352 Food product development 8.1.7 Understanding the consumer customer, market and societ If the needs, wants, attitudes and behaviour in the target market and in the ociety in general are not identified and understood, and then interwoven into product development practice, then product failure can occur either in the short or long term. The food industry has a history of introducing innovations over the years that cause suspicion by the general public and the consumers, so that food regulations are used to control the product. The immediate customer, whether industrial user or retailer, needs to be integrated into the PD Process from the initial stages of developing the product concept to the final evaluation after launch. In developing new consumer products and indeed in all food product development, the final consumer who buys and eats the food is an integral part of product development. Think break The authors have summarised what they identify as the basic principles of product development from the preceding seven chapters 1. Do you agree with their list? Have you identified any other basic principles? Would you drop some of their basic principle 2. Compare with other principles in the literature, e.g. Cooper and Kleinschmidt's (1995)factors found to drive new product success 3. For your own company, list the basic principles for product development at the present time 4. How have these principles changed in the past and how do you predict they will change in the future? 5. List the basic principles for product development for your company for the next decade 8.2 Evaluating product development Conducting a post-development review of a specific product development project and a regular review of the product development programme, is a very good way of learning what is excellent, all right and bad in the companys product development. For the product development project, the initial product strategy needs to be compared with the final total product in the market; the final product characteristics with the consumer needs and wants; the efficiency of the product development project with the overall implementation of the launch. For the product development programme, some important measures are ratio of major innovations to incremental products key differentiating factors in products and services number of new products in a time period8.1.7 Understanding the consumer, customer, market and society If the needs, wants, attitudes and behaviour in the target market and in the society in general are not identified and understood, and then interwoven into product development practice, then product failure can occur either in the short or long term. The food industry has a history of introducing innovations over the years that cause suspicion by the general public and the consumers, so that food regulations are used to control the product. The immediate customer, whether industrial user or retailer, needs to be integrated into the PD Process from the initial stages of developing the product concept to the final evaluation after launch. In developing new consumer products and indeed in all food product development, the final consumer who buys and eats the food is an integral part of product development. 8.2 Evaluating product development Conducting a post-development review of a specific product development project and a regular review of the product development programme, is a very good way of learning what is excellent, all right and bad in the company’s product development. For the product development project, the initial product strategy needs to be compared with the final total product in the market; the final product characteristics with the consumer needs and wants; the efficiency of the product development project with the overall implementation of the launch. For the product development programme, some important measures are: • ratio of major innovations to incremental products; • key differentiating factors in products and services; • number of new products in a time period; Think break The authors have summarised what they identify as the basic principles of product development from the preceding seven chapters. 1. Do you agree with their list? Have you identified any other basic principles? Would you drop some of their basic principles? 2. Compare with other principles in the literature, e.g. Cooper and Kleinschmidt’s (1995) factors found to drive new product success. 3. For your own company, list the basic principles for product development at the present time. 4. How have these principles changed in the past and how do you predict they will change in the future? 5. List the basic principles for product development for your company for the next decade. 352 Food product development