New product introduction processes in Indian consumer goods industry

Abstract

New products are often referred to as the ‘Life Blood ‘of a business enterprise. In the Indian operating environment of the firm, conditions like increasing competition, changing consumer needs and values, a more knowledgeable consumer and government regulations/controls on existing/ future production necessitate the offering of more meaningful products to the Indian consumers. Knowledge about how new products evolve and their introduction process in India is to-day confined to a handful of practitioners. Given the existing gap in marketing gap in marketing literature, the present study is an attempt to fill in a part of this gap. The study attempts to examine: 1) The new product introduction processes in Indian consumer industry. 2) The factors that influence the success or failure in ‘New Product Introductions’ in India. Methodological Briefs: This study is an exploratory study. Hence in order to carry out study, s conceptual model of New Product Introduction Process was developed. The primary purpose of this 'Base' model was to structure the study and to collect meaningful data. The study restricts itself to Branded Non-durable Consumer products. The sample comprised fourteen New Product Introductions by an equal number of firms. Data sources for the study included In-house company documentation and reports of research studies. Executives from different functional areas, and those who were directly involved in the introduction process were personally interviewed in depth and at length. The major findings of the study include: a) Nature of New Products Introduced. b) Motivation to introduce New Products. c) Process related findings which include critical stages in the process, GO/NO GO stages the missed out stages, and duration of the process. d) The different sub-processes and their nature and duration of the process f) Factors that influenced success or failure in the New "Product Introduction. Generalizations: Different Generalizations with respect to the Introduction Process and factors that influence successes and failures in ‘New Product Introductions‘ have been made. Three different “Introduction Process” models have been conceptualized depending on the Nature of New Product introduced. These are: a) “Me Too” Products b) “Product to Fit Market Gap” Products. c) “Product Extensions by Multi-National” kind of Products. Implication: Implications for Marketing practitioners and theorists based on the findings from the study have been made.