Idea Generation - what do you think?

I think the New Product Ddevelopment  process is not linear, as portrayed by many of the models.  So it follows, that idea generation, the 'first task' in the process is rarely a true beginning, set on a blank page.What do you think?  What is your experience with NPD and or idea generation?

Before the 'first task', new product strategy and objectives have been set, all within the context of a organisation's strategic plan, which itself is based upon its operating, competitive and market environment. So, idea generation will be inevitably imbued with opportunities and constraints that define what can realistically be achieved. A simple example is that, without an active and resourced idea generating department, radical ideas will rarely develop, nor will a organisation have the know-how to realise any ideas which do come to the fore. Furthermore, the results of strategic tasks of environmental scanning and market intelligence gathering should provide a fertile source of new ideas which underpins the 'idea generation' process.

As well as having no 'discrete beginning', idea generation does not stop as the NPD process unfolds.The NPD process is highly iterative. New ideas, better ideas reformulated may appear out of every stage. They do not conveniently appear in the idea generation stage only.

Ideas are not always of the same degree of newness, nor do they always apply to the product itself. Newness may refer to technologies and therefore to the product, but it may also refer to markets. Another form of newness for an idea relates to the new business model - the pursuit of a totally different approach to business. So, the newness is not always a product idea. Another example is how developments in manufacturing leads, eventually, to new products. The new ideas in irradiation for food preservation led to new food products, which is challenging the traditional ways of preserving food, with sugar, salt or refrigeration. The more emphasis is put on the negative effects of sugar and salt, the greater this potential challenge will be.

Ideas' do not always have to be 'generated'. The whole process of selling corporate and new product strategies sets out ideas for development. Technologists and scientists working in research laboratories are working with ideas constantly, designers are at the creative -idea generation - heart of the organisation, sales and marketing personnel are in constant contact with new ideas both from competitors and from customers. This means that, far from being 'generated', as if they do not already exist, many ideas really have to be managed.

Generating new ideas involves two central themes:   

• locating sources of new ideas and
• activating those sources.

Promotion and Persuasion

To develop an effective promotional campaign, a firm must select the right spokesperson to deliver a compelling message through appropriate channels or media.

Source, message, and channel factors are controllable elements in the communications model.  The persuasion matrix helps marketers see how each controllable element interacts with the consumer’s response process.’ The matrix has two sets of variables.  Independent variables are the controllable components of the communication process; dependent variables are the steps a receiver goes through in being persuaded.

Marketers can choose the person or source who delivers the message, the type of message appeal used, and the channel or medium.  Although they can’t control the receiver, they can select their target audience.  The destination variable is included because the initial message recipient may pass on information to others, such as friends or associates, through word of mouth.

Promotional planners need to know how decisions about each independent variable influence the stages of the response hierarchy so they don’t enhance one stage at the expense of another.  A humorous message may gain attention but result in decreased comprehension if consumers fail to process its content.  Many ads that use humour, sexual appeals, or celebrities capture consumers’ attention but result in poor recall of the brand name or message.  The following examples illustrate decisions that can be evaluated with the persuasion matrix.

1.         Receiver/comprehension: Can the receiver comprehend the ad?  Marketers must know their target market to make their messages clear and understandable.  A less educated person may have more difficulty interpreting a complicated message. jargon may be unfamiliar to some receivers.  The more marketers know about the target market, the more they see which words, symbols, and expressions their customers understand.

2.         Channel/presentation: Which media will increase presentation?  A top-rated, prime-time TV program is seen by nearly millions of households each week. But the important point is how well will it reach the marketer’s target audience.

3. Message/yielding: What type of message will create favourable attitudes or feelings?  Marketers generally try to create agreeable messages that lead to positive feelings toward the product.  Humorous messages often put consumers in a good mood and evoke positive feelings that may become associated with the brand being advertised.  Music adds emotion that makes consumers more receptive to the message.  Many advertisers use explicit sexual appeals designed to arouse consumers or suggest they can enhance their attractiveness to the opposite sex.  Some marketers compare their brand to the competition.

