Never innovate to compete. Innovate to change the rules of the game. – David O. Adeife

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

A DIALOGUE WITH YOUR CONSUMER

Formulating a New Product Concept In most marketing organizations there is no shortage of interesting ideas for brand extension. Often the more difficult challenge is identifying those concepts that have the greatest potential to resonate with consumers. We have a collection of techniques that can help you identify your most promising ideas and then sharpen their appeal with your target consumers.

New Product Development/StarPoint Consulting Group

The process generally centers on determining which set of features, attributes, and potential benefits are most likely to drive purchase intent with the target consumer. The most effective approach is generally a combination of careful research and uncompromising editing.

Determining Attribute & Benefit Importance We have extensive experience with a range of techniques for determining the relative importance of potential product attributes and benefits. We would be happy to walk you through the many options to identify the one that will best fit your needs.

  • We also have developed an innovative technique that we recommend for specific situations. Our approach is qualitative analogue to discrete choice modeling that is based on a simulated shopping experience. The technique, q-RAI, highlights those factors most likely to drive consumer choice among competing product offerings at shelf. Learn more here…

Qualitative Concept Checks Everyone works hard to align their new product attributes and benefits for maximum impact. Even so, many new product ideas and brand extension concepts fail simply because they are poorly presented. Because of inadvertent miscues in language or presentation the target audience cannot understand the intended purpose, functions, features or benefits.

  • A series of qualitative concept checks, timed to support critical milestones in the new product development cycle, is the most effective approach for ensuring that your team’s best ideas are being continuously refined and effectively communicated.
  • Unrealistic claims, awkward imagery, and problems with wording and presentation can be quickly identified and corrected as you move forward.
  • A qualitative concept provides the essential dialogue with your target consumers to ensure that your most promising ideas are being heard and fully understood. Read more here…

Clean Sheet Designs Entering a new category with a “clean sheet” or “clean slate” design offers a unique challenge. Of all the features and benefits that could be bundled into a new product, which collection represents the optimal package? And how would that package change with a price ceiling that limited the choices available to the design team?

  • We have faced this challenge on several occasions while working with a well-known consumer technology company. Through this partnership we have developed a proven technique that goes beyond standard approaches.
  • Our method employs a structured interview protocol resembling the “build-your own” approach for ordering high-tech consumer products online. Though qualitative in nature, the procedure incorporates the choices, cost calculations and level trade-offs associated with adaptive conjoint analysis (ACA). Read more here… (link to q-PFO).

Design Support Services Our new product development work is tightly linked to our design support program. To learn more about our design support services, click here… (Link to Design Support Services)

Concept Testing Quantitative screening is often the critical gateway in the new product development process and we offer two approaches.

  • Preference & purchase intent Our standard approach to quantitative concept screening employs a predictive model that identifies the “reasons why” some concepts are ranked or rated higher than others. We also incorporate measures of brand fit and the potential for brand extension to indicate how comfortably the concept fits with the target’s base-line perceptions of the parent brand. This survey-based technique is a simple, cost-effective way to both narrow the focus of your concept and to identify the underlying drivers of purchase intent and concept appeal.
  • Brand equity assessment We also have an exclusive new product concept screening technique based on discrete choice modeling to measure how well a brand’s base equities extend beyond its home category. Rather than measure purchase intent in isolation, this approach measures share of preference across a competitive set of similar, branded products – one of which is the test product concept. The benefit of this approach is the minimization of false positives. Learn more here…

Please contact us to learn more about our new product development program.