means serious success for you and your product sales.  The very reason why TV infomercials are immensely successful is that you have an audience that is looking for a solution that will make their lives easier or better.  With the chance to have huge exposure to the right audience and being able to showcase your product can quickly increase your sales. 


Large Volume in Sales
With an at home audience ranging from hundreds of thousands of people to millions… this means an opportunity for you to sell a large volume of products.  Even if you had products online, on multiple websites, print magazines, print advertisements, retail stores… nothing compares to selling your product on national TV.  Product infomercials and TV commercials typically move thousands of units per minute of airtime!  Imagine what selling on TV could mean for your product!



Market your product Features & Benefits
Unlike any other marketing medium, selling on TV allows you showcase your product to millions of people.  You get the unique chance to explain your product, its features, and benefits to an enormous audience!  The Power of Marketing TV Show infomercials give you the opportunity to explain your product in great detail and expand upon its features and benefits.  The success of television advertising or TV infomercials is huge. 
Don’t get stuck on selling your features of your “new and improved” product, make more sales in expressing the unique benefits of your product.  When you say that this item has a different type of battery system… that doesn’t say as much as saying that you can now charge your gadget in 30 seconds!  “Faster Charge Time” instead of talking into the details of the technology behind it.

Access Major Retail Stores with TV
When you are able to use the platform of television to move your new product, you are able to leverage the success of your product by taking it to “big box” retailers.  The Power of Marketing TV show not only is the perfect avenue for television advertising, but access to selling your product to major retailers across the nation.

 

 

Benefits of Selling on Television:

If you would like support from the people that bring products to places such as Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, Target, ToysRus, Kmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Sears , Avon, and more, then you need to talk to us.  The Power of Marketing TV Show, can help you successfully launch your product.  Don’t hesitate, work with the right people to have your product marketed and distributed worldwide.
What Power of Marketing TV Show will do for you:
1. Get 5 minutes of airtime on our TV Show (on Cox Cable & Time Warner).
2. Gain 30 minutes presenting to our marketing and distribution panel.
3. Sell through our 800 #; supported by our professional sales department.
4. Place your products in front of buyers and marketing companies.
5. Have the opportunity to sell through major online retailers.
6. Send product information and samples to buyers around the world.
7. Market your products to worldwide buyers related to your industry.
8. Access over 3,200 active North American franchisors.
9. Send product information to over 8,100 individual buyers.
10. And much more…
11.
Submit your Product NOW for review and let us help make your product a success!

Friday, August 2, 2013

Sell your Product on TV


Sell your product on TV



Sell your Product on TV

If you have a consumer product that needs exposure to a big audience, the best chance is to get your product on national TV.  When you sell your Product in TV, you have exposure that no other media offers.  With an at home audience looking for a solution, exposure of your product can mean the possibility of moving thousands of units during the airtime.  So how do you get your product on TV?  Oftentimes there is a long and tedious process to get your product on national TV.  Major shopping TV networks similar to HSN and QVC get thousands of applicants each month, and unfortunately not many applicants make it on air.

Sell your Product on Power of Marketing TV Show

The Power of Marketing TV Show offers a unique TV platform that is a hybrid that allows you to 1) have a TV interviews and infomercial while 2) marketing your product through distributors of major retailers. 
Similar to TV interviews, the Power of Marketing allows you to showcase your product to group of marketers and buyers.  Your product is submitted for review to see if it is a good fit to be distributed to major retailers. 
Similar to TV infomercials, we also give you the opportunity to explain your product in great detail and expand upon its features and benefits.  The very reason why TV infomercials are immensely successful is that you have an audience that is looking for a solution that will make their lives easier or better.  With the chance to clearly expand on your product’s benefits, you can quickly increase sales.  

Get Results from Selling on TV

sell on tv results
When you think of marketing, you may think of it being a difficult place to track results and return on investment (ROI).  However, it is easy when tracking the results of an infomercial… especially with Power of Marketing TV show.  With our unique TV and online marketing platform, we offer you a place to sell your products both on TV and via our website.  It will be simple and easy to keep measurement of your sales from the Power of Marketing TV show. 
You will see the sales from the TV show and via our internet site. Within a few days of airing your product on national TV, you will be able to see the success of your infomercial.

Affordable to Sell on TV

The producer of the Power of Marketing TV show had a dream of creating a TV show that offers inspiring entrepreneurs a cost effective outlet to sell on national TV.  With the continuing growth of cable television, we are able to offer an affordable TV advertising opportunity for people who have products to take to market.    

