Mr. Quiwa

1. MKTG 7 : Product Planning and
Development
Chapter 4 : Preparation and Alternatives
PASIG CATHOLIC COLLEGE
Professor : Mr. Abelito T. Quiwa
School Year 2013 - 2014

2. Topics under this chapter
 Managers tasks of preparing the firm for ideation
 To know what is a concept and how it is typically
found and identified.
 To explore a specific system of active (not
reactive) concept generation, including
approaches that seem to work.
 System using employees and nonemployees in a
search for ready-made ideas

3. Finding the Right People
 Creativity has been described by Craig Wynett, a
senior manager at P&G, as “ the everyday task of
making nonobvious connections.” Firms like P&G
that are known for their innovation product
programs are also known for being staffed with
highly creative people-those that get ideas with a
high degree of usefulness.
 Unconventional individuals – those with diverse
experiences, great enthusiasm for innovation,
and more foreign experience, for example- are
better bets to come up with successful
innovations than are run-of-the-mill technical
personnel.

4.  Example of highly creative person was Harry Coover, the
discoverer of superglue (cyanoacrylate adhesives). He
also was the first to get the idea that supeglues could be
used by doctors as an adhesive for human tissues.
 Most people think reproductivity – solve problems in ways
that have worked for us in the past. Creative geneus
thinking how to visualize the problem. Nobel prize winning
physicist Richard Feynman called it “ inventing new ways
to think. Ex. What is half of 13? Most of us would say 6.5.
 Research report suggest two different types of creative
people: those with artistic creativity and those with
scientific creativity. But new product creative types
(inventors, really) need both.
 Engineers without the touch of the artist and artist without
scientific strength are probably less successful in new
products ideation.
Finding the Right People

5.  A common stereotype is that creative persons are
eccentric. While this may not always be the case,
cretive individuals do announce themselves by
leaving a lifetime trail of creative
accomplishments.
 Creativity can be measured using the standard
MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) Creativity
Index.
Finding the Right People
Degree of artistic creativity
The Three
Forms of
Human
creativity
No
Creativity
Engineer
Chemist
Painter
Composer
Inventor

6. Geneus Thinking Strategies
1. Geniuses find many different ways to look at a problem.
Einstein, for example, and da Vinci, were well known for
looking at their problems from many different
perspectives.
2. Geniuses make their thoughts visible. Da Vinci’s famous
sketches, and Galileo’s diagrams of the planets, allowed
them to display information visibly rather than relying
strictly on mathematical analysis.
3. Geniuses produce. Thomas Edison had a quota of
oneinvention every 10 days. Mozart was among the
most prolific composers over his short life.
4. Geniuses make novel combination. Einstein found the
relationship between energy, mass, and the speed of
light the equation
E = mc ( to the power of 2)

7. 5. Geniuses force relationships. They can make
connections where others cannot. Kekule dreamed of
a snake biting its tail, immediately suggesting to him
that the molecule he was studying ( benzene) was
circular.
6. Geniuses think in opposites. This will open suggest a
new point of view. Physicist Neils Bohr conceived of
light as being both a wave and particle.
7. Geniuses think metaphorically. Bell thought of a
membrane moving steel, and its similarity to the
construction of the ear; this led to the development of
the telephone earpiece.
8. Geniuse prepare themselves for chance. Fleming
was not the first to see mold forming on a culture, but
was the first to investigate the mold, which eventually
led to the discovery of penicillin.
Geneus Thinking Strategies

8. Special Rewards
 There is no question about the value of
recognizing creative achievement. But creative
people are usually unimpressed by group
rewards. They believe group contributions are
never equal, especially if thegroup is company
employees, for many of whom creative have
great disdain.
 But creatives do like personal accolates-
preferably immediately. The famous Thomas
Watson of IBM commonly carried spare cash in
his pockets so he could reward persons with
goods ideas when he heard them.
 Campbell Soup has President Awards for
Excellence. Many firms have annual dinners to

