New Product Failure and Success

Too many new food product introductions fall far short of the developer’s expectations, visions and hopes. To minimize disappointments, the new food product development process should be a disciplined exercise in which the market environment is truly and fully comprehended. Opportunities in consumer desires and needs should be identified and clearly defined. Marketing research should be employed as a tool to qualitatively and quantitatively specify the product’s role among consumers. However important is information derived from marketing research, enough data to render perfect decisions are never available. Thus, the developer should never be paralyzed by either a dearth of information or a plethora of data.