To learn more about getting on TV, go to www.PowerOfMarketing.com



Thursday, July 25, 2013

Best way to advertise your product

What is the best way to advertise your product?
On National TV

If you sell products to individual consumers, the thought of moving several thousand units in a half hour probably makes you salivate. Such high-volume sales often happen on TV shopping channels like www.PowerOfMarketing.com , QVC and HSN: You can watch sales skyrocket while the product is displayed and customers place orders online and over the phone.
Getting one of these national retailers to sell your product, however, can be difficult. They field thousands of applicants every year and only accept a small fraction as new suppliers. Want to maximize your chances of being one of them?

Here are five steps to get there.
1. Research your target channels. If you’re unfamiliar with TV shopping channels, spend some time surfing them. Get a sense of what products seem to sell well and how they are presented. These shows often have call-in sessions during which either existing owners or new purchasers of a product talk about it. This can help you to discern what kind of customers each channel attracts. Look through the vendor information (usually found on the channels’ websites) as well, to find out what types of products are accepted and rejected. For example, QVC doesn’t sell any books except cookbooks.

2. Make sure your manufacturing capacity is sufficient. TV shopping channels need to ensure that they can meet customer demand, which means that vendors must be able to produce their products in bulk. On www.PowerofMarketing.com/Send-Product/ , for example, the channel notes that it usually places an order for $35,000 to $40,000 of each item. You don’t need have a warehouse full of products at the time you apply, but you do need to be certain that you can ramp up production quickly if you are accepted.

3. Fill out the application. Each channel has its own process, but most applications are available on the companies’ websites. Choose the channel you most want to pitch to — and hold off on sending applications to any other channels until you hear back from the first. Most channels want exclusivity over products and may not react well to competition from another channel. Complete the application and attach photos or other materials as requested, for more questions contact us at Info@PowerOfMarketing.com

4. Follow up, follow up, follow up. Due to the volume of submissions television retailers receive, along with the possibility that you somehow flubbed the submission process, there is a chance that your application might not be put in front of the eyes that need to see it. Don’t be afraid to follow up with the channel (after a reasonable period of time has passed) to inquire about your application’s status. However, don’t hound them regularly, or you may be rejected on the suspicion that you are difficult to work with.  Check out www.PowerofMarketing.com

5. If one product doesn’t fly, try another. You may feel discouraged if your first product submission is rejected, but that doesn’t mean that all of your products will be. Be on the lookout for another item that could be a good fit for a television shopping channel. Stay on top of new consumer trends — and submit again when you think you have a winner.



Monday, July 8, 2013

Fuel your Product Sales by selling on TV


Marketing Principles on Sticky Notes 


Fuel your product sales with Power of Marketing TV Show


Boost the chance of successfully launching your product to major retailers nationwide with the Power of Marketing TV Show.  Power of Marketing TV Show gives enterprising entrepreneurs the opportunity to showcase their product to a panel of marketers and distributors of major retailers (US and Canada).  That's right sell you product to major retailers.  In addition to exposure of their product, they will have the opportunity for viewers to order their products via the Power of Marketing TV Show (800) number.
And also we have over 3,200 active North America Franchisors and over 8,100 individual buyers that we can send your product information to.  Do you have a great product that needs access to worldwide distribution?  Would you like support from the people that bring products to places such as Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, ToysRus, Kmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Sears, Kohls, Avon, and other major retailers?

Do you have a great product that needs access to worldwide distribution?
Would you like support from the people that bring products to places such as Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, ToysRus, Kmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Sears, Kohls, Avon, and other major retailers.
If you have any product, over stock items or have new arrivals and would like to successfully launch it or give it second chance in the market, Power of Marketing TV Show have the resources to help.
Power of Marketing TV Show gives you the opportunity to have your product marketed and distributed.

Successfully launch your new product with Power of Marketing TV Show:

Power of Marketing Infomercial Packages


We offer, 5 Min, 15 Min, 30 Min, 45 Min and 60 Min Informational Airtime Packages
All our Airtime packages will run 3 times per week and all prices include full infomercial production
Packages;
“A” 5 Minutes Informational Airtime will be @ $750.00 Including Production.
“B” 15 Minutes Informational Airtime will be at @ $1,950.00 for 3 times a week, Web Order Form, Order Processing and Informational Production.
“C” 30 Minutes Informational Airtime will be at @ $2,450.00 for 3 times a week, Web Order Form, Order Processing and Informational Production.
“D” 45 Minutes Informational Airtime will be at @ $2,950.00 for 3 times a week, Web Order Form, Order Processing and Informational Production.
“E” 60 Minutes Informational Airtime will be at @ $3,450.00 for 3 times a week, Web Order Form, Order Processing and Informational Production.

