Creating New Foods. The Product Developer's Guide - Product Strategy Development: Product Concepts and Product Design Specifications

CREATING NEW FOODS
THE PRODUCT DEVELOPER'S GUIDE

CHAPTER 4
Product Strategy Development:
Product concept evaluation

4.4 PRODUCT CONCEPT EVALUATION

In product concept evaluation, several product concepts are evaluated and screened to find the most suitable product concept.

The product concepts can be evaluated by consumers to see which they identify as winners and losers, and also by the company personnel to see which can be processed and marketed, and which has the highest predicted sales potential and profit or/and market share.

Initial predictions of costs, prices and sales have a wide range at this stage but do give some indication of possible profits. Market share for a new product in an established market can be predicted from the market shares of the competing products in the present market, but obviously an innovative product in a new market is hard to predict. As predictions are inaccurate; pessimistic, most likely and optimistic predictions are made.

The consumer studies can be either a series of focus groups or a consumer survey. Not only do the consumers indicate their acceptance of the different products, but also their prediction of buying at different prices. They also need to compare the products with the competitive products and identify advantages and disadvantages in the new product concept. The product concepts can be presented as descriptions, drawings, computer sketches and as prototype products, depending on the availability and suitability for the product of the different forms.

It is useful to give the consumers a number of product concepts so that they can compare them and then patterns of acceptance can be ascertained.

It is important that the questions asked help to sort out the product concepts, preferably in a quantitative way.

The following are among the questions to be considered in planning a product concept evaluation by consumers:

Consumers:

Users/non-users of this type of product or of the company brand?

Representative of the general population or the market segment?

Statistically representative of the market or not?

How many consumers - 30, 60, 200?

Product:

One product prototype, or a group of product prototypes?

Packaging and the brand included?

Method:

Do the consumers choose the product they prefer?

Do the consumers select the product they will buy?

Do the consumers score the product characteristics for each product?

Do the consumers assess the product accessibility, price, package size, retailer?

Scoring by the consumers of the product characteristics in a product profile for a number of prototypes and their ideal product gives the designer a greater understanding of the product for further development. A simple product preference does not give clear directions.

Technical and marketing groups also evaluate the product concepts for their suitability for production and for the market, using some of the checklist or probability screening methods as described in Chapter 3.