4.         Source/attention: Who will be effective in getting consumers’ attention?  The large number of ads we are bombarded with every day makes it difficult for advertisers to break through the clutter.  Marketers deal with this problem by using sources who will attract the target audience’s attention-actors, athletes, rock stars, or attractive models.

Source Factors

 We use the term source to mean the person involved in communicating a marketing message, either directly or indirectly.   A direct source is a spokesperson or endorser who delivers a message and/or demonstrates a product.  An indirect source, say, a model, doesn’t actually deliver a message but draws attention to and/or enhances the appearance of the ad.  Some ads use neither a direct nor an indirect source; the source is the organisation with the message to communicate.  Since most research focuses on individuals as a message source, our examination of source factors follows this approach.

Companies are very careful when selecting individuals to deliver their selling messages.  Many firms spend huge sums of money for a specific person to endorse their product or company.  They also spend millions recruiting, selecting, and training salespeople to represent the company and deliver sales presentations.  They recognise that the characteristics of the source affect the sales and advertising message.

Marketers try to select individuals whose traits will maximise message influence.  The source may be knowledgeable, popular, and/or physically attractive; typify the target audience; or have the power to reward or punish the receiver in some manner.  Herbert Kelman developed three basic categories of source attributes: credibility, attractiveness, and power.   Each influences the recipient’s attitude or behaviour through a different process

Source Credibility

Credibility is the extent to which the recipient sees the source as having relevant knowledge, skill, or experience and trusts the source to give unbiased, objective information.

There are two important dimensions to credibility, expertise and trustworthiness.

A communicator seen as knowledgeable-someone with expertise-is more persuasive than one with less expertise.  But the source also has to be trustworthy-honest, ethical, and believable.  The influence of a knowledgeable source will be lessened if audience members think he or she is biased or has underlying personal motives for advocating a position (such as being paid to endorse a product).

One of the most reliable effects found in communications research is that expert and/or trustworthy sources are more persuasive than sources who are less expert or trustworthy.  Information from a credible source influences beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and/or behaviour through a process known as internalisation, which occurs when the receiver adopts the opinion of the credible communicator since he or she believes information from this source is accurate.  Once the receiver internalises an opinion or attitude, it becomes integrated into his or her belief system and may be maintained even after the source of the message is forgotten.

A highly credible communicator is particularly important when message recipients have a negative position toward the product, service, company, or issue being promoted, because the credible source is likely to inhibit counter-arguments.   Reduced counter-arguing should result in greater message acceptance and persuasion.

Managing the Mature Product

The onset of aggressive competition in the growth phase of a product life cycle may well lead to the beginning of premature maturity for the innovator who first introduced the new product to the marketplace. Thus, while industry sales continue to grow rapidly, the innovator's sales may plateau out and call for a quite different set of tactics from those appropriate in the growth phase. In this topic we examine in some detail what factors result in the slowing down of the growth phase, the characteristics of maturity and the options available to the product manager to exploit fully the opportunities available in the mature phase of product and market development.

Maturity - Its Nature and Causes

As the market approaches saturation so the growth rate slows down until eventually it stabilises at a sales level equivalent to the replacement rate together with any natural growth in market size due to increases in population. Usually this is the longest single phase of the life cycle and will normally be proportionate to the length of the gestation/introduction phase. That this should be so is logical in that the very forces which accelerate or delay the acceptance of a new product invariably hasten or delay its decline. That said, it is also true that in the same way that medical science has been singularly successful in extending the mature phase of the human life cycle, so product managers have been particularly successful in prolonging the life of mature products.

It is this perhaps this very success which has been cited by critics as a reason for dismissing the concept as not having any practical value. The OLC/ PLC charts the progress of an innovation in the absence of managerial intervention. Our continued emphasis upon its utility means that by identifying the stage of the life cycle we can define the strategic options available to the product manager and so develop effective action plans. Further, by identifying the transition from one stage to the next we can judge when it will be beneficial to modify one strategy for another to take account of the changing conditions in the marketplace.

