Gaps within the Market
This is where Jaguar will find a gap in the market. Jaguar will then evaluate the gap to see if it would be viable to fill the gap with a new or improved product, once a decision as been made Jaguar will set about conducting further research and developing a new or existing product.
Different and Legal Quality Standards
There are many different organisations and government bodies that represent the general public and have been set up to ensure the public are safe when using certain products. One example of a government body is the British Standards Institute (BSI), the BSI will tell Jaguar what is required of them, like for example the interior of the car must not catch fire within so many minutes and if it does then the car will fail the test and Jaguar by law will have to make alterations before the product can be re-tested and then released for sale.
Lifecycle – Maturity and Decline Stages
This is where Jaguar will have a product that is reaching the titled stages, maturity and decline, so Jaguar will not always look immediately to the production of a new product but the development of an existing product, any company that is as big as Jaguar knows the price to pay for being naive and thinking a products life will be eternal, because every product whatever it is will have a lifecycle and when the product hits maturity the product needs either developing or replacing.
Actions of a Competitor
Perhaps one of the clearest reasons for a company like Jaguar to make new products. Car manufactures like in any other industry are branded whether they like it or not, there are two brands; Market Leader, or Market Follower, a company like Jaguar has got the reputation of being a Market Leader and wishes to keep this, so they will make every effort to make sure that they continue to produce high quality cars that are new to the market. This leads back to he innovation and initiative part of this document as consumers like to see a new product that is innovative and that not many other people have and also a product that no other company has brought out yet.
It is however a well known fact that any new product will cost money to research, produce and then sell so many companies are put off because costs can easily spiral out of control and also there is the underlying risk that the product will fail, there are theories like Ansoff’s Matrix and the Boston Matrix which identify the need for a product but do not identify the solution, there is also the Product Lifecycle. There are four main times in a products lifecycle; they are Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. As a product reaches the early stages of maturity the company in this case Jaguar should be researching the ways to improve an existing product line or to create a completely new product. This is a well know theory and states that as one product begins its decline the company should be ready to launch a new product which will keep sales at a good rate.
There are eight factors to the Development Process of a product, they are as follows:
- Research and Development
- Idea Generation
- Idea Distillation
- Concept Definition
- Strategic Analysis
- Concept Development (Prototyping)
- Test Marketing
- Product Launch
Research and Development
Research will be conducted to see whether or not a new product is needed, if it is where the gap in the market is, and if they have the resources to fill the gap in the market.
Idea Generation
This is where staff, focus groups and other groups of people will sit around a table for example and will bounce ideas off one an other in order to come up with viable ideas that could be turned into products.
Idea Distillation
This is where ideas that are not viable are discarded until there is only one or two ideas remaining in which the company in this case Jaguar will then move onto the next step which is Concept Definition.
The graph above shows a clear example that as time goes on the number of ideas decreases, eventually leaving one or two ideas that will be the most successful.
Concept Definition
Jaguar will then come up with the concept of the product; is it going to be a brand new state of the art sports car, or is it going to be a brand new state of the art executive saloon car, once the concept is decided upon then the next stage of the process can begin, Strategic Analysis.
Strategic Analysis
At this stage Jaguar need to decide that they are going to go ahead with the product development and at this stage the remaining designs that Jaguar have will be evaluated and costing sheets will be drawn up so that Jaguar can decide on how much money they should budget to continue with the project.
Concept Development (Prototyping)
The concept will then be developed further to the stage of making a prototype; the prototype will then be tested, so Jaguar will build the brand new state of the art sports car and will then test it for safety and other requirements that it has put in place, when this is complete Jaguar are then able to move onto the next stage of the product development which is Test Marketing.
Test Marketing
This is where Jaguar will test the product with the public, people who are testers for Jaguar will be issued with the new product and they will test the car for several things like; comfort, design, easy to drive, cheap to run and other aspects, then Jaguar after a set period of time will request the car back and will ask for the testers report, from the report Jaguar will then be able to make any changes if Jaguar feel that changes are required, after this Jaguar will then move onto the most important stage of product development, Product Launch.
Product Launch
This is the make or break point for Jaguar, the product has been launched, and the advertising campaign has been rolled out on the television, the newspapers and the radio, but if the product is not bought then Jaguar are in trouble as for Jaguar they may be depending on the success of the new product as if the car fails to sell then this could spell the end of the road for Jaguar.