Below are the benefits and steps to get started
What Power of Marketing TV Show will do for you:
1. Get 5 minutes of airtime on our TV Show (on Cox Cable & Time Warner).
2. Gain 30 minutes presenting to our marketing and distribution panel.
3. Sell through our 800 #; supported by our professional sales department.
4. Place your products in front of buyers and marketing companies.
5. Have the opportunity to sell through major online retailers.
6. Send product information and samples to buyers around the world.
7. Market your products to worldwide buyers related to your industry.
8. Access over 3,200 active North American franchisors.
9. Send product information to over 8,100 individual buyers.
10. And much more…
11. Submit your Product NOW for review and let us help make your product a success!


Process to get on Power of Marketing TV Show.
1. Fill out some basic information about yourself and your products..
2. Pay for “Product Submission” fee of $75.00.  You will receive mailing instructions of where to send a sample to, allowing your product to be reviewed by panel of our Marketers and Distributors for market potential.
3. We will send your product details to our 15 Panel of Buyers.  The product details we will send to the panel will include photos of your samples and detailed description of the product.
4. Once we receive responses from the Panel of Buyers, we will calculate responses.  If your product receives over 50% positive response, you will be asked to come to the Power of Marketing TV production location where you will present your product to our Panel of Marketers and Distributors.  You will also be given the opportunity to sell your product on the Power of Marketing TV Show furthering your chances of successfully launching your product.

Once you’ve been chosen to be on Power of Marketing TV Show:
  • You will showcase your product to our Panel of Marketers and Distributors.  This will be recorded at the Power of Marketing TV Show production location.  You will have 30 minutes to meet and present your product to our Panel of Marketers and Distributors.  If they are interested, they will make an offer.
  • You and your product will have “5 minutes of fame” on the Power of Marketing TV Show via Cable TV channels.
Power of Marketing TV Show is designed to give you a hassle-free and enjoyable marketing tool to introduce your product to the Marketers & Distributors of major retailers nationwide.
1: Application: If you would like to have a chance to get on the Power of Marketing TV Show, you will need to fill out our “Do you want to be on the Show Form” and send in a sample of your product.
2: Application Process: Once we receive your application and your sample, we will send the product details to our marketing panel (located in 15 different states in US and Canada).  If your product receives over 50% interest, you will then be asked to come to our location, have a video shooting where you will showcase your product to our panel of Marketers and Distributors.  These Marketers and Distributors represent major retailers who may be interested in selling your product and putting them on their retail shelves.
3: Showtime: You will have 5 minutes to explain and present your product to our panel of Marketers and Distributors.  They will ask questions to determine if they want to make you an offer to distribute and market your product.  In addition to exposure of your product, you will have the opportunity for viewers to order their products via the Power of Marketing TV Show (800) number.
4: Additional access to distribution:  We have a list of Buyers and Marketing Companies around the World that we will send your Product Information to after your visit.
5: Cost to participate:  To submit your product for review, it will cost $75.00.  Based on your application and your product, if you are selected to be on Power of Marketing TV Show, it will cost $750.00 for 5 Minutes air time,  If your product is purchased by any of our Marketers and or Distributors team and or our 800 Phone Lines then we will buy your product at your price point to Power of Marketing TV Show.
6: Informational Program: If your product is selected or if you select to be on our Informational Program we will give you a quote based on your item and price point, each Informational Program is for 30 minutes only, if you are interested in our 30 minutes Informational Program, Please send us a email to: Info@PowerOfMarketing.com or call us at 800 337 8330 Ext 103
How to Sell Your Product through a TV Shopping Channel like “Power of Marketing”
If you sell products to individual consumers, the thought of moving several thousand units in a half hour probably makes you salivate. Such high-volume sales often happen on TV shopping channels like www.PowerOfMarketing.com , QVC and HSN: You can watch sales skyrocket while the product is displayed and customers place orders online and over the phone.
Getting one of these national retailers to sell your product, however, can be difficult. They field thousands of applicants every year and only accept a small fraction as new suppliers. Want to maximize your chances of being one of them? Here are five steps to get there.
1. Research your target channels. If you’re unfamiliar with TV shopping channels, spend some time surfing them. Get a sense of what products seem to sell well and how they are presented. These shows often have call-in sessions during which either existing owners or new purchasers of a product talk about it. This can help you to discern what kind of customers each channel attracts. Look through the vendor information (usually found on the channels’ websites) as well, to find out what types of products are accepted and rejected. For example, QVC doesn’t sell any books except cookbooks.
2. Make sure your manufacturing capacity is sufficient. TV shopping channels need to ensure that they can meet customer demand, which means that vendors must be able to produce their products in bulk. On www.PowerofMarketing.com/Send-Product/ , for example, the channel notes that it usually places an order for $35,000 to $40,000 of each item. You don’t need have a warehouse full of products at the time you apply, but you do need to be certain that you can ramp up production quickly if you are accepted.
3. Fill out the application. Each channel has its own process, but most applications are available on the companies’ websites. Choose the channel you most want to pitch to — and hold off on sending applications to any other channels until you hear back from the first. Most channels want exclusivity over products and may not react well to competition from another channel. Complete the application and attach photos or other materials as requested, for more questions contact us at Info@PowerOfMarketing.com
4. Follow up, follow up, follow up. Due to the volume of submissions television retailers receive, along with the possibility that you somehow flubbed the submission process, there is a chance that your application might not be put in front of the eyes that need to see it. Don’t be afraid to follow up with the channel (after a reasonable period of time has passed) to inquire about your application’s status. However, don’t hound them regularly, or you may be rejected on the suspicion that you are difficult to work with.
5. If one product doesn’t fly, try another. You may feel discouraged if your first product submission is rejected, but that doesn’t mean that all of your products will be. Be on the lookout for another item that could be a good fit for a television shopping channel. Stay on top of new consumer trends — and submit again when you think you have a winner.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