9. Killer Phrases: Roadblocks in the Generation of New
Product Concept
“ It simply won’t work.” “ I believe we tried that once before”
“ Are you sure of that “ “ We don’t usually do things that way.”
“ You can’t be serious.” “ It seems like a gimmick to me.”
“ It’s agains our policy”
“ Let’s shelve it fo the time being
“ It’s good, but impractical.”
“ That sounds awfully complicated”
“That won’t work in our market” “ Production won’t accept that.”
“ Let’s think about the some more.” “ People will think we’re crazy.”
“ I agree, but ...............” “ Engineering can’t do that.”
“ We’ve done it the other way for a
long time.”
“ You could never sell that downstairs.”
“ But who is going to drive that idea?”
“ Where are you going to get the
money for thart.”
“ OK, but let’s slow down a bit.”
“We can just do that.” “ I’m afraid there’s precedent in this.”
“ Who thought of that?” “ We have too many projects now.”
It’s probably too big to us.” “ We’ll need more background on that.”

10. The Removal of Roadblocks
 Some organizations use a technique called itemized response. All
client trainees must practice it personally. When an idea comes up,
listeners must first cite all of its advantages. Then they address the
negative, but only in a positivemode.
 The recommended language for bringing up a negative is “OK. Now
let’s see what would be the best way to overcome such-and-such a
problem.” Note that this constructive comments assumes the
problem can be overcome, and the listener offers to help.
 To encourage creativity, some firms deliberately encourage conflict
by putting certain employees together on the same team- for
example, a blue-sky creative person and a practical type. This
technique is sometimes called creative abrasion.
 The bottom line here is that managers need to be aware of the
barriers to group creativity. New product team are, by definition,
cross-functional, which means a greater variety of perspectives but
also potential difficulties in reaching a solution acceptable to all.
Further, if the team members share strong interpersonal ties, the
creative abrasion might be lacking: Team members may simply reach
friendly agreements

11. Barriers for Firm Creativity
1. Cross-functional diversity. A diverse team means a wide
variety of perspectives and more creative stimulation, but
also can lead to difficulties in problem solving and
information oveload.
2. Allegiance to functional areas. The team members need to
have a sense of belonging and to feel they have a stake in
the team’s success. Without this, they will be loyal to their
functional area, not to the team.
3. Social cohesion. Perhaps a little unexpectedly, if the
interpersonal ties between team members are too strong,
candid debate might be replaced by friendly agreement,
resulting in less innovative ideas.
4. The role of top management. If senior management
stresses continuous improvement, the team might stick with
familiar product development strategies and make only
incremental changes. Top management should encourage
the team to be adventurous and try newer ideas.

12. The Concept
 Back before technical work was finished, the product was
even more of a concept. To understand this, and see how
it relates to the ideation process, we have to look at the
three inputs required by the creation process.
 Form: This is the physical thing createdm, or in the case
of a service, it is the sequence of steps by which the
service will be created. Thus with a bew steel alloy, form
is the actual bar or rod of material. On a new mobile
phone service it includes the hardware, software, people,
procedures, and so on, by which call are made and
received.

13.  Three inputs required by the creation process:
 Technology: This is the source by which the form was
attained. Thus for the steel alloy it included, among
others, the steel and other chemicals used for the
alloy, the science of metallurgy, product forming
machines, cutting machines, and more. Technology is
defined in product innovation as the power to do work.
In most cases there is one clear technology that is all
the base of the innovation, the one that served as the
technical dimension of the focus-arena. Sometimes
there are two.
The Concept

14.  Three inputs required by the creation process:
 Need/Benefits: The product has value only as it
provides some benefits to the customer that the
customer sees a need or desire for.
 We put these together this way: Technology permits
us to develop a form that provides the benefit. It any
of those three is missing, there cannot be product
innovation, unless one buys a product ready-made
and resells it without change.
 Even then, there would be some change in the
service dimension-where it is sold, how it is seviced,
and so on.
The Concept

