MRKT 4545 New Product Development

3 semester hours

The development of new products represents one of the most promising avenues by which firms can exploit to maintain and expand their market position in today’s dynamic markets. The course provides a practical introduction to the process of designing and marketing new products and it covers the major phases of product development and launch. All of the critical steps in the new product development process will be discussed in detail, including: opportunity identification and analysis, concept development and testing, product design and pre-market testing and forecasting, and the management and control of the product launch. The particular focus of this class is upon the marketing function. Thus, the class will concentrate on market measurement, the use of that information to develop the benefit targets for the new product, and the ultimate development of marketing mixes (product, price, place, promotion) that will improve the chances for success. As such, the class will provide techniques to interface the marketing function with the functions of R&D, design engineering, and manufacturing, but it is beyond the scope of the course to emphasize these functions per se. The course will be relevant to students who expect to work directly in brand or product management as well as those whose interests are in general management and consulting.

Prerequisites: MRKT 3510 , MRKT 3520 , MRKT 3530 .