New product development process


New product development process

Overview

New product development is a vital part of any business. It doesn't matter whether the product is for consumers or other businesses, whether it is a tangible object or a service. The constant change in markets and technology require that companies take steps to meet new challenges. Developing new products and improving existing products is an important step in meeting this challenge. New product development can be just what it sounds like—the creation of a completely new product that fills a previously unaddressed niche in the economy. Product development also includes re-examining an existing product to maximize its market potential through adding features, a design change or maybe just tweaking the marketing.
Fortunately, product innovation is not a completely hit or miss proposition. There are steps a company can take to improve the likelihood of a successful development process. There is no one "best" method for developing products, and what works for one segment of a particular industry may not work for another industry, or maybe not even for another segment of that industry. The mix of elements will be different for every product development project, but companies can look to a basic framework to help keep all the different elements on track.
The goal of the productdevelopment process is to end up with the best possible product. One that is well suited for the intended audience and contains features that are needed and desired. No matter how great the new product may seem, if the market rejects it, it's a failure. Taking the product development process seriously can go a long way toward making the end result a success.



Outline

I. What is New Product Development

II. Categories of Products

III. The Stage-Gate Process

IV. The Importance of Market Research

V. Types of Research

VI. Choosing the Research Firm

VII. The Customer Experience

VIII. Managing the Process

IX. Portfolio Management

X. Resources

 

I.                   What is New Product Development

The new product begins as an idea or a concept. Maybe even hastily scribbled on a napkin at lunch. Product development is the process that takes that idea through a series of stages until the concept emerges at the end of the process as a completed product ready for the market.
New products drive progress and can be seen as the lifeblood of business. They can create new companies and entirely new industries. The automobile is an example of a product that has spawned a huge industry with constantly changing design of the core product, a wide range of accessories that reflect ongoing innovation and a huge host of industries, like petrochemicals, that were directly affected by the creation of that one product.
New product development can allow companies to reinforce or change their strategic direction, they prevent companies from becoming stagnant and new products can be a rallying point to create excitement and commitment at companies. A strong new product can also help a company's entire product line with a "pull-through" effect.
It is important for companies to remember that product innovation is not a static process. Abbie Griffin, editor of the Journal of Product Innovation Management says that "there's no silver bullet" in product development. There's no perfect process that a company can find and use over and over again. Each project requires its own set of objectives and mix of elements to be successful. What worked with the last project may not work for the next development process.
"Product development goes in cycles at every single company," says Griffin. "It's almost like there's a reversion to the mean. You do well for a while, you get cocky, you forget how to do it and then you lose it."
Companies should remember that the goal of the entire process is to end up with a successful product. A product that improves on the competition or fills a new niche in the marketplace.
"I think that the best products are really for an individual--a clear, real person with real needs, aspirations, goals (and) values. And the more that products can be conceived and designed to address the needs of real people, the more they are going to resonate with, or excite consumers at the end of the day," states Darrel Rhea, principal at Cheskin Research. "So I think that it's incredibly important to have product developers, all the people involved in product development including the technical and engineering side of the equation, to have a deep appreciation for who they are designing for"
No controllable factors in product development:
Market potential, size and growth rate
The availability of resources
How competitive the market is
The external environment surrounding the product
Controllable factors in product development:
The proficiency of marketing and technological activities
Whether the end user is involved in decisions throughout the process
The support of top management
The new product strategy and process



