3.8 PEOPLE INVOLVED IN IDEA SCREENING

A variety of people are involved in screening products.

The initial screening is carried out by company staff with a simple pass/fail on the aim, constraints and other crucial factors. This may be done by one person but it is preferable to have representatives from different areas of the company.

Once product descriptions are written it is important to involve the consumer, or in industrial and food service marketing the customer. This usually involves focus groups initially, but as the number of products is reduced, consumer or market surveys on three to five products are carried out to give quantitative data on the acceptance and the predicted market potential.

Company personnel are also involved - again in groups or by a survey. It is often useful to have individual people from different areas of the company to score the product ideas on several factors, and then bring them together. This highlights any problems which could occur in further development. Checklist or probability techniques can be used.

The final screening is of course done by top management at the end of the first stage based on feasibility studies of the final product concept.