15. The Designer Decaf Example
 Typically, coffee sold in North America contained ablend of
cheaper coffee beans, and that was that. Withthe
emergence of Starbucks and competitors, the North
America coffee-drinking culture change abruptly. Fancy
coffe bars, based on the Italian coffee bar model, sprang
up everywhere, and Italia-style expresso soared in
popularity.
 Espresso-based concoctions like cappuccinos and lattes,
often selling for three to four times the price of restaurant
coffee, become big sellers overnight.
 Let’s imagine we worked ar a major coffee roasting
company at about this time. Imagine three different people
walked into the new product office one week, at different
times, each with an idea for a new product. Each was
unaware the others were coming in.

16.  One person said, “ Our most recent customer
satisfaction report disclosed that customers would
like a decaffeinated espresso coffee that tastes
identical to regular espresso and can deliver a full-
flavored cappuccino. No current decafs offer this
benefit.”
 The second person was a product manager who
said “ I was thinking last week about our coffees, and
our competitors, and noticed they were all about the
same color and thickness. I wonder if we could
mass-produce a darker espresso that actually pours
out thickers, something like Turkish coffee” (form)
The Designer Decaf Example

17.  The third person was a scientist who had just
returned from a technical forum and said, “ I
heard discussion of a new chemical extraction
process that can isolate and separate chemicals
from foods cheaply and effectively; may be it
could be applied to talking caffeine our of
coffee”(technology)
 What might best sum up the point that a concept
is evolving from its creation until it
metamorphoses into a new product, is the saying
of one manager: “ Don’t waste your time trying to
find a great new product idea; it’s our job to take
a rather ordinary idea and make it into a
successful new product.”
The Designer Decaf Example

18. The Concept Statement
 Once the concept appears, with two of the three
dimensions (technology, form, benefits), we have to
screen it before undertaking development. Technical
people and intended customers must tell us the
concept is worthy of development.
 Technical people and intended customermust tell us
the concept is worthy of development. Their review of
the concept of statement allows this, if the concept
tells them what they need to know to make that
judgement. A concept statement will usually do this if
it has two of the three basic essentials ( technology,
form, benefit).

19.  A concept then, is a verbal and/or prototype
expression that tells what is going to be changed
and how the customer stands to gain (and lose).
Early, on the information is quite incomplete, but
when marketed the concept is (hopefully)
complete. Any thing that does’nt communicate
gain and loss to the intended buyer is still just an
idea that needs work.
The Concept Statement

20. Two Basic Approaches
 Most firm use both ready-made and tailored. But in
each industry it is common knowledge as to which
has a better batting average. For example, food
manufacturing usually will not even read new product
suggestions sent in by consumers. They have more
enoug concepts of their own, consumer suggestions
are very repetitive or old ideas, and even just glancing
at hundreds or thousands of ideas every year would
be almost impossible.
 Some manufacturers have employee and customer
idea contests. Even in the food industry, one firm(
Pillsbury) has found it profitable to run an annual
Bake-off Contest to capture thousands of new recipes
for their possible use.
Concept generation should be an active, not reactive

21. Important Sources of Ready-Made
New Produc Ideas
 Experience in the field of product innovation has it
that 40 to 50 percent of new product ideas are ready-
made, coming at least partially from employees,
suppliers, end-users, and other stakeholders, and
published information.
 More recent additions to the list are consulting
engineering firms, and smaller firms with expertise in
idea exploration. Among the latter are small biotech
companies that have the expertise to do early-stage
development, testing, or commercialization.
 Large pharmaceutical firms turn to these biotech
companies as a rich source of new product ideas.
 Product development professional (or more
experienced users) will have a more realistic view of
what is and is not feasible. The role of the end users
also depends on the industry.