“Innovation Desperately Needed”

Posted by Rahna on March 22, 2010 under New Product Development, Strategy | Be the First to Comment

With all the research into consumer insights, and the type of strategic work that we do, new product development is a natural extension of what we can bring to clients.  The following article by Jack Loechner discusses the new product processes and how we can help our clients grow their businesses.

“Innovation Desperately Needed”

That’s what today’s business community is crying for.  Given the Great Recession and the state of business, today’s companies must produce growth through innovation.  Performance improvement and expense reduction have already been effectively implemented and owners, directors and stockholders are expecting a rebound out of the recession—one  that will require bold,  aggressive, maybe even risky efforts.  How can you innovate without a team behind you?  The current configuration of many of today’s companies has left a void in advance planning that an independent business development company can fill.

Most “make and sell” companies have these things in common: 

• The majority of profits are generated by 20% of the current product line.  A core business dependency that has traditionally been considered the” bread-and-butter” 
• Product Development is either stagnant (without a proprietary breakthrough) or is evolving from a competitive product in the marketplace whose lifecycle has usually matured by the time your new product reaches the market (a me-too product introduced too late). 
• The weakest 20% of the product line is expected to be discontinued near the end of the current sales or production cycle.  These products usually serve a limited customer segment, could be replaced by a more profitable alternative, and don’t get attention because they don’t “seem important.” 
• The performance of the remaining 60% of the product line could be improved, but every department of the company has a different recommended approach to change; sales wants a lower price, marketing suggests new packaging, the user would like better performance, manufacturing needs longer runs or higher volumes, distribution prefers a better deal, finance insists on increasing the margins, and QC wants improvements in reliability.  Every one of these suggestions has some merit but treats only the symptoms.

Let us help you.  We understand that a situation analysis is required before taking action.  In addition to the accurate analysis of the symptoms of product weaknesses, and uncovering the underlying problems, a tactical approach to the profitable solution is necessary.

Beacon Marketing can now implement an accelerated scientific process with your integrated team to discover workable new opportunities to meet your company criteria of investment, time constraints and profitability requirements.  We do this by bringing an interdisciplinary growth and development program designed, refined and implemented with innate business savvy, years of experience in operational skills and grounded in consumer learning.

We will create a custom program for each client and include the team in this innovation cycle.  This process considers the best interests of everyone involved from the production line, to distribution, to the end user.  The program is an interactive project with your integrated team from general management, sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing and finance to uncover specific opportunities for profitable growth in your business.  Here are some of the outcomes we can guarantee: 

• New business growth opportunities
• Proprietary new products
• Strategic marketing improvements
• Easily implemented minor modifications to the core business
• Longer-term new business opportunities. 

Please give us a call if you’d like to discuss how we might be able to help you innovate your way to business growth.