Product Launches During New Product Development

This essay presents a brief analysis of how to ensure successful and effective product launches during the process of New Product Development. It also discusses the importance of successful innovation, marketing strategy development, and customer co-creation in the success of new product development. The case of Nike is used as an example of successful product launches.

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PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
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1PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Successful innovation.............................................................................................................3
Marketing strategy development............................................................................................4
Factors contributing to the success of new product development..........................................4
Product Launches...................................................................................................................5
Customer Co-creation............................................................................................................6
The case of Nike.....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................9
Appendices:..............................................................................................................................10
Appendix 1: Summary of the News Paper Article:..............................................................10
Appendix 2: Summary of the Journal Articles:....................................................................11

2PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
New Product Development
Introduction
This World is full of opportunities for satisfying the unmet needs of the people by
creating new products and services. The challenge, however, is of determining the very
product and the service that will help the companies to meet their objectives. The choice of
product that a firm choose to introduce in the market or to develop should also be capable
enough to meet the overall business objectives. The main aim of this essay is to present a
brief analysis of how to ensure successful and effective product launches during the process
of New Product Development. It is to note that new product development refers to “the
development of original products, product improvements, product modifications, and new
brands through the firm’s own product development process”. In business, the new product
development cover the entire process of bringing a new product in the market. It can be
described as the transformation of a market opportunity into a product that is available for the
sale. For remaining successful while maturing the products and services, the firms need to
gain new ones by means of executing the process of new product development carefully.
However, they face several problem in this process. Although they need to develop their new
products, the old ones weigh very significantly against the overall success. From hundreds of
products that enter into the process of new development, only small amount of them reach
into the market. Therefore, it is very necessary for understanding the customers, competitors
and markets for developing products and services that deliver high quality value to the
customers.
This paper shall elaborate on connecting the contents of a newspaper article called
“How To Be The Nike Of Product Launches”, can be retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/serenitygibbons/2019/02/12/how-to-be-the-nike-of-product-
launches/#785cbe30918e, along with different concepts and theories that are taught during
the course. This news article presents a vivid discussion on how to become the Nike of new
product launches, with special emphasis of the “House of Go” campaign of Nike. There is
absolutely no doubt about the fact that Nike is the master of producing some really engaging
experiences that is helping this massive brand in growing and developing. The “House of
Go” campaign of Nike has proved that launch a new product in the market is a matter of both
art and science, reminding the other brands that customer experience exists above everything.
However, in this paper, three different research papers shall be assessed in order to gain more
understanding on the new marketing knowledge.

3PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Successful innovation
The importance of a successful innovation for long lasting performance of the firms
can hardly be overstate. According to Debrytne et al. (2002), in most of the cases, only two-
thirds of the new product launches meet the reaction by the competitors after the product
launch and this is why new product development fails. As described above, new product
development is the development of the original product of a company through making more
improvement and modifications on it by means of the process of product development. It is to
mention that there is a total of eight steps in the process of new development and they are:
Idea generation, Idea screening, Concept development and testing, market strategy
development, business analysis, product development, test marketing and finally,
commercialisation. It is also known as Stage Gate Product Innovation Process and was
developed by Dr. Robert Cooper (Salemo et al., 2015). Idea generation is the very first step in
the process of development of new product. It refers to a systematic search for the ideas of a
new product. A firm generates thousands of ideas in order to find a handful of good ones in
the end. As per Hoornaert et al. (2017), two of the significant sources of innovative ideas are
the internal idea sources and the external ones. Internal idea sources are R&D, sales,
marketing and the contributions from the employees. External sources includes the
customers, communities, competitors and the marketing intermediaries like distributors and
suppliers. According to Debrytne et al. (2002), customers are the most important external
sources as the process of new product development is basically focused on the creation of
customer value. Idea screening is the second step in the process and it means nothing other
than filtering the ideas of picking out the better ones and quitting the poor ones. The main
purpose of this step is to create a good range of ideas and that of the succeeding steps are to
reduce this number. The third step in the process if concept development and testing. In the
process of product development, the attractive and innovative ideas need to be developed into
a product concept. It is to note that the product concept refers to a detailed version of the new
product idea that is stated in the meaningful customer terms. With the same, the concept
testing refers to the process of assessing how the customer perceive and feel about the ideas.
It involves qualitative and quantitative research, opinion assessment and use of the concept
description.
Marketing strategy development
Furthermore, as per Debrytne et al. (2002), the marketing strategy development is
done when a promising concept has already been tested and developed. It is the time for

4PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
designing a marketing strategy for the new product on the basis of the product concept for
introducing the new product in the market. Hoyer et al. (2010 in this context have claimed
that the marketing strategy statement basically comprise of three parts and they are- a
description about the target market, a brief outline of the planned price, marketing budget and
distribution of the product for the first year and a planned long term profit goals, sales and
the marketing mix strategy. Business analysis is the fifth step in the product development
process. When the product concept and the marketing strategy of the product is decided, the
management evaluate the business attractiveness of the new product. It involves reviewing of
the costs, profit and sales projections of the new product and finding out whether or not all
these factors are satisfying the objectives of the company (Durkin, Howcroft & Fairless,
2016). If they do so, the new product is moved on to the next step of product development.
During Test marketing marketers experience with the marketing of the new product prior to
going to the huge expense of the full introduction (Kotler et al., 2013). It allows the brands to
test the product as well as its whole marketing programme, comprising of the positioning
strategy and targeting, the packaging, the distributions etc. prior to investing full on the
product. Lastly, the commercialisation stage is all about incurring the highest costs. Large
amounts are spend on the sales promotion, advertising and the other marketing efforts right in
the first year.
Factors contributing to the success of new product development
The study by Karimi-Majd and Mahootchi (2015), have claimed that there are many
factors that affects the success of new product development and they include, the need of the
marketplace, the product benefits, effective promotion and a clear differentiation. The very
step in marketing of a product is to research about the marketplace for discovering about the
needs of the customers. It is something that aid to the development of the marketplace service
and product that has high possibility of success (Kettunen, 2015). However, there is a gap in
the potential of the marketing function for controlling the outcomes that prevails in the
product development. Developing a quality product that offers good range of benefits to the
customers is of a great importance but it should be noted that a quality product does not alone
do the whole trick (Jalali et al., 2019). Marketers need to clear the market position for the
same that is derived from the competitor analysis. Finally, promotion is the major influencer
of success of new product development and this is also controlled by the market function.
Selecting the right medium of connecting with the target audience and customers and creating

5PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
a long lasting messages that appeal to the audiences in the right manner are very crucial steps
in the success of the promotion.
Product Launches
Also, there is a significant similarity in between the customer product launches and
the industrial product launches for identifying the key similarities and differences during the
launching decisions in between the market types. For the customer products, the strategic
launching decisions of the products seem more defensive in the nature, as they emphasis on
defending the present positions in the market (Hultink et al., 2000). On the other hand, the
industrial product strategic launch decisions seem to be comparatively offensive by making
use of innovation and technology for pushing the companies for operating outside of the
present realm of the operations and move into the new markets. As per the authors, the
tactical marketing mix launching decisions like product, price, place and promotion differ all
across the products that are launched for the two types of market. It is to note that the
strategic launch decisions finally forms a subset of the product innovation charter of
Crawford and this reflects the business strategy (Sjoerdsma & Van Weele, 2015). The
strategic launching decisions are differentiated from the tactical launching decisions as they
take place before the launch and also before starting the development. Once they are made,
they get very costly to change at the time of final commercialisation. They then set the
parameters on which the new products are to be compete. For instance, as a cost-reduced
version of the product. On the other hand, as per Morgan et al. (2019), the tactical launch
decisions are the key to the aspects of marketing of the true commercialisation of new
products and they comprise of the different elements of marketing mix- the rate of marketing
investments, the breadth of the launched product version, the place and the way of
distributing and promoting new product as well as its price.
Customer Co-creation
Further study by Hoyer et al. (2010), have presented the conceptual framework which
focus on the level of customer co-creation in the process of new product development. It is to
note that customer co-creation displays an attractive approach for the firms for different
reasons. Especially, the ideas that are generated by means of co-creation is considered to be
mirroring the needs of the customers. It has been recognised that successful new product
development process relied on the deep understanding of the needs and requirements of the
customers as well as the efforts of product development that meet those needs of the
customers, like what was done by Nike during its product launch. The failure of adequately

6PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
assessing and fulfilling the needs of the customers is the key reason behind the failure of the
new product in the market. Notwithstanding this fact, according to Hoyer et al. (2010), by
means of involving the customers more actively in the process of new product development,
the new product ideas can easily be generated and those ideas are more likely to be valued by
the customers and at the time, they would increase the possibility of success of the new
products (Hultink et al., 2000). Therefore, the companies that manage this whole process in
effective manner are likely to get the ultimate result of sustainable competitive advantage
over their competitors. With the same, ensuring the involvement of the customers in the
process of new product development is likely to improve the quality of product, reducing the
risk of failure and increasing the market acceptance. Therefore, it is not astonishing that Nike
has ensured the integration of customers into its product innovation process.
The case of Nike
Nike has successfully ran ahead in the field of innovation, i.e., in the field of new
product development and in innovation training. According to Gibbons (2019), no matter
how revolutionary or how incredible the new product is, no product launch actually succeeds
in absence of a deliberately developed hype. In order to build hype and convert the customers
quickly, Nike chose to check the prevailing competition in the market and then gave its
customers the feel that no other competitors of it could give. Nike also follows these eight
steps during its new product development (Debrytne et al., 2002). In terms of Idea generation,
Nike ensure that a basic idea is created and described. The profits, costs as well as the
potential sales of the offering are also calculated by the company at different price level
during the process of idea screening. It is also to note that Nike considers how well its
offering is fitting in with its competitive strategy in the business market. Furthermore a well-
detailed specifications for its new product that is to be launched are developed and at the
same time, all its pricing and features are established. It is done during the stage of feature
specification. The actual offering of the product is designed during the product development
stage and the offerings are tested, firstly in the laboratory and then with the real customers in
the market. Lastly, when everything goes well, Nike finally launch its product and make its
offering available to all its customers. However, it is to be noted that what makes Nike
successful in its new product development process is the fact that the firm do not end up at
the stage of commercialisation. After the final launch of the product, Nike ensures that all the
offerings are evaluated in order to assess whether or not, the company has been successful at

7PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
delivering proper value to the customers and at the same time, is meeting the goals of the
business.
The world famous Explore Team Sport Research Laboratory of Nike is at the heart of
the process of new product development. The entire process starts with an in-depth
understanding of the needs of the customers, just like what is claimed by Hoyer et al. (2010).
At Nike, the slogan is “If you have a body, you are an athlete”. Therefore, it is to state that
the main focus in on playing with the insight and the knowledge for the anticipated target
market of the company. Furthermore, it is also to note that the second step in the process of
new product development at Nike is on focusing on the research of the biomechanics, sensory
perception, data science and physiology, which in turn results in the finalisation of the
creative brief or the design brief of the company. It is the laboratory that develops the
prototypes which are then tested in various different conditions in order to check out the
pressure projects, kinetics, and the speed in essence of all the aspects, called the key aspects
in the chosen product brief. As stated by Hultink et al. (2000), for the customer products, the
strategic launching decisions of the products appear more defensive in the nature, as they
emphasis on defending the present market positions. The same is in the case of Nike. It
follows strategic launching decisions of the customer products. The final step in the process
of new product development at Nike is referred to as Process. This step include the diverse
group starting with the collected insights of the researchers from the elite athletes from
different form of sports. The scientists later explore the advanced scientific concepts for
improving the performance in radical manner.
Conclusion
Hence from the above analysis it can be concluded that with a well-considered new
product development strategy, a business can easily avoid the waste of time, money and
resources. Following the eight steps of new product development process, i.e., Idea
generation, Idea screening, Concept development and testing, market strategy development,
business analysis, product development, test marketing and finally, commercialisation, a
business can successfully organise its product planning and research at the same time,
captures the views and expectations of its customers. However, before moving forward with
the process, it is very important to ensure that an accurate description of the product that the
company is planning to develop is provided. This helps the company as well as the product
development team to stay focused and avoid the pitfalls of the new product development like,
developing several products at once and running out of resources for developing the product.

8PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
The second vital step in this regard is that of identifying the needs of the market. All the three
research studies have claimed that successful new product development process requires a
vivid knowledge and understanding of the target market as well as its requirements and
needs. Hence, a strategic, targeted and a purposeful approach towards the new product
development would ensure that the product is fitting the market.

9PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
References:
Debruyne, M., Moenaertb, R., Griffinc, A., Hartd, S., Hultinke, E. J., & Robben, H. (2002).
The impact of new product launch strategies on competitive reaction in industrial
markets. Journal of Product Innovation Management: An International Publication of
The Product Development & Management Association, 19(2), 159-170.
Durkin, M., Howcroft, B., & Fairless, C. (2016). Product development in higher education
marketing. International Journal of Educational Management, 30(3), 354-369.
Gibbons, S. (2019). How To Be The Nike Of Product Launches. [online] Forbes.com.
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/serenitygibbons/2019/02/12/how-to-be-
the-nike-of-product-launches/#785cbe30918e [Accessed 5 Apr. 2019].
Hoornaert, S., Ballings, M., Malthouse, E. C., & Van den Poel, D. (2017). Identifying new
product ideas: waiting for the wisdom of the crowd or screening ideas in real
time. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 34(5), 580-597.
Hoyer, W. D., Chandy, R., Dorotic, M., Krafft, M., & Singh, S. S. (2010). Consumer
cocreation in new product development. Journal of service research, 13(3), 283-296.
Jalali, M. S., Kaiser, J. P., Siegel, M., & Madnick, S. (2019). The Internet of Things Promises
New Benefits and Risks: A Systematic Analysis of Adoption Dynamics of IoT
Products. IEEE Security & Privacy, 17(2), 39-48.
Karimi-Majd, A. M., & Mahootchi, M. (2015). A new data mining methodology for
generating new service ideas. Information Systems and e-Business
Management, 13(3), 421-443.
Kettunen, J., Grushka-Cockayne, Y., Degraeve, Z., & De Reyck, B. (2015). New product
development flexibility in a competitive environment. European Journal of
Operational Research, 244(3), 892-904.
Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L., & Armstrong, G. (2013). Marketing (p. 734).
Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Australia.
Morgan, N. A., Whitler, K. A., Feng, H., & Chari, S. (2019). Research in marketing
strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), 4-29.

10PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Salerno, M.S., de Vasconcelos Gomes, L.A., da Silva, D.O., Bagno, R.B. & Freitas, S.L.T.U.
(2015). Innovation processes: Which process for which project?. Technovation, 35,
pp.59-70.
Sjoerdsma, M., & van Weele, A. J. (2015). Managing supplier relationships in a new product
development context. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 21(3), 192-
203.

11PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Appendices:
Appendix 1: Summary of the News Paper Article:
Link- https://www.forbes.com/sites/serenitygibbons/2019/02/12/how-to-be-the-nike-of-
product-launches/#785cbe30918e
This news article presents a vivid discussion on how to become the Nike of new
product launches, with special emphasis of the “House of Go” campaign of Nike. It has
highlighted why the new product development process of Nike is regarded to be exceptional.
As per the article, no matter how revolutionary or how incredible the new product is, no
product launch actually succeeds in absence of a deliberately developed hype. There is
absolutely no doubt about the fact that Nike is the master of producing some really engaging
experiences that is helping this massive brand in growing and developing. The “House of
Go” campaign of Nike has proved that launch a new product in the market is a matter of both
art and science, reminding the other brands that customer experience exists above everything.
According to the author of this article, Nike has proven this trust that a product or a
firm that is going to launch its product in absence of an established demand ahead of time is
sure to face challenge in gaining the traction. The ones who are the early adopters, love to
feel that excitement of anticipation and when the great new product actually goes live, it loses
its mystery and at the same time, depend on the existing momentum for spreading its effects
among the customers and the market and if there is no momentum, there is no spread. As per
the article, in order to execute a product launch that would build hype and at the same time,
would convert the buyers quickly, the businesses should use a three-part process, namely,
checking the present competition in the market, giving them the feels and hype and rehype. It
should be noted that something is already being done does not mean that the other cannot do
it better. Instead of avoiding the areas where the competing brands have developed their
territory, it is important to leverage their successes as the confirmation that the market is
welcoming something new. Moreover, it is also to mention that differentiation still remains
the most crucial determinant of success. Nike have always taught its followers not to be
afraid of the competition. It has taught them to go where the proven demand prevails. The

12PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
more people pride themselves on their logic, human beings remain the primarily emotional
creatures. They are the ones to flock to things that make them feel good and avoid the things
that do the contrary. They make those products their priority that align with their beliefs and
values. Hence, the user experience designer must know that how to make the customers
convinced about their products by making them understand there vitality in their lives.
Appendix 2: Summary of the Journal Articles:
Article 1:
Debruyne, M., Moenaertb, R., Griffinc, A., Hartd, S., Hultinke, E. J., & Robben, H.
(2002). The impact of new product launch strategies on competitive reaction in
industrial markets. Journal of Product Innovation Management: An International
Publication of The Product Development & Management Association, 19(2), 159-
170.
The article by Debruyne et al. (2002) have elaborated on the characteristics of the new
product launch strategy. As per the article this strategy has a notable impact on the prevalence
and the nature of the competitive reactions and that, in most of the cases, only two-thirds of
the new product launches meet the reaction by the rivals after the product launch and this is
why new product development fails. The article has highlighted the eight steps of product
development process and have claimed that the competitive impact of the incrementally new
products and the radically new products differ from each other. As per the results of the
survey, most of the competitors of the businesses fail to respond to the radical innovations
and at the same time, they also fail to respond to the new products that employ the niche
strategy. I have chosen this article because it have accurate information for my assessment on
the topic of new product development.

13PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Article 2:
Hultink, E. J., Hart, S., Robben, H. S., & Griffin, A. (2000). Launch decisions and new
product success: an empirical comparison of consumer and industrial
products. Journal of Product Innovation Management: AN INTERNATIONAL
PUBLICATION OF THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT
ASSOCIATION, 17(1), 5-23.
This article by Hultink et al. (2000), have elaborated on the factors that affects the
success of new product development. It has compared and contrasted the customer product
launches and the industrial product launches for identifying the key similarities and
differences during the launching decisions in between the market types. For the customer
products, the strategic launching decisions of the products seem to be more defensive in the
nature, as they emphasis on defending the present positions in the market). On the other hand,
the industrial product strategic launch decisions seem to be comparatively offensive by
making use of innovation and technology for pushing the companies for operating outside of
the present realm of the operations and move into the new markets. As per the authors, the
tactical marketing mix launching decisions like product, price, place and promotion is
differentiated from all across the products that are launched for the two types of market. This
study by them have highlighted the key difference in between the strategic launch decisions
and tactical launch ones. As per the authors, the strategic launch decisions comprise of the
nature of the new products that are to be developed, i.e., the product strategy; the nature of
the very market into which the new products are to be launched, i.e., the market strategy; the
competitive position of the new product, i.e., the competitive advantages and lastly, the
orientation towards the development of new product efforts. I have chosen this article
because it have accurate information and is going well with my selected newspaper article. It
is showing that there is a close connection among the industry practice, education, and
science.

14PRODUCT LAUNCHES DURING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Article 3:
Hoyer, W. D., Chandy, R., Dorotic, M., Krafft, M., & Singh, S. S. (2010). Consumer
cocreation in new product development. Journal of service research, 13(3), 283-
296.
This article by Hoyer et al. (2010) have highlighted the conceptual framework which
focus on the level of customer co-creation in the process of new product development with a
special emphasis on the ideas that are generated by means of co-creation is considered to be
mirroring the needs of the customers. It has been recognised that successful new product
development process relied on the deep understanding of the needs and requirements of the
customers as well as the efforts of product development that meet those needs of the
customers, like what was done by Nike during its product launch. I have chosen this article
because it have accurate information regarding strategy that successful companies use in their
process of new product development and is also meeting the criteria presented in the
newspaper article that is focused on the New product development process of Nike. This
shows that there is a close connection among the industry practice, education, and science.