The Marketing Book 5th Edition

Product

development

and testing

New

product

strategy

Idea

generation

Idea

screening

Concept

development

and testing

Business

analysis

Test

marketing Launch

New product development 315

Machines, mobile phones. And so they are, but
does that mean that they could not have failed?
What were the basic ideas? The Walkman:
portable, personal audio entertainment. The
laser printer: fast, accurate, flexible, high-qual-
ity reproduction. Automatic Teller Machines:
24-hour cash availability from machines. As
ideas, these might have been transformed into
products in numerous ways, perhaps less suc-
cessfully than the products we now find so
familiar and convenient.
Imagine the alternative forms for personal
audio entertainment: a bulkier headset which
contains the tape-playing mechanism and ear-
phones; a small hand-held player, complete
with carrying handle, attached to earphones
via a cord; a ‘backpack’ style player with
earphones. All of these ideas would have
delivered to the idea of ‘portable, personal
audio entertainment’, but which if any of
these would have enjoyed the same success as
the Walkman? And the Automatic Teller
Machines? These might have been developed
as stand-alone units, much like bottle banks,
requiring the identification of ideal locations,
planning permission and consumer confidence
to enter them. Would they have been as
widespread as the hole-in-the-wall? Finally,
the mobile phone: these might have developed
with any number of constraining factors,
including price, reach, size, weight and
functionality.
Think of another ‘good idea’ – the light-
weight, low-pollution, low-cost, easily-parked
town car. Now imagine one realization of the
idea: three-wheeled, battery-run (with 80 km
worth of charge only), and, for the British
weather, an optionalroof. This realization is, of
course, the widely-quoted failure, the C5. Yet
theidearemains a good one.

The issue at stake here is that good ideas

do not automatically translate into workable,

appealing products. The idea has to be given

a physical reality which performs the function

of the idea, which potential customers find an

attractive alternative for which they are pre-

pared to pay the asking price. This task

requires NPD to be managed actively, working

though a set of activities which ensure that the

eventual product is makeable, affordable, reli-

able and attractive to customers.

The activities carried out during the proc-

ess of developing new products are well sum-

marized in various NPD models. These are

templates or maps which can be used to

describe and guide those activities required to

bring a new product from an idea or opportu-

nity, through to a successful market launch.

NPD models take numerous forms.

One of the most recognized NPD models

is that developed by the consultants, Booz

Allen Hamilton (BAH, 1982) and this process

continues to be associated with successful

outcomes (Griffin, 1997; Tzokas, 2000). This

model is shown in Figure 12.1.

This model has been reformulated and

shaped over several decades, with the influen-

tial derivative from Cooper and Kleinschmidt

(1990) known as the Stage–Gate™ process

(Figure 12.2). In the US, the Best Practice

Study (1997) showed that 60 per cent of firms

used some form of Stage–Gate process, whilst

the study in the UK by Tzokas (2000) reported

only 8 per cent of firms not having some

specified form of process.

This and other developments of the BAH

model are considered later in the chapter;

below is a brief description of the tasks neces-

sary to complete the development and launch

of a new product. Each of the stages is

described below in turn.

Figure 12.1 The Booz Allen Hamilton model of new product development