A Study on the Marketing Strategy for a New Product Development and Launch in the Market

Abstract

In today’s market careful planning and a good product strategy are essential to help you succeeding in the market. Companies everywhere are competing more than ever to develop new and unique products or services and gain a higher position in the market. Companies develop a high number of new products every year. Most of these products fail to secure competitive advantages and end up being just another high cost for the company. The aim of this thesis is to develop a product development and launch process for Company X, Finnish supplier of roll handling equipment for the paper industry. The need for this thesis came during the author´s working experience with the company. Company X is a young company that creates innovative products for the industry. Developing new unique products that offer several benefits to the customers is the company mission and at the same time one of the main strengths. As the new product development is a continuous process and Company X is growing its product portfolio continuously, the commissioner felt the need instructuring the product development and launch process in a well-defined step-by-step process that is easy to follow and communicate internally. The author’s knowledge and experience gained during the studies in international business and working with in the paper industry can be utilized to help Company X in building this process. New products are very essential for the corporate success. Innovation is a must if you want to continue competing in the market. However the new product development is one of the riskiest processes that require focus and high investments. Several studies have been done in the successful product launch cases, and success drivers have been discovered. Corporations are using a structured idea-to- launch processes which help them manage implementing these success drivers and reduce the risk of product launch fail.