318 The Marketing Book
technology and marketing, the level and nature
of new product advantage, and the desired
levels of synergy and risk acceptance. Each of
these is discussed below:
Technology and marketing. One of the most
prevalent themes running throughout the
contributions on strategic orientations is the
merging of the technical and marketing
strategic thrust. This is also seen as a
dichotomy between allowing the market to
‘pull’ new products from companies and
companies ‘pushing’ new technologies onto
markets. The advantage of the former is that
new products, being derived from customers,
are more likely to meet their need, while the
advantage of the latter is that the new
technology will meet needs more effectively
than its incumbent and will be harder for
competitors to emulate, leading to greater
sales, profit and competitive advantage for
longer periods of time. However, each has
disadvantages. With new products developed
through market pull, there is a greater
tendency for the new products to be only
marginally better than existing products on the
market, leading to product proliferation,
possible cannibalization of brands and an
‘advantage’ over competitors that is
short-lived, as it is based on technologies with
which most of the market players are familiar.
With technology-push new products, there is
the risk that the new technology is not, in fact,
relevant for customers and is rejected by them
(Christensen, 1997). As ever, the emphasis
should be on achieving a balance between the
two: there should be a fusionbetween
technology-led and market-led innovations at
the strategic level (Johne and Snelson, 1988;
Dougherty, 1992). Both Sony and Canon
employ ‘strategic training’ for their engineering
and R&D staff, which includes professional
training in marketing (Harryson, 1997).
Product advantage. The literature refers to new
product strategies which emphasize the search
for a differential advantage through the
product itself (Cooper, 1984). Product
advantage is of course a subjective and
multifaceted term, but may be seen as
comprising the following elements: technical
superiority, product quality, product
uniqueness and novelty (Cooper, 1979),
product attractiveness (Link, 1987) and high
performance to cost ratio (Maidique and
Zirger, 1984). The ‘war’ between Lever
Brothers’ Persil Power and Ariel Future shows
how these companies are competing,
strategically, on a platform of
technologically-based product advantage. In the
battle for cleaning power, Lever Brothers
technological advantage was systematically
discredited by the competitors and shown to
damage clothes, thereby destroying any
potential advantages to customers. In the
financial service sector, Avlonitis et al. (2001)
showed that both extremely innovative and
minor alterations were the success hallmarks
of new developments. On the one hand, the
most innovative new products make an impact
on the non-financial performance, for example,
by enhancing company image and the least
innovative ones make a big impact on financial
performance. Clearly, then, there are different
roles for development projects of various
levels of innovation and not all will contribute
to firms in the same way.
Synergy. A further strategic consideration
discussed here is the relationship between the
NPD and existing activities, known as the
synergy with existing activities. High levels of
synergy are typically less risky, because a
company will have more experience and
expertise, although perhaps this contradicts
the notion of pursuing product differentiation.
Risk acceptance. Finally, the creation of an
internal orientation or climate which accepts
risk is highlighted as a major role for the new
product strategy. Although synergy might help
avoid risk associated with lack of knowledge,
the pursuit of product advantage must entail
acceptance that some projects will fail. An
atmosphere that refuses to recognize this
tends to stifle activity and the willingness to
pursue something new.