Concept Development and Testing

Concept developing and testing is a phase in new product development. Defined as “A test to evaluate new [sports] product [& service] idea, usually before any prototype has been created. (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2009) It aims to achieve to identify how the target market would react to the product. Therefore the product needs to be presented in an enthusiastic way to motivate the target audience to give feedback. (Hart, 1996) Researches get the feedback from target audience through reactions when they describe the new product/service. In the past concept testing has been identified to work successful if the new product/service cannot be classified as already existing. However, concept tests are usually inaccurate in predicting the success of a new product/service. (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2009)

            Concept Development and Testing involves two stages development and testing. Development concerns with the sports brands concept and sports category concept. Testing is trying to identify the level of need, purchase intention, target audience, gap level and communicability & believability. This stage in new product development is very important because the first connection between customer and product is created and it identifies who the actual target market is.  

            NikeFuel is a new product that measures all types of activity and is designed to measure whole body movement no matter to the age, size and gender. (Gibbs, 2013) NikeFuel is a product, which had to go through concept developing and testing to become a successful product. Therefore Nike would need to identify who their potential target market would be, probably their customers who are aware of their health. But also a new audience, who seek to measure all their activity. Furthermore the potential competitors need to be identified which could be Apple or Adidas. NikeFuel achieves to target athletes but also the non-sport market who aim to live a healthy life.

Polf is a new sport where golf and pool is combined to create a new and exiting variety of pool. This new sport will be played inside a venue. Therefore, the price will be increase due to rent. Equipment which will be necessary to purchase will be another cost factor; 18 pool tables where one is around 200-500£, then a cue and the necessary balls.

 The potential target markets are pool players who enjoy playing golf and want to combine their hobbies. It is also targets pool players who are seeking to find a new challenge on the pool table. Furthermore, we are targeting golf players who might not have the time or resources to play Golf. This could be a substitute good for them. Therefore our potential competitors will be Golf, Mini-Golf and Pool.  

We presented our idea to a few people in each target market to gain feedback. The results of the feedback can be seen in appendix A. This feedback can be taken into account to gain a competitive advantage.

            Once interest for this sport is created it is important to keep our target market updated concerning the development and progress made.

Appendix A.

Question	Strong agree	Agree	Disagree	Strong disagree
Is the idea easy to understand?	✓	✓✓
Would you participate in this sport?	✓✓	✓
Would you say this sport product meets a real need?	✓	✓✓
Would you say this sport is believable?	✓	✓✓

Key:

Person One

Person Two

Person Three

References

Gibbs, S. (2013). Nike+ FuelBand SE review - the active person’s fitness tracker. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/12/nike-fuelband-se-review-fitness-tracker [Accessed 26 Nov. 2014].

Hart, S. (1996). New product development. London: Dryden Press.

Learnmarketing.net, (2014). New Product Development (NPD). [online] Available at: http://www.learnmarketing.net/npd.htm [Accessed 26 Nov. 2014].

McDaniel, C., Lamb, C. and Hair, J. (2011). Introduction to marketing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

Secure-nikeplus.nike.com, (2014). Join me on Nike+. [online] Available at: https://secure-nikeplus.nike.com/plus/what_is_fuel/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2014].

Idea Screening

Idea Screening is a process used to evaluate innovative product ideas, strategies and marketing trends. (BusinessDictionary.com, 2014) In order to evaluate the most appropriate product/service a criterion is created.  Criterions are used to determine compatibility with overall business objectives and whether the idea would offer a viable return on investment. (BusinessDictionary.com, 2014) The three main areas, which need to be considered are general characteristics, marketing characteristics and production characteristics. These areas will help to identify which product/service will be the most successful. Once the criterion has been developed it can be used in the ‘Decision Matrix’ to evaluate an outcome. However, it is very important that the overall aims and objectives of the organization are taken into account because the most brilliant ideas would be rejected if they do not fit the organizations business and product strategy. The overall aim in successful idea screening is to create the necessary information in order to make an efficient and objective decision.

            A successful idea screening is Twenty20 Cricket. It was developed and introduced in the early 2000’s.  This new sport is very similar to Cricket but the length has been shortened to three hours. Since it has been actively played 10 years after the introduction to the market, it can be assumed that the idea screening processes was successful. In the PLC T20 is probably still in the growth stage because it is increasingly growing and attracting new audiences. “…Twenty-20 format of the game was in some way the future of the sport of cricket and a platform for making money from cricket.” (Scholar.googleusercontent.com, 2014) For the T20 world cup qualifiers 2012 there had been 14 participants indicating the market is growing. Another indicator that T20 was successful in their screening process is that it is being introduced in schools and education. Since the sport is introduced and developed at the grass-roots, there is high potential for the future development for the sport. 

 Two different products were evaluated using a decision matrix to identify, which of the two new sports contains the most potential. Pool-Golf and Unicycle-Polo are the two new sport products that were inserted into the decision matrix and evaluated with the criterion the organization thought would select the idea, which reflects their aims and objectives best. Figure1. shows the decision matrix. The score, which was calculated, clearly shows that Pool-Golf fits to the organization better and is more likely to bring success. This is also illustrated in the figure2. 

            Each criterion was evaluated separately and then decided on the rating. This was then calculated into as score. When evaluating general characteristics Pool-Golf was more appropriate due to the nature of the organizations targets. Marketing characteristics is very hard to predict before the product or service has been introduced to the market. However, by looking at past examples and experience the screening can be predicted. Lastly for production characteristics Unicycle-polo was more appropriate, but the organization weighted this area less causing Pool-Golf to be a more appropriate option.

References:

BusinessDictionary.com, (2014). What is idea screening? definition and meaning. [online] Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/idea-screening.html [Accessed 17 Nov. 2014].

Nzifst.org.nz, (2014). Creating New Foods. The Product Developer's Guide - Product Strategy Development: Idea Generation and Screening. [online] Available at: http://www.nzifst.org.nz/creatingnewfoods/idea_generation6.htm [Accessed 17 Nov. 2014].

Scholar.googleusercontent.com, (2014). The development of limited overs cricket: London's loss of power. [online] Available at: http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:KTTp8eqr4CgJ:scholar.google.com/+Twenty20+Cricket+market&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 [Accessed 17 Nov. 2014].

Twenty20cricketcompany.com, (2014). About us | Twenty 20 Cricket Company. [online] Available at: http://www.twenty20cricketcompany.com/about/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2014].