The Auto Club Group
Winning at New Products
Book

Winning at New Products

Accelerating the Process from Idea to Launch

Robert K. Cooper
Perseus Books, 2001
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

New products accelerate consumerism and a truly innovative launch can re-ignite corporate balance sheets, but new product attrition is high. For every seven new product ideas floated, about four enter development, one and a half are launched and only one succeeds (25% to 45% of new products flop). Yet intrepid corporations innovate and live to recount their tales to happy shareholders. The book presents every conceivable detail of the launch process - evaluation, management, best practices, game plans and even the seemingly impossible, incorporating new ideas into corporate thinking. So, what are the shortcomings? Well, there’s not enough service industry info and there is too much redundancy. Processes are listed, sub-processes are listed and sub-sub-processes, until the reader gets lost in lists and stages. Still, if you retain the energy to try, this book provides the theoretical and operational framework for launching new products. All you need is that billion dollar idea. getAbstract.com recommends this book to idea people in marketing, technology, R & D and sales.

Summary

Launching Successful New Products

New products revitalize corporations, extend your brand, increase profitability and indicate your business’ overall competitive health. When two corporations introduce competing new products, the ensuing battle is nothing short of war. Winners must be decisive and follow an established new product launch sequence. Organization, process and personnel determine the success of any launch. To maintain order while keeping creative forces at work, detail the separate processes, assessment systems and approaches involved in any new product introduction. Those processes, step by step, are:

  • Initial screening - This determines the overall appeal of a new product idea. To make it effective, involve the right people and use a formal assessment procedure.
  • Preliminary market assessment - This first-look at whether the product has market appeal relies on customer feedback, input from sales and competitor research.
  • Preliminary technical assessment - Go through production and engineering to make sure it is possible to manufacture the product.
  • Detailed market study - Conduct a user needs-and-wants study and concept testing...

About the Author

Robert G. Cooper is a professor of marketing at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University in Canada and ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow at Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business Administration. He is the creator of the Stage-Gate product development process and is the author of numerous books on new product introductions.

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