end–of–chapter resources

Reviewing the Key Terms

business analysis: A review of the sales, costs, and profit projections for a new product to find out whether these factors satisfy the company's objectives.
commercialization: Introducing a new product into the market.
concept testing: Testing new-product concepts with a group of target consumers to find out if the concepts have strong consumer appeal.
decline stage: The product life-cycle stage in which a product's sales decline.
fads: A fashion that enters quickly, is adopted with great zeal, peaks early, and declines very quickly.
fashion: A currently accepted or popular style in a given field.
growth stage: The product life-cycle stage in which a product's sales start climbing quickly.
idea generation: The systematic search for new-product ideas.
idea screening: Screening new-product ideas in order to spot good ideas and drop poor ones as soon as possible.
introduction stage: The product life-cycle stage in which the new product is first distributed and made available for purchase.
marketing strategy development: Designing an initial marketing strategy for a new product based on the product concept.
maturity stage: The stage in the product life cycle in which sales growth slows or levels off.
new-product development: The development of original products, product improvements, product modifications, and new brands through the firm's own R&D efforts.
product concept: The idea that consumers will favor products that offer the most quality, performance, and features and that the organization should therefore devote its energy to making continuous product improvements.
product development: Developing the product concept into a physical product in order to ensure that the product idea can be turned into a workable product.
product life cycle (PLC): The course of a product's sales and profits over its lifetime. It involves five distinct stages: product development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.
sequential product development: A new-product development approach in which one company department works to complete its stage of the process before passing the new product along to the next department and stage.
simultaneous (or team-based) product development: An approach to developing new products in which various company departments work closely together, overlapping the steps in the product-development process to save time and increase effectiveness.
style: A basic and distinctive mode of expression.
test marketing: The stage of new-product development in which the product and marketing program are tested in more realistic market settings.