As growth slows and the product enters maturity, profit margin will begin to decline. (We emphasise margins because mature products usually make up the backbone of a firm's product portfolio and are frequently the major source of cash to sustain current and future operations: hence, 'cash cow' in the BCG growth share matrix.)

Possible reasons for the decline in profit margins:

• Increasing number of competitive products leading to over-capacity and intensive competition.
• Market leaders under growing pressure from smaller firms.
• Strong increase in R&D to find better versions of the product.
• Cost economics used up.
• Decline in product distinctiveness.
• Dealer apathy and disenchantment with a product with declining sales.
• Changing market composition where the loyalty of those first to adopt begins to waver.

Because of this profit erosion the industry tends to stabilise, with a set of well-entrenched competitors all seeking a competitive advantage, the absence of above-normal profits deterring any further new entrants. However, before examining the strategic options available to these entrenched competitors it will be useful to look more closely at the symptoms and causes of maturity

The increasing number of competitive products leading to over-capacity and intensive competition is the natural reaction of suppliers in a market faced with slowing sales and a perceived limit to growth. As predicted in our life cycle model, as a phenomenon approaches a limit to growth its behaviour becomes erratic ('hunting') as it seeks to avoid the limit or find a way around it. Once it is appreciated that the market is of a finite size and approaching saturation, individual suppliers will recognise that further increases in their sales can only come from increased market share. While demand is growing rapidly all suppliers can benefit from this without worrying unduly about the sales of competitors — it is a win—win situation. But, when sales stabilise, the only route to continued growth is through aggressive competition for market share which, inevitably, is a win—lose situation. In these circumstances individual suppliers will resort to predatory tactics — product proliferation, discounting, own label manufacture, etc. — in an attempt to consolidate and protect their share. Ironically, these tactics tend to accelerate maturity rather than stave it off.

The main reason why this should be so is that by concentrating on product, price and place, suppliers reduce their emphasis upon promotion. This is not to suggest that this reduction in promotional support is not justified, as it will usually be obvious that spending money to support new products will be more effective than seeking to prop up old ones. That said, the reduction in promotional support will often lead to a contraction in overall demand as the product loses the front-of-mind awareness, stimulated by advertising, so that usage will gradually decline. This phenomenon was quite marked in the market for FMCG in UK supermarkets during the late 1980s and early 1990s. As the major retailers increased the number of own brands, the branded-goods manufacturers' share of market declined. Faced with declining sales many manufacturers reduced their promotional spend and this was paralleled by a reduction in sales volume for the product category as a whole, i.e. consumers consumed less. This decline in volume sales impacted on the retailers' overall profitability with the result that many pegged the proportion of own label products so as not to discourage branded goods manufacturers from promoting the generic product — instant coffee, breakfast cereals, canned foods, etc. — through the medium of their own branded product — Nescafe, Kelloggs, Heinz, etc. In the case of Heinz it also prompted the firm to use modern direct marketing methods to deliver promotional incentives direct to consumers, thereby encouraging them to 'pull' Heinz brands through the distribution channel.

Market saturation is not simply a case of having reached all potential consumers of the product in question. In reality sales will usually plateau before all potential users have tried the product. Drawing on the concept of adopter categories introduced previously, it is quite likely that by the time laggards are entering the market the innovators and early adopters will be becoming bored with the product and so consuming less of it, or even switching to other, possibly completely new products. This trend is likely to be accelerated by changes in the distribution channel as wholesalers and retailers become less willing to carry the product, as it offers them lower margins than other, newer products in the growth phase of their life cycle. Given that there is a limit to the amount of display space available in a retail outlet, most retailers will seek to carry that assortment of products which maximises the return from the space available. Consequently, they will tend to reduce the space available to slow-moving products and those with low margins in favour of faster-moving products and those with higher margins.

