ASDA's Innovation Strategy: Cheese Tea Product Development Plan

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Innovation and Commercialisation
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Executive Summary
Commercialisation and innovation are the main factors, by which any company can be
successful to achieve their goals. The ASDA Company, which is mainly a retailer
company in United Kingdom, will be innovate a new products to increase their
recognition to the customers. They will develop cheese tea, which is now trending in
United Kingdom. The company also uses the commercial funnel in order to analyse the
buying process of their customers. As a result, they can identify the fields, where they
need innovation or improvement. The importance of commercialisation and innovation
will be discussed in this study.
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 4
LO1.................................................................................................................................. 5
LO2.................................................................................................................................. 7
LO3................................................................................................................................ 13
LO4................................................................................................................................ 19
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 21
Reference List................................................................................................................ 22
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Introduction
Commercialisation refers to process, by which new products or services are brought to
the market for their beneficial purpose. The processes of commercialisation include
distribution, production, customers’ support and marketing as well. Innovation refers to
the process, by which one can convert their vision or ideas into new service or products.
The aim of the study is to explain the importance of innovation to the ASDA Company.
Moreover, the 4Ps of innovation of the company will be discussed in the study. There
will be developed a “product development plan” in order to innovate new products after
considering the situation of the new market. However, the ASDA Company has thought
to develop the cheese tea, which is the present trend of United Kingdom.
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LO1
P1 Explain innovation and determine its importance to organisations in
comparison with invention.
Innovation is the procedure of producing something new and unusual. In the concept of
business, innovation helps in developing the products and services. It could be
improving the current technologies by modifying some features or developing new
things of better effectiveness than the old ones. The process of innovation in products
and goods of the organisation can reach more customers than the goods that have not
been innovated. This helps the company in increasing the profit by attracting more
customers and thus, contributes to more sales. As per the view of Francis Curry, the
director of WIPO, innovation needs constant investment. Invention is the form of fresh
idea into products. The activity that proceeds from innovative ideas results in invention.
In the business context, it requires monetary support and is made to meet the
requirements of the company. The company needs to be innovative to generate
incremental accomplishment. In the fast-paced world, the company needs to be
innovative for sustenance of the business and for continuous growth. The demands of
the people are increasing as well as there are competitors of Asda Company in the
same field. The organisation to meet the requirements of the customers and face the
challenges from rival companies needs to create innovative things and invent new
methods and goods for success of the business.
The company needs to follow the trend and develop products for the new generation to
cope up with the challenges. Innovation in the Asda Company creates opportunities to
survive the changing demands of the people. It has also helped the company in
optimising the operations and functions of the company. The company has developed
the business by the application of innovation techniques in the functioning of the
organisation. It has incorporated many technologies to support the employees and
enhance the output of the work. For instance, it has used the LED lights for the growers
of tomatoes to increase the output of the business. This technology also uses less
electricity for the production of vegetables thus, a sustainable method of development.
The company has invented an online marketplace for the suppliers where it can
exchange the surplus food to reduce wastages in supply chain. Through this app, the
suppliers would be able to rearrange the surfeit food to other departments. The
suppliers can easily view the details and images of the products. They would be able to
contact the company directly to plan the purchases.
P2 Explain how organisational vision, leadership, culture and teamwork can
shape innovation and commercialisation. rukshar
The leader of the Asda company should be open minded and allow ideas from the
employers to create innovative products and benefitting the business. It should be
cooperative with the members of the organisation to create innovative products. The
leader should manage the team member and encourage innovation in the organisation.
Leaders should be curious about new developments in the company to make things
happen. They should take risks and face challenges from the competitors to be able to
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produce innovative goods and services in the organisation. The vision of the
organisation and its culture help in innovating new products and services in any
organisation (Everett, 2016). The company has respected the rights of the employees
and has engaged in providing sufficient wages to them.
The ethical culture promotes and enhances the innovation practices in the organisation.
The company engages in taking advices and opinions of the workers in improving the
quality of the goods. The vision of the company is to reduce the negative impacts of
production by controlling the wastage on manufacturing goods. It has employed the
methods of reducing the wastage of food by incorporating redistribution in the
functioning of the system (www.asda.com, 2019). The company maintains a healthy
relationship with the employees that allow free flow of the creative ideas in the
organisation. The teamwork of the company has been managed to enhance the output
of the work as well as innovating new products. For instance, the company has hired a
new chef who has the responsibility to incorporate new techniques in making food. He
has the duty to follow the trend and meet the demands of the customers. His team
researches on new methods of development in making food and look for new recipes to
enhance the taste of the food.
New flavours should be added so that the customers would buy the food as per their
preferred choice. Innovation helps in commercialising of the products as innovative
products attract more customers than those that are not innovative. Thus, it enhances in
the marketing of the goods in Asda Company. Teamwork enhances the output of the
work and vision of the organisation helps in creating the products that would be
beneficial for the company. Proper leadership in the company helps in management of
the organisation, thus benefitting the company and improving the prospect of
innovation. A good culture enhances the performance of the employees thus; innovative
products are produced and generate profit in the business.
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LO2
P3 Explain the 4Ps of innovation and explain the use of the innovation funnel to
examine and shape innovative ideas.
The four P’s of innovation are product, place, price, and promotion. These play an
important role in the manufacturing of goods of the company.
