Paper Example on New Product Development Concept: Generation of Softerbubble

Introduction

The success of any new product is governed by New Product Development that is characterized by the generation of a pool of innovative ideas in the form of concepts (Miller, n.d.). Product concept refers to the verbal statement of what is going to change in a certain product and how customers stand to gain or lose from the concept. Therefore, concept generation involves the collection of the available concepts of the new product that befit the identified high potential opportunity in the market as well as the generation of new ones.

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The process of concept generation involves three steps namely the identification of customer need where the firm finds a match in the customer's segment, the development of technology by the firm and the form envisioning by the firm to see the benefits that the customer is likely to enjoy (Miller, n.d.). To have a feasible new product concept, two of the three inputs are needed and all the three are needed to achieve the new product. However, to achieve the product concept from the many ideas that a product developer might have as a result of a series of product concept generation techniques such as benchmarking and brainstorming, the process of Ideation is involved (Miller, n.d.).Upon the ideation and screening of the possibility of a new opportunity for the creation of a new product, it will be important to establish a purposeful and focused effort to identify new ways to serve the market with a more soft bubble gum (Softerbubble) that would soften in less than a minute. Then it will be important to generate a pool of ideas through activities such as market research, brainstorming, competitor study as well as studying distributors and suppliers (Miller, n.d.). As a result of the ideation process, the problem of the non-existence of a new product/ bubblegum that could soften in less than three minutes that exists in the market will have been identified because those bubble gums that already exist in the market soften in three minutes or more. With the problem at hand, then it will be of importance to evaluate the benefits that the consumer is likely to enjoy upon the introduction of the bubble gum that takes less than a minute to soften up and when the benefits are viable, the need to make a softer bubble gum comes in and this is what results in the identification of a new technology in the form of a chemical that when added will make the bubblegum to soften faster.

Techniques for Generating a New Product Concept

The process of identifying the need, form as well as the technology for solving a market gap in the form of coming up with a new product involves a number of techniques such as brainstorming, benchmarking, market research, study of suppliers and distributors as well as study of the existing competitors to the product (Wang, 2012). Thus, the process of getting ideas within or without an organization about the non-existence of a product with an aim of creating a solution using the above-mentioned techniques is referred to as the generation of a new product concept (Wang, 2012).The techniques of Brainstorming, market research and benchmarking are among the three common techniques that will be used in generating a new product concept regarding the soft bubblegum.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a way of searching for solutions internally. It is a great part of a successful concept generation process that requires a lot of patience since a successful concept generation process needs a new mindset as perfectionism is the enemy being sought (Wilson, 2013). Therefore, brainstorming is an individual idea generation technique that aims at finding a solution for a given problem by generating multiple solutions. The importance of brainstorming lies in the fact that many ideas are generated at this stage and the quality of the ideas is not important at this stage and when the many ideas come to book, they may be blended to come up with a single great idea (Wilson, 2013). Thus, a successful brainstorming process that proceeds in the right manner makes use of the human brain's abilities of free thinking and association.

Brainstorming was invented by Alex Osborn following the frustration by his employees to come up with innovative ideas for advertising campaigns. According to Osborn, brainstorming is a technique that people endeavor to come up with a solution for a given problem by collecting multiple ideas that come to the mind of an individual or a group of participating members (Himmelstein, Good, Khankhanian, & Ratner, 2016). To come up with the best new product concept through brainstorming, a number of principles need to be put in place such as putting emphasis on the number of ideas as quantity ideas are what breeds quality ideas. Under this principle, there will be the need to think about vast ideas of how to solve the problem that exists in the market boldly. The lack of a bubblegum that softens easily stimulated the brain to come up with many ways in which a softer one can be brought to the market to settle the problem. Upon coming up with the many ideas, a combination of them will result to one great idea of adding a chemical to the existing bubblegum that does not soften easily that would make the bubblegum to soften faster with the brand name Softerbubble.

