Innovation and product development are now part of the companies-critical process and the key to how a business grows to be successful and retains its market share. Mastering this process is not just a deep dive but a necessary exploration into critical areas that can make or break a business. Several topics are highly relevant to today’s NPI and product development landscape and must be considered to manage a successful NPI and process.
Consumer preferences and behaviours rapid changes
The market has seen a faster shift in consumer preferences and behaviour. Technology has increased the information consumers may absorb, influencing and altering their purchasing habits. People’s persistent desire to follow market trends and replicate the lives they see on social media has resulted in a massive and rapid transformation in the consumer-centric industry.
Growing consumer demands for more sustainable products and packaging
The new generation of consumers becoming increasingly vocal about their desire to become actively involved in solving environmental problems. The global pandemic and recurring climate-related events have accelerated this shift in consumer behaviors, especially in regions vulnerable to such crises. They are actively looking for products that are consistent with their values and to be more conscious of their purchasing habits to be more sustainable. The consumer become critical on each chain of the products processes, from ethical sourcing to sustainable manufacturing processes.
Localisation strategy
Companies cannot simply transfer and roll out a new product from one area to another when introducing their global brand to different regions and continents. It involves much more than just making sure the packaging is locally translated. Successfully entering a new market requires catering to specific cultural quirks according to local laws, customs, practices, and viewpoints.
Optimising the Speed to Market
In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive industry, one of the most important factors to optimize is speed to market, which refers to how quickly a company can deliver new products from the moment of ideation to the end consumer’s hands. Companies that enter the market early can benefit from various advantages, including the ability to set the game and stay ahead of the competition, an early presence in the industry, and greater adoption and insight into consumer requirements.
Addressing these topics in companies’ business processes can be done by implementing several ideas below:
- Customer-centric NPI process
To be considered consumer-centric, one must be able to address the specific demands of their primary target audience rather than mindlessly following every industry trend. A deeper comprehension of the company’s primary target demographic is required. Understanding local consumer data and market intelligence is a great place to start when designing the right NPI processes. It is also vital to onboard team members with expertise and experience to execute, adapt, and optimize the method.
- An agile supply chain process
Changes and rapid market movement are constants in current market conditions. Therefore, companies’ supply chain systems and processes must be flexible, highly responsive, and adaptable to deliver the desired innovation quickly to the end consumer. An agile supply chain supports and fosters a rapid innovation and product development cycle.
- Collaborative innovation
Involving every supply chain stakeholder early in the NPI process is important to ensure feasibility, cost efficiency, and speed to market. It also promotes transparency, an essential factor in ensuring and communicating sustainable supply chain processes.
- Active Risk Mitigation
Identifying potential threats to the NPI processes and implementing the right prevention strategies to minimize the impact will stabilize and reassure the product development process. Active risk assessment, prioritization, response planning, monitoring, and control will ensure that each possible risk is evaluated, managed, and tracked.
- Leveraging technology
Deploying the right technology to support the NPI and product development process will have many positive impacts. Fostering the power of AI to help the forecasting process, using data analytics and market insight to map the right customer journey addressed by the innovation, or simply streamlining the process to increase the speed to market are some examples of how technology can leverage the overall NPI process.
In conclusion, it is apparent that to build a resilient NPI and product development process in an ever-changing world, companies must transition from product-centric to consumer-centric, digitally enabled, risk-managed, agile, and collaborative in their approach.
Explore how Argon & Co’s New Products service offering can help you implement these strategies and drive innovation here
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