Pace University

New Product Development

Your project is to develop a new product concept for the desserts division of a food company to help them extend their dessert brand. You will also craft a marketing plan for the new product you are proposing. She and her colleagues from the food company, together with some independent reviewers, will decide which of the new desserts the food company would be most likely to introduce based on your reports.

You will begin your project by researching consumer perceptions of the dessert brand, consumer behavior with respect to purchasing and consuming desserts, and consumers' needs and wants in the dessert category. You will use both secondary and primary resources to do this. You will then analyze this information and brainstorm to create a list of possible ideas for new dessert branded products. Through informal testing and discussion, you will narrow this list down to two potential product ideas.

The next step in your project will be to test these two concepts with your proposed target market. You will develop concept statements for each proposed product, then develop a concept testing questionnaire for each. These concept test questionnaires should be as similar as possible. The questions should be basically identical and the format of the concept statements should be the same (i.e., if you use a picture, use one for both; if you use a persuasive approach, use this approach for both, etc.) Your concept test should have appropriate questions so that you can use it to help with 1) deciding which of the two concepts is most likely to succeed, 2) product diagnostics (improving the product concept and developing product features and positioning), 3) pricing the product, and 4) forecasting product sales.

After conducting the concept tests, you will decide which product concept you think offers the most potential and develop a marketing plan for that proposed product. This plan will include selection of an appropriate target market for the product, further definition of the product and appropriate positioning, a name for the product, a price, a distribution strategy, a packaging concept, and an advertising and promotion plan.

Resources available to you to help with your work on this project include the Kerin et al. text provided on your course CD, a Harvard Business School online course set up for you with appropriate readings, website links provided on the External Links tab of the course Blackboard site, and anything else you can find on the World Wide Web or elsewhere. A list suggesting appropriate Kerin chapters and HBSP readings for each part of the project is provided separately on the Assignments tab. The External Links tab is organized by section as well. The Assignments tab also includes a detailed list of project deliverables and an RFP outlining the company's expectations.