The rapid development of science and technology leads to shorter and shorter product life cycle. In the mid-20th century, a generation of products usually meant about 20 years; In the 1990s, the concept of the first generation products was no more than seven years. The life cycle of computer products is the shortest. According to Moore's theorem, the processing speed of computer chips will double every 65,438+08 months, while the price of chips will drop by 25% every year. All these have prompted enterprises to continuously develop new products for their own survival and development to adapt to the rapid changes in market demand.
Concepts and characteristics of new products
A new product refers to a product that is produced and sold for the first time in a certain area, and is significantly improved, improved or original than the old product in one or more aspects such as principle, use, performance, structure, materials and technical indicators. A new product should have one or more of the following characteristics: (1) It has new principles, ideas or designs; (2) Due to the adoption of new materials, the performance of the product has been greatly improved; (3) The product structure has been significantly improved; (4) The application range of the product is expanded.
Generally speaking, new products can be divided into brand-new products, improved new products, series new products and imitation new products according to their degree of innovation. Brand-new products refer to products with new structure and new functions by applying new principles, new technologies and new materials. This new product is first developed by enterprises in the market, which can create a brand-new market. Improved new product refers to the improvement on the basis of the original old product, so that the product has new features and new breakthroughs in structure, function, quality, color, style and packaging. After the political advancement, the new product structure is more reasonable, the function is more complete, the quality is better, and it can better meet the changing needs of consumers. Imitation of new products is a new product of enterprises, which imitates existing products in domestic and foreign markets. Systematic new product refers to the development of new varieties, colors and specifications in the original product category, thus forming a series with the original products of the enterprise.
No matter what kind of new product, in addition to the characteristics of general products, it also has the following characteristics: (1) innovation. New products often have new principles, new ideas and new designs, which are composed of new materials and new components, and have new innovations or improvements in performance and use. (2) advanced nature. New products must be technologically advanced, and the technical and economic indicators such as performance, quality and energy consumption are obviously improved compared with the old products. (3) inheritance. Any invention or new product is born on the basis of previous knowledge accumulation.
Choice of development strategy
The development of new products should be based on the premise of meeting the market demand, aiming at the profit of enterprises, and following the principle of "developing marketable products according to market needs; Determine the development direction according to the enterprise's resources, technology and other capabilities; Do what you can and choose a feasible development mode. "
What kind of strategy to adopt should be based on the enterprise's own strength, market situation and competitors' situation. Of course, this is also closely related to the personal quality of enterprise decision makers. Pioneer and stable operators will adopt different strategies. Commonly used strategies are:
1. preemptive strategy. It means that enterprises take the lead in launching new products and take advantage of their unique advantages to occupy a favorable position in the market. Enterprises that adopt preemptive strategy should have a strong sense of "first" in the market. Because for the vast number of consumers, the cognition of enterprise and product image is mainly ancestors. They believe that only the first product listed is genuine, and other products should take "first" as the reference standard. Therefore, if we adopt a preemptive strategy, we will be able to take the lead in the market, first use the advantages of our ancestors, first establish brand preferences, and thus obtain rich profits. Moreover, from the perspective of market competition, if you can take the lead, your competitors can only catch up with you, but if you are not satisfied with occupying the existing market and constantly upgrading and developing new products and markets that you didn't have before, your competitors will be exhausted. Changing targets are more difficult to hit than fixed targets. This will gain a competitive advantage. Take the first-in first-out strategy. An enterprise must have the following conditions: strong strength, scientific research strength and economic strength, and the ability to predict market demand and its changing trend in advance.
2. Imitation strategy. Is to wait for other companies to launch new products, immediately imitate and improve, and then launch their own products. This strategy is not to invest in pre-emptive research on new products, but to bypass the link of new product development, specifically imitate new products that have just been launched and sold well in the market, conduct follow-up competition and share market benefits. So it is also called competitive imitation, that is, there is competition and imitation. Competitive imitation is not a deliberate pursuit of market leadership, but it is by no means pure imitation, but innovation in imitation. Enterprises adopting competitive imitation strategy can not only avoid market risks and save R&D expenses, but also successfully enter the market with the help of competitors' leading reputation in developing new products. More importantly, it may come from behind by making many constructive improvements to the innovative products of market leaders.
3. Development strategy of series products. It is to develop a series of similar but different products around products and form different types, specifications and grades of product series. Using this strategy to develop new products, enterprises can make full use of existing resources to design and develop more related products, such as Haier's washing machine series products developed around customer needs, which are suitable for the needs of different consumer groups such as urban and rural areas, high-income and low-income, large-population families and small-population families.
