Product innovation and development strategies

This chapter addresses productive innovation and development, which can play a pivotal role in marketing strategy. Innovation is based upon technological superiority and posits that buyers are most interested in goods and services that provide the best performance, features, quality, and value for money. Central to this is the concept of new product development (NPD), a creative activity towards which there are many different approaches. The chapter then considers issues related to market disruption, market leadership, categories of innovation, and customization. A discussion of customization, in a marketing strategy context, inevitably leads to an assessment of mass customization, which is similar to mass production in terms of its basic structure, with some significant differences. Instead of selecting one variety of product or service, the buyer provides unique information so that the product or service can be tailored to varying degrees.