In this chapter we discussed the different forms of innovation as applied to new product development. The rewards of this development can include means to target a new market, to increase market share, and to increase revenue streams. Included in the risks are financial and technical feasibility and a lack of differentiation from existing products. There are seven stages to developing new products that include idea generation, idea screening and evaluation, concept development and testing, marketing strategy development, business analysis, product development, and test-marketing. The stages are followed by commercialization and evaluation of results.
Metrics are used to evaluate such things as R&D spending as a percentage of sales, return on investment (ROI), the percentage of sales due to the new product release, and other key concepts.
New products succeed when there is synergy and quality of technology and marketing and when the product delivers benefits to users. By contrast, failure can be due to targeting the wrong market and misunderstanding consumer needs/wants. The adoption process was discussed and includes different categories of consumers.