Some questions to ask about the development process:
Are we increasing our research and development effectiveness?
Are we improving the utilization of our manufacturing operations?
How are we leveraging our marketing effectiveness?
Are we effectively utilizing our human resources?
Are we including the consumer in our development process?
Questions to ask about the new product:
Will this new product enhance our corporate image?
Are we reinforcing or changing our strategic direction with this product?
Will this development help us achieve a strategic advantage over a competitor?
How will this product improve our financial return?
Does this new product create excitement at our company?

II.               Categories of Products

New products come in many guises, but almost all of them can fit into one of five categories:
The breakthrough product is something that is entirely new. The first telephone is an example of a breakthrough product. So is the first tennis racket made of a graphite composite and not wood or metal. These are the most dramatic of new products and they are what most people think of when they hear the words product innovation.
The "new to us" product is one that is already on the market, but a company is developing their own version for the first time. There are many reasons a company may want to develop a product that already exists. They may be able to improve upon what is available, or can make a comparable product at a cheaper price. Or possibly they are looking to grab a share of a profitable market segment. A danger of overusing this approach is to be seen as a non-innovative copy cat company within the industry.



The next generation product falls under the new and improved umbrella. That is, taking a successful product and adding some new benefit, reducing the cost or enhancing the overall design to improve the product.
Many companies use a simple line extension product for much of their product development. This approach may not be too exciting, but it can be very profitable by tweaking a good product to meet different segments of the market. Some examples would be the creation of an economy model of a product, or conversely a higher-end model with more features. This approach should be carefully researched to avoid the over-segmentation of the market with a large and confusing assortment of product choices.
The final product category is the three Rs--repackaging, repositioning and recycling. A new package design can invigorate and draw attention to an existing product. By repositioning a product, companies can open new and profitable markets to that product. The recycled product can find new life in a new role.
A good example would be the old, mechanical push lawn mower. Gas and electric power mowers dominate the market, but there is an increasing demand for the simple and environmentally friendly push mower.

III.            The Stage-Gate Process


The traditional product development process is referred to as sequential new product development and consists of five basic steps: idea generation, screening and evaluation, business analysis, development, testing and commercialization. Each step is overseen by a manager who makes the determination whether or not to proceed to the next step.
Robert G. Cooper founded the Stage-Gate ™ product development process that refines the basic framework and provides the development team a blueprint for managing the process. The Stage-Gate process defines the cross-functional and parallel activities that each stage should engage in. Between the stages are gates which control the process and serve as go/kill checkpoints for the project as well as offer quality-control of the process.
This process breaks the development cycle into a number, usually four, five or six, of identifiable stages. Each stage includes the various activities that each functional area undertakes in parallel while working together as a team under the project team leader.
The design is set up where each stage gathers information to drive down uncertainty about the success of the project. Each successive stage is also more costly than the previous stage. The idea is to allow an increase in spending on the development of projects as the uncertainty goes down. Another aspect of the Stage-Gate process is a built-in level of flexibility to help accelerate the development process. Stages can overlap each other, or a Go decision can be made on the next stage although the current stage is not completed yet. Stages can even be combined if that is found to be necessary.

A generic example of a five-part Stage-Gate process:

