MKT520 Reflection: New Product Development Process at Apple, Coles

This report presents a self-reflection on the new product development (NPD) process, drawing on learning from a marketing course (MKT520) and presentations. It discusses the NPD processes of three distinct companies: Apple Inc., Coles Supermarket, and Nando's restaurant. Key differences in their NPD cycles, particularly in idea generation and product development lifecycle lengths, are analyzed. The reflection emphasizes the importance of test marketing and stakeholder communication in adapting products to market needs. The report concludes that flexibility in the NPD approach is crucial for mitigating risks and challenges, highlighting the practical insights gained from studying these diverse organizational strategies.

Running head: REFLECTION
Self-Reflection: New Product Development Process
Student’s name
Name of the Institute

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Executive Summary
This report discusses myself reflection about the new product development process based
on the overall learning from the course and presentation. I have learned a lot about the process
of New Product Development. The reflection is done of the new product development process of
three companies, Apple, Coles and Nandos.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................4
Self-Reflection.............................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
I have learned a lot about the process of New Product Development. The process sets out
a series of stages that new products typically go through, beginning with ideation and concept
generation, and ending with the product's introduction to the market. With this course, I have
learned that, culture also influence the designing of the product and also the way the product is
operating and communicating with their customers. Marketers always adjust their efforts in order
to sync with the market they are entering. Role of culture in modern society is increasing day by
day as economies become interlinked (Gopalakrishnan, Libby, Samuels & Swenson, 2015).
Difficult job of any marketer is to analyse the influence of culture on their products operations.
In real market, many factors work together which made a complex job to isolate any factor to
assess its effect.
Self-Reflection
I have learned from the New Product Development of Coles, Nandos and Apple Inc.
There are subtle differences between the NPD process of these organizations. Coles is a retail
organization, Nandos is a quick service restaurant and Apple Inc. is a telephone manufacturing
company. One of the key differences between the NPD processes of these companies is the
length of different stages of NPD (Wowak, Craighead, Ketchen & Hult, 2016).
The presentation of NPD on these three companies suggest that Apple Inc. would
probably have the largest NPD cycle because its products are of high value. Therefore, Apple
Inc. would spend a lot of time in the first phase of the NPD that is idea generation. Nandos and
Coles would also be considerate about the idea generation phase. Among these three

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organizations, the minimum time on idea generation phase would be spend by Nados as it is a
quick service restaurant and its products have limited shelf life.
Another aspect of differentiation in the NPD process of these companies is the product
development lifecycle. The NPD lifecycle of Apple Inc. is longest and the lifecycle of Nandos is
shortest. I have learned that the NPD process is based on the idea generation steps and
organizations can get the idea from internal and external sources. Apple Inc. spends a lot of time
on concept development and testing. I would like to say that one of the key perspective of NPD
is the importance of test marketing phase. The presentation was a great source of learning for me
as other students point out the same. In fact, at the beginning of this course, I never thought that
the stage of test marketing could be that important (Tinoco & Ambrose, 2017). However, during
the course of presentation, I realize the importance of test marketing. With the phase of test
marketing, organizations can actually get a better understanding of the market and this would
help the organizations to make the necessary changes in the prototype. For example, Apple Inc.
can make the changes in its phone after the feedback collected from the test marketing phase
(Gopalakrishnan, Libby, Samuels & Swenson, 2015).
With the presentations, I also learned that organizations should always be flexible with
their approach of new product development. I learned that organizations and product managers
should communicate proactively with different internal and external stakeholders. The opinion of
different stakeholders would help organizations to make the required changes in the product. For
example, Nandos can also include its customers to collect the feedback. The key differences
between the NPD process of Nandos and Apple Inc. is that Apple woud not include customers in
its product development process and Nandos would include customers because Nados can collect
the feedback easily from customers (Marion, Eddleston, Friar & Deeds, 2015).

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Conclusion
I would like to say that the presentation provided a lot of learning to me. Before
presentation I never thought of 360-degree view of the new product development process. With
the presentation, I was able to learn a lot about the contemporary issues in NPD. I am sure that
the learning about the NPD process would remain with me for a long time. I am sure that the
learning would also help me to have a better profession in place. I have also learned that
organizations should be flexible with their approach of NPD as it would help to avoid the risks
and challenges associated with various phases pf new product development process (Marion,
Eddleston, Friar & Deeds, 2015).

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References:
Gopalakrishnan, M., Libby, T., Samuels, J. A., & Swenson, D. (2015). The effect of cost goal
specificity and new product development process on cost reduction
performance. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 42, 1-11.
Marion, T. J., Eddleston, K. A., Friar, J. H., & Deeds, D. (2015). The evolution of
interorganizational relationships in emerging ventures: An ethnographic study within the
new product development process. Journal of business Venturing, 30(1), 167-184.
Tinoco, J. K., & Ambrose, S. C. (2017). Collaborative Customers and Partners: The Ups and
Downs of Their Influence on Firm Technology Competence for New Product
Development. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 11(4), 66-78.
Wowak, K. D., Craighead, C. W., Ketchen, D. J., & Hult, G. T. M. (2016). Toward a “theoretical
toolbox” for the supplier‐enabled fuzzy front end of the new product development
process. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 52(1), 66-81.