Products- There are varieties of products in this company such as, groceries that
include drinks, frozen foods, bakery, and such things. The laundry and household items,
products of health and beauty, home appliances, and products especially for babies.
The company produces clothing, footwear, and provides different other services such as
insurance, loans, and many more.
Process- There are various processes through which the products can be developed.
The processes involved in making products help the employees work faster, easier, and
in a much more convenient manner. The processes involve either introducing new
products or modifying the existing ones. The proper functioning of both internal as well
as external processes is important for success in the business. The internal processes
also include the way the employees interact with each other, the decision-making
process as well as the management in the organisation.
Position- This innovation is related to the modifications of how a particular product or
process has been perceived and the way the customers use it. For instance, the jeans
have been manufactured especially for the labourers, but nowadays, it is used as a form
of fashionable garment.
Paradigm- It includes a radical change in the functioning of any department that can
lead to innovation. The change can be occurred in the process of selling, promoting,
and manufacturing, designing, and distributing the products of the company (Glaveski,
2017).
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Figure 2: 4P’s of innovation
(Source: Glaveski, 2017)
Innovation funnel in the Asda Company is used to illustrate the stages that have been
included in the process of development of the products. The stages are discovery in
which the ideas are discovered, then the scopes are made to analyse the importance of
the innovative product. The business case has been managed to make plans for further
development of the project. The products are then developed with innovative ideas and
new features; it then goes for testing and checking its impact on the business before
final launch (McKinney, 2019).
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Figure 1: Innovation funnel
(Source: McKinney, 2019)
It helps in examining and shaping the innovative ideas of the company. It helps in
assessing the market data and knowledge of the customers in the first step. After this,
the ideas are generated in the organisation to develop the products as per the need of
the customers. Surveys from market research and communication with the online
communities are to be made before taking final decision. In the next step, the designs
and plans are made such as, advertising copy and samples of packages. Then the
modelling and promoting have been done making the use of online website. The
feedback is considered and then the products are finally launched after considering the
cost of the item (Barber, 2019). In these steps, the innovative ideas can create a large
impact. For instance, the company can use innovation methods in the promotion such
as promoting in social media to generate more views of the customers. Innovation
would help in modifying the packaging of the products. It would also help in deciding the
price range of the products by developing new pricing techniques such as discount
offers, double benefit offers, and such things. In the innovation funnel, the ideas in every
step for checking its success are developed into products and tested (Soresina, 2017).
P4 Explain developments in frugal innovation and provide examples of how it is
used in an organisational context.
As per the literary underpinngs of Mourtzis et al. (2016), frugal innovation is a process
through which new products in being developed by using minimum resources.
Moreover, at the time of innovating new products management need to use quality raw
materials so that customers taste and preference can be fulfilled (Mourtzis et al. 2016).
Through implementing frugal innovation process over all expenditure of the organisation
can be reduced because management implement limited resources. Frugal innovation
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helps to implement environmental sustainability because wastage of resources can be
minimised (Mourtzis et al. 2016). For instance, if the organisation uses frugal innovation
process then they need to fix the price of the product as per the purchasing power of the
customers. In the present study, management of Asda need to use frugal innovation
technique so that value of the product can be fathomed in the market.
Through frugal innovation technique, cheese tea will be innovated by Asda. Through
Frugal innovation process, no exaggerated cost is implemented within the production
process. Hence, over all expenditure of the organisation can be reduced.
The management of the organisation can use less lavish features while producing
cheese tea so that they can attract customers. Further, in order to attract customers
towards cheese tea marketing department of Asda can use tetra packs including
cheese tea bags and salts so that customers can prepare healthy tea as per their
convenience. Further, without using plastics, they can use paper bags for delivering the
products in different shops so that rate of environment pollution can be minimized.
On the other hand, management of Asda can use Cooled technology so that overall
cost of production can be reduced. The tea will be stored with the cool technology
based fridges so that technological cost can be reduced.
Employees of Asda prefer to use frugal innovation techniques because it is less
complex as compared to traditional innovation process. Thus, employees’ does not
require enough training. However, Le Bas (2016) has mentioned that employees need
to be trained on regular basis so that they can implement frugal innovation in an
effective manner. Frugal innovation process is mainly used at the time of innovating
durable goods so that their longevity can be enhanced (Mourtzis et al. 2016).
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Figure 1: Frugal innovation
(Source: Le Bas, 2016)
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LO3
P5 Explain the importance of the commercial funnel and the application of new
product development (NPD) processing for commercialisation of innovation.
Commercial funnel refers to the process, which the customers go through while buying
any products. It is mainly a graphic representation of the stages of selling products
(ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk, 2019). The ASDA Company also uses this commercial funnel in
order to visualise the journey of the customers. Moreover, the company can analyse
their business so that, they can identify the areas, where they need improvements.
There are many stages of the commercial funnel, which the company follows to achieve
their goals:
Figure 1: Commercial Funnel
(Source: Duncan and Elkan, 2015)
Awareness:
The company starts their marketing process after determining their objectives. The
company first tries to make people aware about the new products or services. In this
case, the company use some tools to create awareness about their brand. They mainly
use social media for this purpose. The main aim of this stage is that they can attract
their target customers by advertising their new products on their websites and social
media.
Consideration;
In this stage, the people or the customers start to take interest in the company after
knowing the new products of the company. In this stage, the company just tries to
increase the interest of their customers. The main import5ance of this stage is to
promote their offerings for their benefits.
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