Best ‘Product Development Brief’ practice for key brands

Background
The procedure as describes is recommended for major brands only, which;
* Structurally suffer in maintaining market share viz competition.
* Development programs do not result in (re) gaining of (lost) market share.
* Insufficient understanding of underlying market dynamics.

The procedure for preparing a product development brief contains three phases;
Phase I is the execution of two market research studies in parallel; Brand- and
Product Mapping. The results of both studies form the input for Phase II.
Phase II is the identification of product-market combinations. Out of that, the
product development brief of the brand under development is drafted.
Phase III is the definition of the scope and boundaries for the product
development brief of the brand under development (Controlled Situation
testing).

Phase I - Brand Mapping

The objective for this market research study is;
* To determine, to what extent consumers agree with the segmentation as
imposed by the business, or, do segment the market differently,
* To establish, how these consumers assign products, which differ in product
functionality’s to the segments as by them defined.

So, to obtain in-depth brand/segment profiles (images and functionality’s) as

perceived by the consumer without any preconceived idea and prompting.
Benchmark questionings to anticipate from this first stage brand mapping are;
1. Do consumers segment ? yes/no
2. If no, what do we do?
3. If yes, do they segment according our expectations?
4. If no, what do we do if the brand under development and/or its main
competitors are in different segments?
5. If yes, do they blindly assign the brand under development and/or its main
competitors to their respective segments?
6. If no, what do we do?
7. If yes, and/or, conclusive answers to the above no’s, go to Phase II.

Phase I - Product Mapping

The main objective of Product Mapping is to translate consumer likes and
dislikes into a meaningful technical briefing. As a result, the effect of product
reformulation on consumer acceptance can be predicted. The study is executed
in two stages;
 2

Stage 1. Generation of consumer language by in-depth interviews

The objective of this stage is to collect all possible words and notions, which
are used by consumers to describe their likes and dislikes of product usage. A
selection of relevant product attributes (>100) are put in a closed questionnaire
for further quantification.

Stage 2. Quantification by closed questionnaire design

The questionnaire is submitted to a large (brand boosted) sample of
respondents (interviewer controlled). Each product attribute will be evaluated
twice, side by side, on an agree disagree scale.
* at first; to what extent do you agree/disagree, that this attribute is present in
the product you normally use,
* secondly; to what extent do you agree/disagree, that this attribute should be
present in an ideal product.

By using statistical techniques such as cluster- and factor analyses, the most
important product dimensions will be highlighted. The brands under study will
be positioned in the ideal product segments thereby defined, so, to identify
opportunities for product improvement. Moreover, a validated set of category
specific product attributes, to be used in further product testing, is developed.

Phase II - this phase comprises three stages;

Stage 1. A complete and coherent interpretation of the Brand- and Product
Mapping studies.
Stage 2. A presentation including recommendations based on the results of
these two studies.
Stage 3. A workshop to identify product-market combinations, moreover, to
draft the product development brief of the brand under development.

Phase III - Controlled Situation Test (CST)

The aim of the CST is an in-depth evaluation of all product functionality’s viz.
existing technologies in a direct consultation and interactive involvement of
local consumers. These product evaluations are executed according a
sequential recycling procedure as a means to fine-tune the product
development brief.

the roadmap to innovation - John Barzilay

Innovation Management & Research Consultancy
Kastanjedreef 38, 3137 PG Vlaardingen - the Netherlands
Tel/fax: +31(0)10.4755419
j.barzilay@imrcons.nl
www.imrcons.nl