Products development and design are about how people come up with product ideas, how the products are designed and developed to meet customer needs, and other predetermine demand. Products in the business environment refer to anything that can when provided to customers satisfies the needs of the people. Entrepreneurs identify market gaps and fill them by finding the product or service and offering it to the markets. Products development and design include the process of modifying a product to serve the needs best and protecting product ideas in the marketplace to ensure one’s product is unique from the rest to gain a market advantage (Collins & Shemko, 2009). There are therefore several phases of product development.
The cycles of product development include new to the firm, extension of a product line, enhancement of present commodities, and new to the industry product development. New to the firm products refer to those products that a company ventures into that are already in existence on the broader market. The firm starts providing a product already in the market such that the product is only new to the business. New to the firm products are more comfortable to design and develop since a firm can borrow ideas from companies that are already providing the product in the market (Claessens, 2016). A good example is a production of when coca cola started providing drinking water. The new to the market category involves a firm developing a product for the first time such that it is new to the whole market. Development of original goods in the market is essential for the progress of a business. A firm that introduces a new product for the entire market and adheres to quality product design and development usually has a market advantage on the product giving it a lifetime competitive advantage. New to the market products are more complicated to develop and design since there provision in the market is new.t for the first time (Bhuiyan, 2011). An excellent example of a new product to the market is the invention of the internet by Arpa.
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The other category of product development in an organization is the improvement of existing products. The growth of an existing product refers to product development where a company seeks to improve on a product it is already providing to improve its quality. Corporations improve outcomes through enhancing quality by increasing size, enhancing usability or altering the composition to a more suitable type of the product among others, which helps to give a firm’s product inimitability in the market (Reguia, 2014). An excellent example of product development through improving the existing product is Apple innovativeness in enhancing their iPhone by enhancing its features to provide a better more advanced gadget for its customers. The last category of product development is the extension of a product line. Expansion of product line means that the company increases the range of products they offer to give them a broader market base. A business can do this by venturing into more than a single line of products (Vukasovič, 2012). For instance, Dollar shaves Club extended its product line to provide personal grooming products such as shaving creams on top of the razors (Pigato, 2015).
In conclusion, product development is a process that occurs in different steps from the idea to its implantation. The method of product development objective is to give a firm competitive advantage in an industry by proving more goods, better good or exclusive provision of a particular product. The objectives differ with each product development category as companies employ varying strategies to achieve their goals. Therefore, product development categories are a way of making the firm better compete in the market and ensure the general provision of better products.
References
Bhuiyan, N. (2011). A framework for successful new product development. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 4 (4), 746-770.
Claessens, M. (2016). Categories of New products-what is a new product? Marketing Insider. Retrieved on 29 January 2018 from https://marketing-insider.eu/categories-of-new-products/.
Collins, K. M., & Shemko, J. (2009). Product design and development. In Exploring Business. Pearson Education.
Pigato, J. (2015) How 9 successful companies keep their customers. Entrepreneur . Retrieved on 29 January 2018 from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243764.
Reguia, C. (2014). Product innovation and the competitive advantage. European Scientific Journal , ESJ, 10 (10).
Vukasovič, T. (2012). Launching of a new product with the brand extension strategy . Retrieved on 29 January 2018 from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a598/4304e77fc8c86bbe9f6a3169a634818c5863.pdf.
