Nestle New Product Development Critique

1. Critique Nestle's new product development process for pasta and for pizza.

Nestle's MRD was responsible for monitoring a product from the idea generation phase to the product launch step. The new product development processes consisted of 7 steps organized in a logical and sequential format which gives the MRD a clear direction for what is required for each product development cycle. Some of the key observations that can be made about their product development strategies are as follows:

?• The idea was well tested i.e. Nestle conducted focus groups as well as used secondary data to refine the concept and ensure its marketability. This allowed them to design a positioning as well as targeting map fro their new products. Concepts such as Brand name to be used in the case of the Pasta launch were a result of the focus group studies.

?• Once the product was found to be feasible the MRD would use in-depth component research surveys to collect data about customer likes and dislikes their perceptions as well as other market data such as purchase intent, overall liking etc. Using surveys allows them to collect data from a wide geographical area with minimum bias from respondents. This gave them good data about the value proposition for their products as well as perceived value in the minds of the customers.

?• The product was also extensively tested, users were given free trial samples and in ?– home testing was done. The fact that the brand was never disclosed to the customer allowed Nestle to collect honest opinions about their product from their customers. Also using this technique allows for better sample control as well as reduces measurement error since the population used for sampling would usually be representative of the target customer.

?• The BASES studies were an important part of Nestl?©'s product development strategy; the BASES 1 study was estimated to calculate volumes and market penetration rates for the product. Important factors such as trial rate, repeat rate etc were calculated using