Stage 1: The Preliminary Investigation--This should be undertaken by a basic team from the technical and marketing functions to investigate the scope of the project. Some of the activities include the preliminary market, technical and business assessments.
Stage 2: Detailed Investigation--The activities of this stage should lead to a business case. They include market research studies like user needs and wants, competitive analysis and concept testing. The activities also include in-depth business and financial analyses. This stage should involve the technical, marketing and manufacturing functions and should yield a defined product and a framework for the following stages.
Stage 3: Development: Here is where is the product is designed and prototyped. At this stage some customer research is conducted to refine the design, but much of the testing involves the manufacturing requirements and processes. The marketing plan for the new product is also created. The entire cross-functional team, including the marketing, technical, manufacturing functions as well as the purchasing, sales, quality assurance and finance functions, should be in place by the development stage.
Stage 4: Testing and Validation--This stage is where the proposed new product endures extensive testing of the production, the marketing and the product itself. This stage determines if the product is ready to actually go to the market.
Stage 5: Market Launch and Production: The full commercialization of the new product. The marketing plan is fully engaged and the project team now should take on the role of monitoring and making refining adjustments on the launched product as necessary.
Built into the Stage-Gate process is the gate between each stage. This gate is a go/kill decision point that determines if the project continues. The gate also serves a quality-control checkpoint and helps determine the resource commitment the project receives from the company.
The gate meeting should be attended by the senior members of each of the functions represented on the development team. Gates have three aspects that are evaluated during the meeting. The input is what the previous stage delivered to the meeting. The criteria are the questions that the meeting members use to make their go/kill and resource allocation decisions. The criteria involve both quantitative figures, like financial return forecasts, and qualitative data, like market attractiveness. Each of the criteria are judged on mandatory or desirable merits to determine the outcome of the meeting. The output of the gate meeting is the decision that the participants end up with. If the decision is a "go" the participants set a resource allocation level to the next stage and a deadline for the next set of deliverables.
Part of the flexibility of the Stage-Gate process is that decisions can be made with incomplete information--a provisional go decision can be made depending on positive results occurring early in the next stage. The Stage-Gate process is a cross-functional approach that involves many different business function areas throughout the entire product innovation cycle.
The traditional product development cycle does not involve market research until close to the end of the process. This view looks at research as a mean to "market" the new product, not allow market research to drive the actual development decisions. An important aspect of the Stage-Gate process is that the marketing function is involved in every step of the development cycle. Following is breakdown of some specific marketing functions that should be employed at specific stages of the process.
The Preliminary Market Assessment: This study is used at the onset of the development cycle to determine the market attractiveness and acceptance of the concept
User Needs and Wants: These face-to-face interviews and in-depth surveys provide important user information to the design team
Competitive Analysis: Just as it sounds, this study looks at the competition within the targeted marketplace
Concept Testing: This tool uses a prototype or representation of the proposed product to test market
Customer Reaction: This should be employed throughout the various steps of development to keep the project team focused on the end user.
User Tests: This is the final test before the actual onset of marketing where consumers use the product under customer conditions to confirm the market attractiveness and acceptance.
Test Marketing: The new product is launched on a limited basis to test every element of the marketing and product before the full launch.
Market Launch: The full release of the new product, backed up by a sound development process and the resources necessary for market success.

IV.             The Importance of Market Research


Traditionally product development has used market research at the end of the process to validate the new design or product. Market research is actually an important aspect of every stage of development. The earlier a company spends market research dollars in development, the more return they will see on those dollars. The problem with utilizing validation research at the end of the process is that the research itself becomes a "disaster check." The best result a disaster check can come back with is that you have a viable product that the market will embrace. More likely the research will uncover areas where the development team made incorrect assumptions about some aspect of the new product, maybe a configuration issue or a tone of the brand, that turns out to be incorrect and created a weaker product than was possible. The worst-case scenario has the research uncovering an actual "disaster", that is, a product that is not suited for the target audience in the least. At that point the development process must start over, losing valuable time and wasting money. A problem that could have been averted by effective research early in the development process.
Rhea explains the value of using research early in the development game, "If you take the time to really do serious planning of the process, if (you) take the time to focus your efforts, to aim before you fire, you're going to have a much more efficient development process." By utilizing research to help conceptualize the direction of the product development, companies can increase the return on their development investment. The best way to accomplish this is to really understand who the user of the new product is and bring that product to life for that user. By doing this the development team has a powerful shared vision and understanding of whom they are solving the problem for.
"Ultimately research should help provide the fundamental material to create a vision for a brand or product," says Rhea. "And that vision should be based on a really deep, intuitive clear understanding of human beings as real people, not as statistics and data."



Market research can also help the development team realize that they are not just creating a product. They are creating a customer experience. A relationship with the customer that goes beyond the product or service created at the end of the development process. This requires a deep understanding of brand and that brand is the promise and relationship that the customer has with the company.
"Ultimately, in the market, it (product development) creates products that people just don’t buy, they buy into," states Rhea. He goes on to cite the Body Shop, Patagonia and Nike as companies whose products consumers buy in part because of the philosophy, values and sensibilities of their brands.

