BBMK403 : New Product Development Process - Assessment Answers

New Product Development Process

Case Scenario/ Task

In this assessment students are required to submit a written assignment and deliver a peer reviewed oral presentation relating to New Product Development. Students will apply skills and knowledge to undertake a new product development process. This product must not be currently offered in the market and must meet the criteria of a ‘new product’ as defined during Session 1.1. It may be an improvement on a product which is available in the market but you will have to support with reasons why this new improvement will be demanded by a segment/s of the market. Use your imagination but ensure that the new product would be of appeal to a market segment.

Theoretical concepts, processes and models as presented during lectures and tutorials should be used and applied.

IN THE WRITTEN REPORT YOU SHOULD:

1. Opportunity Identification and Selection: include your Product Innovation Charter (PIC) from assessment 2

2. Concept Generation: Outline what methods you would utilise to find and solve customer problems relating to your proposed new product

3. Concept/Product Evaluation: Design a concept test for your proposed new product and specify a minimum of three (3) questions

4. Development: Design and implement product use testing with a minimum of ten respondents

5. Launch: Prepare a strategic launch plan for your proposed new product

This will demonstrate your ability to apply the important concepts, processes and models in this subject to new product development.

The beverage market is the unsaturated and competitive field, with new flavors being invented all the time. Among the beverage industry, the health beverage industry is rapidly growing. Presently, the industry is predominantly dominated by carbonated soft drinks. The segment consists of cola and diet cola with flavors such as vanilla and lime coal. Over the past few years, the rising health awareness among Australian has increased the demand for organic, pure, and low sugar health drinks (IBISworld 2015).

The new product that is intended to be introduced in the market is Organic Coconut Cream water, which is unique in the current market. H2Cococream is a product that aims to serve different segments of the customer.

Product Innovation Charter

Product innovation charter is a strategic document that charts the company new product strategy. The written document prepared by senior management states the goal, objectives, guidelines, and economic size of opportunity (Bart 2002).

Background

Coconut water is the new entrant in the industry of beverage. The rising demand of people provides an opportunity to tap into beverage segment by introducing distinct, pure organic coconut water with skimmed cream. According to research, it is found, the people want natural drinks with the cleanest ingredient list that also taste great. Thus, H2Cococream would be natural water with less sugar and no preservatives. Moreover, the energy drink would contain the load of vitamins and detoxification properties that support a healthy immune system and would clean the body.

Focus

The machinery used would be advanced technology imported from the UK, USA, and Netherlands. The natural coconut would be imported from Thailand and Indonesia. After that, the product would be processed at the factory. Moreover, the product would appeal to children, sick people, tourist, and general people.

Goals and Objectives

The goal is to build a long-term market. Therefore, the product would be affordable, sustainable, natural, and delicious.

Guidelines

The product would be distributed directly from the factory to retail outlets eliminating the role of the wholesaler. Expect to incur substantial expenditures on advertising to increase awareness. The container size would be 250 Ml, 500 Ml, and 1 ML available at price AUD 6, 12, and 21 respectively.

Economic size

The sales are expected to be high, and development cost is expected to be AUD 10 Lac.

Concept generation

Concept generation is the first stage in the PDC. The brainstorming and survey method is used to develop the product idea and its business feasibility. The segment of the customer is divided into demographics, psychographics and behavioral. The demographic segment is further divided into individuals, family, sportsman and business buyer. Psychographics segment includes the high, upper-middle and middle-class individual. Behavioral wise the target market is young, sick, and health conscious people. Analyzing all the market the destination market of H2Cococream are young, sick, health conscious people, sportsman, and tourists. Performing market survey, a clear idea about the market demand, need, and wants is obtained. Currently, the active competitors in the market are providing coconut flavored drink with high sugar and artificial added preservative. Thus, the need of the people is to seek a product, which provides 100 % coconut with skimmed natural cream of coconut. Moreover, the target segment looks for easy to consume, vegan-friendly and containing the natural dairy milk product. In addition, people want health drinks, which are readily available and have long shelf life. The product would be available in tetra pack with a shelf life of six months.

Concept evaluation

Concept evaluation is the crucial stage in the NPD which decide whether the product is stable to proceed onto the expensive stage of development. The development of new product is finalized after analyzing the scope and merits of below assessment:

What would be the expected sales, cash flow, and cost and payback period?

The expected sales are 80,000 bottles each day. In the NPD estimated fixed cost is AUD 2 lakhs including machinery, monthly bills, and salaries irrespective of output. The variable cost includes the cost of the bottle, packaging and so on estimated to AUD 3 Lac.

Who are Users/ Non-users of H2Cococream product?

The non-users would be people who are addicted to soft drink and alcoholic beverages.

Do the consumers assess the product quality, price, package, size, retailer, and accessibility?

According to the survey, the consumers are more health conscious and have the greater emphasis to quality and packaging of the product.

Development

The design process in development phase comprises of function, form, quality, style, art, and engineering. R&D department will develop the prototype that will determine the degree of acceptance for a new product by customers. Time is the critical factor in the development phase (Jerrad et al. 2008).

Product design of H2Cococream is:

Type of Product: Pure Green coconut water

Ingredients: Natural Green coconut water, Sugar, Vitamin C, and mineral salts

Container: Stylish Tetra Pack

Product Price: 250 Ml for AUD 6

500ML for AUD 12

1Liter for AUD 21

Product Taste: Refreshing natural taste with hint of toasted-ness, fat-free cream, low in sugar with no chemical preservatives

Estimated Durability: 12 months from the date of manufacturing

Brand Slogan: Always refreshing

After passing the test from functional tests, the next step is test marketing when the product and commercialization program is introduced in a realistic market setting. The test marketing for H2Cococream is done with ten respondents in a selected test city i.e. Perth. The length of the trial is for one month.

Product Launch

Market plan

Pricing strategy:

Looking at the sensitivity of market, the competitive pricing strategy is adopted to capture the significant market share. Presently the prices are on par with competitor products.

Promotional strategies:

The firm position in the market would be acquired through the emphasis on effective promotional activities. Advertising through mass media such as paper ads and TV commercial would reach the customer in most efficient and have the massive impact on teenagers and other target customers. Secondly, Personal selling at supermarket stores will inform the prospective buyer about the refreshing taste and nutritional aspects of H2Cococream. The other temporary promotional tool used would be lucky coupons, tour tickets depending on the competitive situations.

Distribution Channel

The product will be directly sold to supermarkets, health stores, and selected online sites.

Service and warranties

Customer satisfaction and building long-term relationship are the priority. Therefore, planned to open few customer service centers where grievance, suggestion, and opinions of customer would be addressed.

Conclusion

It is concluded, H2cococream would be establish as a unique and competitive brand with high nutritional value. Once the product is developed well in the market, the product would be in high demand with increasing sales.