Another principle that will be needed in brainstorming is holding back criticism and judgment either from oneself or others. Therefore, upon ideation and coming up with the concept of adding a chemical to soften the existing bubblegum into a softer one, personal criticism that may arise such as the effects that the chemical may have as well as those that may think that the product will be a copy paste of the existing one need to be held back (Himmelstein, Good, Khankhanian, & Ratner, 2016). Additionally, one has to be open to strange ideas so as to come up with the best new product concept. Even if ideas of cutting the existing bubblegum come my way in the process of looking for ways of solving the existing problem, they need not be despised despite the fact that the idea looks bizarre. However, all the ideas need to be accommodated and evaluated to come up with one great idea like the one of adding a chemical into the existing bubble gum to soften it further. The last principle in brainstorming is that of blending ideas to enhance them. The purpose of these principles in brainstorming for a new concept generation is to lessen social inhibitions within oneself and the society so as to fuel the idea generation. Therefore, to come up with the idea of adding a chemical into the existing bubble gum to make it softer through brainstorming will require a number of steps.

Step One: Decide on a suitable place and facilitator

Brainstorming need to be conducted in a suitable environment so as to get the best output from the participants. In my case, a retail shop or a bubblegum producing would be ideal because it will be possible to get answers to questions that may arise and one may intend to put forth. For, instance one may come to learn the things that make softening of the existing bubblegum faster impossible.

Step Two: Decide on participants

It is important to take time in deciding those people that will participate in the whole process of brainstorming such as those that will answer questions regarding the problem identified that needs to be fixed. For my case, I will use retail shop owners and bubblegum production companies to get answers regarding the problem that currently exists in the market.

Step Three: Specify the problem for which possible solutions need to be found

It will be important to state the problem for which brainstorming is being done clearly. In my case, the creation of a softer bubblegum is the problem that brainstorming is being done for and a clear understanding is needed if the brainstorming process is individual (Wilson, 2013). In the instances where the brainstorming process involves a group, the problem needs to be written on a board so that everyone is in the position to comprehend the objective of the session. Also, to make the brainstorming process successful, there will be the need to have the necessary background information about the product. For creating a softer bubble gum, background information such as;

Why is the non-existence of a softer bubble gum a problem?

Why has the company's manufacturing bubble gums neglected the production of softer ones?

How are the bubble gum producing industries losing from the non-existent of the softer bubble gums?

Additionally, it is important to distinguish the solutions space by coming up with rules, criteria, and boundaries for the ideas to be generated so as to make sure that time is not wasted checking out ideas that are not viable.

Step Four: Set time limit

It will be crucial to state the time limit for the whole process of brainstorming.

Step Five: Let the brainstorming begin

After carrying out the above-mentioned steps, actual brainstorming can now begin. All sought of ideas, criticism, and comments that have come up need to be taken down. It will be important to also include a break in the brainstorming session if it is too long.

Step Six: Choose the best Ideas based on the pre-determined criteria

Upon shortlisting all the ideas, select the best ideas based on the pre-determined criteria. One of the ways I will employ to make sure I select the best ideas for the problem at hand is scoring each of the ideas on a 0 to 5 scale based on how the idea satisfies each of the pre-determined criteria (Wilson, 2013). Once that is done, I will add up the scores to get one with the highest score and take it as the best idea. For my case adding a chemical into the existing bubblegum to make it soften in less than a minute was the ideal idea that scored highest and thus adopted as the product idea to solve the existing market gap.

Market Research

Since new ideas for products such as the softer bubble gum may be conceived on daily basis, many ideas may fail as a result because of poor market research before their development as well as at the stage of introduction to the market (Phillips, 2015). This is because market research helps in ensuring that the product launch is likely to hit the right button on the consumer needs as well as address the unspoken needs of the consumers.

Therefore, the process of generating a new product concept depends on the best understanding of the market and competition, determining the appropriate market strategy as well as targeting the desired customers. In the process of generating the idea of creating a softer bubblegum, a clear market research to have a clear understanding of the market and consumer dynamics will not be an exception because the way the product will be received in the market.

Knowledge of the market and competitors so as to counter the intuitive facts that exist in the market about the existing products. For the case of bubble gums, it is in the public domain that they are just chewed as a way of making someone busy and have no nutritional importance thus no need of wasting much of time thinking on how to improve the product as far as it serves the purpose (Phillips, 2015). As a result, the existing producers make similar products that are only different when it comes to branding and not the quantities in it. Therefore, on the understanding of the existing facts in the market as well as my competitors, I will be in the position to come up with a different bubblegum that softens fast instead on one spending much time in softening. With that, the product is likely to stand in the market if I proceed to create it and thus my idea will have been boosted by the market research conducted.

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