V.                Types of Research


Market research encompasses a wide variety of types of research. The two basic categories are quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research includes the collection of demographic and psychographic information, like the target age and gender of the product, the hobbies of the target group, how strongly they feel about various issues. Qualitative research goes more deeply into the actual problems that the customer may want solved by the new product.
The trend in product development has been moving toward more qualitative tools. One of these is cultural ethnology which borrows skills from visual anthropology to observe the consumer in various settings and develop deep, contextual insights about the end user from these observations. This process can allow the researcher to learn what is going on in the consumer's life which the consumer may not want to tell the researcher or may not even be aware of themselves. Using this along with other tools allows a skilled researcher to define specific problems that can be solved through the product innovation process.
An important aspect of research is to utilize the entire toolbox of research skills to define the consumer and the problems that need to be solved—using the correct methodology at the right time to solve the right problem. By not doing this, the development team risks ending up with a product that is less than optimal. Most companies will not have this highly specialized skill in-house in the marketing department. The solution is to hire a market research firm that can provide worthwhile market research to the development team.




VI.             Choosing the Research Firm

 

When searching for a market research firm to add to the development team, the company should be aware that not all market research companies will be able to provide the type of results that product development demands. A large portion of the market research field specializes in quantitative data collection, which is very worthwhile for many purposes, but these companies will not provide the skill sets that the development team requires. The company should seek out a research firm with experience with the appropriate skills for product development. This means finding someone who can help you understand your target consumer and understands the product development process. Each area of the development team, like the engineer or the industrial designer or the advertiser, needs something different from the research. The effective market researcher will be able to translate their research into usable insight for each different group and put that insight into each group's language.
Speed of development is often an issue, and good market research can help streamline the process. Christopher Ireland, CEO of Cheskin explains, "We think people can really get things developed faster if they just spend a little time up front listening to their customer. Because more often than not, what happens is they start developing something and halfway through they got to test it, they find that they've made a lot of mistakes and then they have to go back and reinvent for a while. And they lose a lot of time."
Research Firm Checklist
___Does the firm understand the product innovation process?
___Does the firm have experience with market research for product development?
___Can the firm provide usable information for each functional area in the language of that area?
___Is the research firm willing to be integrated into the development process as a member of the project team, or will they just provide reports and information to the team?

 




VII.         The Customer Experience


The current marketplace is a radically changed arena. The needs and concerns of customers from even five years ago may no longer be valid which underscores the importance of understanding what the end user wants today to product development. Companies that rely on the traditional methods of allowing technology or existing products drive development may find themselves left behind. Research is finding that benefits, or perceived benefits, drive consumers to make purchase decisions. Learning what the customer finds beneficial can be a critical element in a new product design. Cheskin Research has developed a the Cheskin Research Design Experience Model to pull together the elements of customer's everyday interactions with products by observing customers as they experienced many hundreds of commercial designs.
Stage one of this model is "life context." This refers to the background of the consumer's life—what the consumer thinks, feels and does. It also includes elements such as beliefs, attitudes and perceptions. Life context does not remain static, as new innovations such as the Internet change the consumer's behavior. As the behavior changes, the needs of the customer changes. This element should be reinvestigated for every new product or idea as it is in a constant state of flux.
Examples of research used to explore life context:
Ethnographic Studies—observing people in their natural context.
Expert Interviews—learning what experts in the field of interest have to say.
Identity Studies—determining how and why people feel a certain way about products and companies.
Customers must make a transition that Cheskin calls "involvement" before entering the second stage of "engagement." Engagement is the customer's first interaction with the new design. What makes this stage important is that the design itself should be interesting enough to engage the customer without the help of a specific brand, company or product category.



The successful design will accomplish three tasks at this stage. The product will have a cognitive presence which triggers one of the five senses and causes customers to make a distinction between the new product and its competitors. The design will grab the customer's interest through attraction, and the customer will receive communication about the product's key attributes. This stage may last only a few seconds, but it is vital that the consumer completes the three tasks of cognitive presence, attraction and communication.
Examples of research used to explore engagement:
Physiological Response Studies—tracking consumer's physical response to the design elements.
Visual Mapping Studies—tracking what design elements attract the consumer's eye. This bridges physiological responses and more emotional responses.
Communications Studies—these explain how the design elements impact consumer's perception of the product.
The third stage is "experience." At this stage the consumer actually uses the new product and continually assesses the quality of their experience with the product. The task is to create a product that "delivers", that is, meets the customer's expectation and then goes a little further to give the customer something extra. You want the customer to go beyond being merely satisfied with the new product to seeing it as something great.
Examples of research used to examine experience:
Attitudes and Usage Studies—track how people interact with products and provide insights about this usage.
Usability Perception Tests—measure how consumers feel about the products functionality.
In-Use Testing—or "beta testing". Allowing a select group of consumers to use prototypes of the product and report on the strengths and limitations that they find.



