New Product Development Process
Stage 3 – Concept Development and
Testing
The third
stage of the new product development process is concept development and
testing. The whole aim
of this stage is to gather information and feedback on the concept from the
general public and the market you will be entering into. Concept testing is
defined in the Dictionary of Business and Management (2009) as ‘a technique
used in marketing research to assess the reactions of consumers to a new
product or a proposed change to an existing product’. The best way to retrieve this information is
by showing a picture or something that contains minimal information and note
the reaction you get. This information can then be collated and then you will
be able to see what impact this new sport concept will have on the market when
it is put into action. At this stage, your idea is not final and any
information received could be used to make improvements to your concept, which
in the long term will have benefits to how successful the idea will be.
Therefore, this stage is vital when assessing if your concept is going to be
successful because if the consumers do not like the idea then they will not
watch it meaning it will be a failure.
An example
of concept testing and development, is seen in the emergence of Twenty 20
cricket. In 2003, the ECB’s head of marketing, Simon Robertson, commissioned a
survey to see why people were not attending cricket anymore and part of this
survey included the idea of a new format of cricket. When asked about the
possible new format which was twenty 20, only a total of 34% expressed an
interest, however, as Martin Williamson (2012) shows ‘of the 34% who expressed
interest, most had never attended a county game’. Therefore due to this concept
test of twenty 20 the ECB discovered that this format would be worth pursuing
because it appealed to a new market and would reinvigorate cricket.
As seen in
the last blog, it was decided the concept that will be taken further is the
idea of relay Formula One. In this stage, firstly, questionnaires will be made
and then these can be asked at Formula One races and at events of similar
formats, such as GP2 and Formula E. This way you will be able to see how the
concept is received by fans of motor racing and see if they will take to the
concept. After this you can take the questionnaire to the wider general public
to see if they would be interested in watching the new concept. Even if the
fans are not sure about the concept, if the wider general public begin to show
an interest this would mean a new audience will be created for motor racing.
Taking these questions to fans will mean that if they are not at first
supportive you can ask what improvements can made to the concept to enhance it
and to appeal to the wider audience.
Reference
List
- Williamson, M. (2012) ‘Crash, bang and Pandora's Box is opened - The day the game of cricket was changed forever’, ESPN Cric info. [Online] Available at: http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/579245.html (Accessed: 25th November 2014).
- Law, J. (ed.) (2009) The Dictionary of Business and Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Received
ReplyDelete