Some years ago one of the authors (Baker, 1980) proposed a series of marketing maxims, one of which is that 'consumption is a function of availability'. Clearly, this is a truism but the implications are obvious. The bigger and more prominent the in-store display of a product the greater the likelihood that consumers will notice it and be prompted to buy. The obverse is equally true: as retailers reduce display space for mature brands so they are likely to hasten their decline. Further, the retailer is likely to use the evidence of declining sales to put pressure on the manufacturer to provide price incentives to boost its purchase, thereby reducing its profitability still further and encouraging the manufacturer to turn to other, more profitable products.

Despite the pressures on mature products described above, their classification as cash cows makes it clear that a mature product can be a considerable asset to the firm and an essential part of a balanced portfolio. It is for this reason that much thought and effort has been devoted to the management of mature products. Indeed, the discussion to be found in most marketing management textbooks implicitly assumes that one is dealing with such a product and focuses on how to manipulate the marketing mix to best advantage — it is the development and marketing of new products (usually the subject of a single topic) that is regarded as the exceptional case. The effect of this concentration has been the prolonging of the mature stage of the PLC beyond what might be anticipated if events were allowed to take their normal course.

Four basic mature product strategies are available to the marketing manager:

• An offensive or 'take-off' strategy
• A defensive strategy
• A recycle strategy
• A stretching and harvesting strategy.

Better Social Networking Communications

Social Networking is a big topic, but just saying things will not bring you the objectives you are after.  On the contrary - you may damage your realtionships - not grow them.. Here are some tips:

©  Talk with people, not at them. -        As a first step to encourage response, form a picture of your listener (or imagine them if you know them) and use this to remove the feeling of talking to a disembodied voice.

©  Remember to listen. -  Don't talk all the time.  You cannot talk and listen simultaneously.

©  Clarify as you proceed.  Ask questions, check back as you go along -it may appear impolite to ask later.

©  Maintain a two-way flow. -  Do not interrupt, let them finish each point - but make sure, if -they are talking at some length, that they know you are listening.  Say 'Yes' or 'That's right' to show you are still there.

©  Concentrate. - Shut out distractions, interruptions and 'noises off'.  It may be apparent to your listener if you are not concentrating on him - it will appear as lack of interest.

©  Do not over react. - It is easy to jump to conclusions or make assumptions about a person you cannot see - resist this temptation.

©  'Read between the lines.'  - Do not just listen to what is said, but also what is meant.  Make sure you catch any nuance, observe every reaction to what you are saying.

Better Telephone Communication

Any telephone conversation is simply two-way communication.  It is surely not difficult, after all some people talk on the phone for hours and hours. 

On the other hand, like any communication, there may be a good deal hanging on it.  Any problem will dilute the chances of success.  And the problems of 'voice-only' communication are considerable, and in some cases prohibitive.  Try describing to someone how to tie a necktie for example - without any gestures or demonstration.  It pays, therefore, to consider all the factors that can make vocal communication successful, and not underrate it as ,simply a telephone call.

Such factors are perhaps best reviewed in terms of how you use the telephone itself, your voice and manner, obtaining and using feedback, and planning.  The telephone distorts the voice, exaggerating the rate of speech and heightening the tone.  You must talk into the mouthpiece in a clear, normal voice (if you are a woman, it can help to pitch your voice lower.) It is surprising how many things can interfere with the simple process of talking directly into the mouthpiece: smoking; eating; trying to write; holding a file or book open at the correct page and holding the phone; sorting through the correct change in a call box; allowing others in the room to interrupt; or allowing a bad-quality line to disrupt communication (it is better to phone back).  This is all so obvious, yet so easy to get a little wrong, thus reducing the effectiveness of communication.

  

Voice and Manner

Remember that on the phone you have to rely on your voice and manner in making an impression.  None of the other factors of personality are perceptible.  Here are some suggestions to help you.

Speak at a slightly slower rate than usual.

Speaking too rapidly makes it easier to be misunderstood and also mistrusted, although speaking too slowly can make the listener impatient or irritated.

Smile.  Use a warm tone of voice.