On the basis of choosing different strategies, enterprises should choose the corresponding new product development mode according to the specific situation: (1) independent development mode. This way means that enterprises rely on their own scientific research and technical strength to develop new products. (2) Joint development method. Refers to enterprises and other units, including universities, scientific research institutions and other enterprises, to jointly develop new products. (3) the way of technology introduction. Technology introduction refers to the development of new products through technical cooperation with foreign businessmen and the introduction of advanced technology from abroad, including the introduction of technology by enterprises from other domestic enterprises, universities or scientific research institutions to develop new products. (4) the combination of independent development and technology introduction. This way means that enterprises combine imported technology with their own research and development, digest, absorb and innovate imported technology on the basis of imported technology according to their national conditions and technical characteristics, and develop unique new products. (5) imitation. Imitating new products at home and abroad according to foreign prototypes or patented technology products is an effective new product development method to quickly catch up with competitors.
New product development program
The development of new products usually goes through the following stages: product conception, screening, product preliminary design, feasibility study, trial production, trial sale, formal listing and production.
1. Product concept. Product conception, also known as creativity, refers to the idea of new products. The content of product conception includes the purpose of product use, basic function, general outline of product and general manufacturing method. Market demand is the starting point of developing new products, and product conception comes from several aspects related to the market: first, users; The second is the seller; The third is scientific and technological personnel. Other sources of product creativity include middlemen, enterprise producers and managers, and even competitors.
2. Screening. When screening, two important factors must be considered: (1) whether the conceived new product meets the enterprise's objectives, such as profit objectives, sales stability objectives, sales growth objectives, and overall marketing objectives of the enterprise. (2) Whether the enterprise has sufficient strength to develop the envisaged new products, including both economic and technical aspects.
3. Preliminary product design. The product concept puts forward the direction and way of developing new products abstractly. Although the idea has been screened, it is still an abstract product. To concretize abstract products, we need to consider the principle, structure, appearance and performance. Carry out preliminary product design for the selected product ideas, so as to achieve the goals proposed by the product ideas.
4. Feasibility study. On the basis of product preliminary design, the feasibility study of new product scheme is an important link to further determine product selection.
5. Trial production and identification. The physical development of new products mainly solves the problem of whether product ideas can be transformed into technically and commercially feasible products. Through the design, trial production, testing and appraisal of new product entities.
6. Trial sale. The trial sale of new products is to put the identified samples into a small amount of production, put the products on the market in a small range according to the marketing strategy plan formulated by the enterprise, observe the feedback from users, and give it back to users in time, and then try to sell new products after further improvement. This process is sometimes repeated many times.
7. Officially put into production and listed. After the successful launch of new products, enterprises can formally put the products into mass production. Formal production not only needs a lot of money, but also needs the time, place and marketing strategy of listing.
Key points of implementation
To successfully develop new products, we must do the following work around the needs of consumers:
1. Do in-depth and detailed market research. Any enterprise that wants to develop marketable new products cannot do without in-depth and meticulous market research. Market research includes direct and indirect surveys. Direct investigation is mainly based on the demand of the market (consumers), to understand the quality, packaging, performance and price of competitors' products in the market, to fully collect consumers' information with novel and novel concepts, and to analyze the market reaction of these consumers to new products, including the advantages and disadvantages of existing products in the market and the potential market demand of consumers. Indirect research is mainly to summarize and sort out the new product information fed back by market salesmen and distributors, including product sales, market share and consumer response. According to the survey results, product developers design and launch products locally on the basis of soliciting the opinions of marketers, distributors and consumers, and understand the market reaction of new products in the launch process. The design of new products should follow the path of development, adjustment, trial sale and improvement of mass production, and it is forbidden to reach the goal in one step, because the biggest drawback of reaching the goal in one step is that it cannot be achieved. Regardless of the overall planning of enterprise brand development, rushing for success or developing new products behind closed doors will not only increase the risk of new product development, but also affect the market launch of new products.
2. Form a flexible development organization. Product development is a complicated and meticulous work. The characteristics of product innovation determine that the new product development organization has its outstanding characteristics compared with the general management organization. New product development organizations should have high flexibility, simple interpersonal relationship, efficient information transmission system and high decision-making power. And it needs the close cooperation of supply, production, technology, finance, sales and other departments to form a cooperative team. The general principle is to enable new product development to be carried out quickly and effectively. The characteristics of new product development organizations make the forms of new product development organizations diversified. Common new product development organizations are: new product committee, new product department, product manager, new product manager, project team, project team, etc.
3. Do a good job in launching new products. After the design of a new product is completed, enterprises should not blindly put the product on the market, but concentrate on the planning scheme before the new product is put on the market together with marketing planners and marketing professionals, including: how to put the new product in the target market, how to distribute the new product, how to eliminate consumers' concerns, let them try the new product, and finally make the new product put on the market successfully.