The Research and Development Department of a Business
The work of research and development involves developing new products
and improving current ones through various forms of research. New
products and improvements to current products are needed to meet the
requirements of customers, taking into consideration changes in
consumer demand, seasonal sales changes, and the availability of new
materials and technology. The marketing department collects
information about changes in consumer demand and the requirements of
customers. The research and development department must also be aware
of new materials, technology and products that affect the customer's
requirements and possibly the future of their customers needs. For
example development within the music industry has moved it forwards
with the development from audiocassettes audio CD-ROMs.
New technology can also allow a company to manufacture a product more
efficiently to meet consumer needs and demand. Research is also vital
as it provides information for the development of products
Also research and development can be split into sub functions, 2 of
which are product research and product development, which are linked.
Text Box: Over 90% of previous ideas are abandonedHere is a rough
drawing to show how the product research and product development work
together on improving products.
Text Box: Can help company’s plan
Text Box: Market research, to discover consumer needs and thoughts
Text Box: Product research, trying to develop new ideas for goods and services
Text Box: May lead to
Text Box: Product development, new goods and services to meet consumers’ needs
Research and development is very expensive and can be very time
consuming for many businesses to be see positive results from it, even
though this can be the case most of the time most businesses invest
greatly in research and development, some companies put millions into
their research and development departments. Some of the main reasons
are:
* They gain an advantage over rivals
* Developing new and better products for customers
* Allows them to assess how they're products are doing
Research and development is a very important aspect of this industry and it is very draining on a company's funds. Great emphasis is also placed on product placement and marketing. Though these products are usually marketed towards industry professionals such as doctors and hospital management.
What major technology change has had the greatest impact on the quality of your life?
Nintendo wii’s research and development department responsible for designing Nintendo hardware and doing research for the consoles. Because having strong competitors Nintendo wii have to make its product better and different from others. They have to make their game and consoles unique. For this, they have to give more importance on research and development because for making their product unique they need to know about the games and features their competitors providing to the customers and then only Nintendo wii come to know about what features they have to provide in their games to make their game
However, this vision generates an overlapping problem between the marketing department and the product development department. The marketing department, among other duties, is responsible for the identification of new opportunities and also to assure the development of new products. Unless these activities are extremely well coordinated with the product development department, there will be misalignment in the strategy of the EPD. Ultimately, this misalignment will affect a third department, i.e. the manufacturing department, since it is directly involved in the product development process.
Morgan, J.M. & Liker, J.K. (2006). The Toyota product development system: integrating people, process, and technology. USA: Productivity Press.
Managing the new product development process is the biggest growth barrier for large corporations. Lack of effective knowledge on innovation development creates mismanagement in company. The development of innovation into a final product is as important as the innovation. The underlying problem in mismanagement is present with team managing. Creating challenging tasks, questioning and generating ideas should be key activities in business
Two examples of new product development tools include stage-gate processes and the critical path method, both of which possess benefits and cons. In the context of bringing a new product to the market place, the stage-gate method provides many direct benefits to the product manager. Stage-gate processes allow organizations numerous opportunities to kill projects that no longer seem to be viable products, saving both wasted time and money (Cooper, 2014). Additionally, the stage-gate process provides incentive for senior management to keep abreast of the development cycle of new products. For these reasons, it is suggested that product managers strive to implement stage-gate processes into their development of new
There are many ways for the product manager (PM) to gather information on their way to creating a successful business plan to present to upper management to justify the funds and support for new product initiatives, projects and activities. The research methodologies of quantitative, qualitative and experimental research are important processes to assess, identify and refine the many variables which help define the path to decision-making for new product development, product lines and product portfolios.
The first element of the marketing process if research. This consist of conducting market research to determine what the market is missing and what can be available to consumers that does not already exist in the current market and gathering feedback from consumers about what their feelings towards this product are.
The Product Lifecycle can be used as an aid to set budgets within a firm as well. For example, if a firm produces a product lifecycle for a product and identifies the stage it is in, this can set budgets for its marketing/promotion department, its production department and its distribution department. For example if a firm sees that its product is still in the growth stages of the lifecycle, they are going to have to invest a lot of money in its development (...
Briefly it is a systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company, allows management to make the changes necessary for better results through adopting a proactive approach. Therefore, if a company wants to know what type of products or services would be profitable it should make a market research. Furthermore, a comprehensive research will enable the company to know about the product imperfections (if there are) and to know if it has been able to satisfy customers’ needs. It attempts to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of affairs. Due to market research the company can formulate a viable marketing plan and estimate the success of its existing plan. There are two main sources of marketing research information:
reviews and revises its task loading to be in effective in its future search for
New product development is an essential key for a company to survive or stay competitive in the highly changed business environment nowadays(Annacchino, Marc A, 2003). Although technology plays an important role in the development of new products, the role of marketing should not be underestimated. A result illustrates that companies with a marketing department which has strong capabilities and skills are more likely to be more successful with their new products(Drechsler et al.,2013). Hence this essay will investigate the role of marketing played in the different stages of new product development and launch. And this paper will use the new energy drink brand Wakee as an example to see how marketing mix can be applied to support the marketing
An article in Harvard Business Review have identified some challenges marketers’ faces today. One of the challenges identified is that the market need to “lead in substantial or transformational innovation” this means that company faces the challenge of identifying new products. They believe
For example, research and development have input as to the features a product can perform and accounting approves the financial side of marketing plans and budgets.