Optimal Marketing for Really New Products: Using a Consumer Perspective to Improve Communications

(First paragraph) Twenty years ago two inventors set out to improve upon one of the most ubiquitous of all inventions “the wheel.” Franco Sbarro and Dominique Mottas separately patented two new designs that eliminated the central hub. The appearance of the hubless (or centerless) wheel is striking and with the development of prototype cars, motorcycles, and bikes developers were excited about the prospects for their really new products. In fact, the web site for the Osmos Orbital wheel touts such positive keys to success as: “level of innovativeness, use improvement, market stability, broad target market, and competitive prices and quality such that “the success of the product will be guaranteed.” Of course, these products have yet to make any dent in the approximate 4 million wheels that are produced daily around the world, highlighting the challenges that even something as straightforward as “reinventing the wheel” does not guarantee success in the marketplace. In fact, one of the facts that we would like to assert with respect to really new products is that the decisions that managers face with respect to the marketing strategies that are employed will play a greater role in the success (or failure) of a really new product.

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