The final stage is "resolution." This stage occurs when the product is no longer used by the consumer. It is preceded by a transition process that Cheskin calls "disengagement." Marketers and designers have traditionally considered disengagement the end of their products interaction with the customer, but new environmental standards have changed this view. Product disposal has become an issue that companies must enter into the product development process. Companies must become aware of how the product is disposed of whether it is returned to the manufacturer, recycled or just sent to the local landfill.
Examples of research used to explore resolution:
Customer Satisfaction Surveys—track customer's ongoing reactions to products and companies
Point-Use Studies—track the strategies and processes that consumers use to dispose of products.
These studies can tell companies whether their customers can move through the next transition of "integration" which will allow the customer to weave their product perception back into life context and begin the cycle again.
The following questions taken from the Cheskin Research document, "A new perspective on design: focusing on customer experience", can help you think about your company's products in relation to this customer-based model.
1. How deeply does your company seek to understand customers before engaging in design? What might you do to deepen this understanding?
2. How might it benefit your company's design process to start with a focus on customers and their concerns rather than on existing technology or products?
3. Are there any model stages your company is not presently evaluating during the product development process or marketing efforts? If so, how might greater evaluation benefit your customers? Your products? Your company?
4. Think about how customers experience your product—from initial exposure to disposal. Does anything in the design distract customers from addressing their concerns? Are there any unnecessary points of effort, induced awareness, inconvenience, or irritation?
5. How might you improve customer's experience of your product so that they will be favorably predisposed toward repurchasing it? Toward accepting your company's other product offerings?

VIII.      Managing the Process


The traditional view of product development has a single project team leader overseeing the individual project and each of the functional areas, like technical, marketing, manufacturing, finance and logistics. Many companies are now moving toward a team-based approach with each functional area represented by a leader. These are commonly called cross-function or mulit-functional teams and are a representation of the corporate trend of reducing the hierarchical structure of the firm, or creating a "flat" organization. Although more companies are only paying lip service to the idea of a flat organization than are actually implementing the idea, the use of cross-functional teams can be very effective in product innovation. The Stage-Gate process demands a cross-functional team with players from every function and a team leader to represent them. Although the team structure is dynamic with members entering and leaving the team as necessary, the project retains a core group of members and team leader that are involved and responsible through the entire development process.
With the management and responsibility of the individual projects covered by the project team leader and the core members from the different functional areas involved in product innovation the management issue becomes more one of the entire scope of product development of the company.

IX.             Portfolio Management


Portfolio management is defined as a dynamic process which a company uses to regularly review the list of product development projects and allocate resources to the projects in a prioritized manner. The activities involved in portfolio management include reviewing the entire portfolio and comparing the individual projects against each other, making go/kill decisions on individual projects, developing a product strategy for the business and making the strategic resource allocation decisions. This approach is not unlike concept of managing a portfolio of stocks where you constantly evaluate the entire group to maximize your return and weed out the weak links.
Without a good portfolio management system in place a company risks spreading their resources too thinly over a group of weak projects and not making effective go/kill decisions by allowing the weaker projects progress through the development process. Done correctly, the management of the project portfolio should be a funnel that keeps the effective projects in the stream and weeds out the weaker projects on a regular basis. This gives the strong projects more resources to help maximize their effectiveness. The difficulty in portfolio management is the fact that the process is dynamic and focuses on what might be and compares projects at differing stages of completion.
To implement a portfolio management system, a company should approach the process as though they were designing a new product (the new management system) for an end user (the company.) By doing this the process is broken into steps with particular goals in mind to ensure that the result will be successful. The first step is to define the requirements for implementing a portfolio management system. This step involves learning about what portfolio management entails by researching literature on the subject and taking a look at what other firms are doing with portfolio management. This step also includes creating a task force within the company to act as the "project team" that develops the process.
The second step is to design the portfolio management process itself. The first stage should provide a frame of reference to work from and should have defined problem areas that need to be addressed, like having a development process that is easily reviewable such as the Stage-Gate process. This step also involves creating a new product strategy and a portfolio review process. The result of this stage should be a portfolio management process that is down on paper and has been reviewed by the task force, users and top management within the company.
The last step is to implement the process itself. A portfolio process manager should be chosen to cover the day-to-day management of the system and there should be training for the project team members on the new process. All new and existing projects should be put into the new system as quickly as possible and performance measures, or metrics, should be defined to allow for evaluation of the entire process.
The result of the time and resources spent to develop a good portfolio management system is a more effective and accountable process of new product development.

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