New Product Design

New Product Design

Product, new product idea, technology

The new product is soymilk, which is a refreshing and nutritious drink. It is a better dairy milk substitute that can be used to nourish children and babies as well as meet the demands of the growing population. The new product idea will involve producing soymilk from soya beans. The Flottweg Sedicanter technology will be used to separate slurry and this will result to an okara that is 2-4 percent drier compared to the traditional decanter. This will lead to higher yields where twenty liters of soymilk can be produced in thirty minutes. The soymilk machine will be obtained from Pro-Soya in Canada (Ottawa) and it can be fitted with a manual or electric boiler. The machine also operates in areas without electricity.

Strategic plan and the risks

Market research: The first step of the strategic plan will involve developing the product concept after a comprehensive market research aimed at identifying the needs of the customers. The product concept will describe the product more elaborately and this will include the price, flavors, styles, colors, dimensions, and features. Consumers will also be invited to test the product concept through focus groups (Cooper & Edgett, 2009). This will enable the consumers to discuss their dislikes and likes and as a result, the company will be able to define the product concept in a better way. One risk in using focus groups is that the sample size is small and, hence, the responses will not be representative of the entire population. To overcome this, phone surveys will be conducted so as to ensure a sample that is more representative (Kim & Wilemon, 2011).

Establishing a time frame; sufficient time will be necessary for developing and implementing the new product. Failure to allocate adequate time may lead to failure of the new product. To avoid this, the time frame will be based on the set objectives. Pricing and features: The results of the market research will be used to determine the best prices and features of the soymilk, which will ensure that the product matches consumer needs (Kim & Wilemon, 2011).

Promotion: the company will use the demographic data obtained from the phone surveys to define the target audience that is mothers with young babies and children as well as youths and the employed population (Ulrich & Eppinger, 2010). The target audience will enable the company to promote the product to people who are mostly likely to purchase it, which will ensure saving on costs.

The product will then be launched in the market where the target audiences are most likely to access it. The product will be marketed through the use of advertisements as well as other promotions. One risk with the promotions and advertisements is that they require immense dedication of resources including time and money (Ulrich & Eppinger, 2010). However, to avoid wastage of resource, more resources will be dedicated on market research and this will ensure ease and will promote benefits in many other stages.

Distribution: soymilk is most likely to sell in supermarkets and beverage stores. The distribution will start regionally then expand nationally. After the product is marketed for a period of time, there will be a new product pricing and this will be formulated based on the critical path analysis (Ulrich & Eppinger, 2010). Some of the factors that will be considered include the impact the new product had on the whole product portfolio; external and internal value analysis; variable and fixed product costs; different value segments including need, value, and price; competition; and forecast of profit, revenue, and unit volumes.

References

Cooper, R.G. & Edgett, S. J. (2009). Maximizing productivity in product innovation, in: Research Technology Management, March 1, 2009.

Kim, J. & Wilemon, D. (2011). Sources and assessment of complexity in NPD projects. R&D Management, 33 (1): 16-30.

Ulrich, K. T. & Eppinger, S. D. (2010). Product Design and Development (3rd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.