Though a smile cannot be seen, it does change the tone of your voice.  Make sure you sound pleasant, efficient and perhaps most important, interested and enthusiastic about the conversation.  Enthusiasm is contagious.

Get the emphasis right.

Make sure that you emphasise the parts of the communication that are important to the listener, or for clarity.  You only have your voice to give the emphasis you want.

Ensure clarity.

Make sure you are heard, especially with names, numbers etc.  It is easy to confuse Ss and Fs for instance, or find 15 per cent taken to mean 50 per cent.

Be positive.

Have the courage of your convictions.  Do not say: 'possible', 'maybe', 'I think', or 'that could be' (watch this one, professionals are apt to be far too circumspect)

Be concise.

Ensure a continuous flow of information, but in short sentences, a logical sequence and one thing at a time.  Watch for and avoid the wordiness that creeps in when we need time to think, e.g. 'at this moment in time' (now), ,along the lines of' (like).

Avoid jargon.

Whether jargon is of the organisation (e.g. abbreviated description of a department name), the specialisation (e.g. technical descriptions of tax regulations or legal procedures for instance), or general (e.g. phrases like 'I'll see to that immediately' - in five minutes or five hours?  'Give me a moment' -literally?).  At least check that the other person understands they may not risk losing face by admitting you are being too technical for them, and a puzzled look will not be visible.  Jargon can too easily become a prop to self-confidence.

Be descriptive.

Anything that conjures up images in the mind of the listener will stimulate additional response from someone restricted to the single stimulus of voice.

Use gestures.

Your style will come across differently depending on your position.  For example, there may even be certain kinds of call that you can make better standing up rather than sitting down, such as debt collecting or laying down the law perhaps. (Really!  Try it, it works.)

Get the right tone.

Be friendly without being flippant.  Be efficient, courteous, whatever is called for.

Be natural.

Be yourself.  Avoid adopting a separate, contrived, telephone 'persona'.  Consider the impression you want to give: Mature?  Expert?  Authoritative?  In command of the detail?  Try and project just that.

Your intention is to prompt the other person into action.  You should speak naturally in a way that is absolutely clear.  Here are some useful additional rules.

©  Be courteous.

            Always be courteous.

©  Be efficient.

            Project the right image.

©  Be personal.

            Use 'I' - say what you will do.

©  Be appreciative.

            'Thank you' is a good phrase (but not gushing).

Good Communication Principles

Practise The Following Communication Principles:

1)         Develop trust, it must be earned.

2)         Openly communicate more than you have to or need to.

3)         Be as specific as possible in the words or phrases you use.

4)         Supply whatever background information people need.

5)         Be absolutely honest with all team members.

6)         Actively share information and feelings.

7)         Talk to employees as one adult to another.

8)         Always select employee ideas, suggestions and reactions,

9)         Follow through.

10)       Recognise that the job of the manager is to remove road blocks, irritants and frustrations, not to put them there.

The Top Sins of Communication

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Here are the top ten "Sins" of communication.

1) Commanding: Ordering people around tends to produce resentment and rage.

2) Threatening: Statements like .. "If you don't .. you had better .. or else.." encourage rebellion and attempts to beat the system.

3) Giving Unsolicited Advice: The only advice that's valued is advice that's asked for.

4)  Vague language: "We need to come up with a better system" .. produces confusion.  Is the Manager going to do it, is the employee getting the assignment .... what?

5)  Withholding information: "That's management and confidential".  This engenders the response   'my manager doesn't care about me, I'll get my information from people who do.'

6)  Name calling: "You are careless" .. "You are getting lazy"  .. creates the reaction, 'who do you think you are?'

7)  Patronising: Even a compliment may be taken the wrong way,

8)  Playing Psychologist: "Your problem is .." creates the response, 'you don't really know .. take care of your own organisation.'

9)  Avoiding Issues: "Let me check it out and I'll get back to YOU."   This causes people to think .. 'here we go again.'

10)  Sarcastic comments: "I'm glad to see you finally made it on time! "